Kim Dong Chul (businessman)
Kim Dong Chul is a Korean-American businessman who was imprisoned by the government of North Korea in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for espionage. Following his release, Kim has admitted to working with South Korea's National Intelligence Service and the United States' Central Intelligence Agency.
Kim was one of three U.S. citizens imprisoned in that country to be released on May 9, 2018. The others were Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang-duk, and Kim Hak-song.
Early life
Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1953. In 1980, he emigrated to the U.S., later becoming a Baptist pastor and a naturalized U.S. citizen. He settled in Fairfax, Virginia.In 2000, Kim moved to China with his wife, a Chinese Korean, to work as a missionary. He subsequently applied to enter North Korea, and by 2004 was residing in the Rason Special Economic Zone, where he built a hotel.
Imprisonment in North Korea
Kim was arrested in October 2015. His status was not publicly known until January 2016, when North Korean authorities introduced him to a CNN crew visiting Pyongyang. CNN was allowed to interview Kim, but only through an interpreter. In March 2016, he appeared at a government-arranged news conference in Pyongyang and "apologized for trying to steal military secrets in collusion with South Koreans"; the South Korean authorities have denied any involvement. In April 2016, North Korea sentenced Kim to 10 years of hard labor for espionage and other crimes.Kim's arrest and captivity, according to Russell Goldman of The New York Times, followed a pattern also seen with other detentions of U.S. nationals by North Korea: "A forced confession, a show trial, a sentence to years of hard labor with little chance of appeal."