DPRK to put US citizen on trial Sept 14

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will put a detained US citizen on trial on Sept 14, state media said on Sunday, less than a week after Matthew Miller made a highly unusual televised plea for help from Washington.

Miller, one of three US citizens being held in the DPRK, was arrested in April after Pyongyang said he ripped up his visa at immigration and demanded asylum.

"The Supreme Court of the DPRK decided to hold on Sept 14 a court trial on American Matthew Todd Miller, now in custody according to the indictment of a relevant institution," the KCNA news agency said.

The statement offered no further details.

The DPRK said in June it would put Miller and another detained US citizen, Jeffrey Fowle, on trial on unspecified charges related to "perpetuating hostile acts" after they entered the country, according to state media.

On Sept 1, Miller - along with Fowle and the third US citizen being held in the DPRK, Kenneth Bae - pleaded for their freedom as Pyongyang minders looked on in an interview with CNN.

They urged Washington to send an envoy to the DPRK to negotiate their release.

"My situation is very urgent," Miller said during the interview.

"I think this interview is my final chance to push the American government into helping me," he added, wearing a dark turtleneck and often looking away from the interviewer.

US officials vowed after the interviews were aired that they would "leave no stone unturned" in their efforts to free the three men.

But US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki refused to outline US efforts publicly, saying Washington did not want to jeopardize any diplomacy.

She would not discuss whether Washington was prepared to send a high-level envoy to Pyongyang as it has in past cases, when former president Bill Clinton and ex-governor Bill Richardson successfully won the release of detained US citizens.

"We continue to work actively to secure these three US citizens' release," she said.

The US State Department said there was no update to Psaki's earlier remarks after the DPRK's announcement on Sunday.

Fowle entered the DPRK on April 29 and was detained after reportedly leaving a Bible at a hotel.

Bae was arrested in November 2012 and later sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on charges of seeking to topple the DPRK government.

Washington has no diplomatic ties with the DPRK, and the Swedish embassy acts as a go-between in such consular cases. Swedish officials last visited Bae on Aug 11, and saw Fowle and Miller in late June.

AFP - Xinhua