North Korea Sentences Kenneth Bae to 15 Years in Labor Camp

The North Korean Supreme Court has sentenced American Kenneth Bae to 15 years in a labor camp for plotting to commit hostile acts against the government in Pyongyang.

44-year-old Bae, who has been in Korean custody since the beginning of November, was a tour operator in China.

He was arrested in the economic area of Rason in northeastern North Korea after taking a few business people there from Yanji, China, reports the New York Times.

Bae was sentenced Thursday, as Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency announced the court had convicted him of "hostile acts."

Initially, North Korea accused the American of planning to overthrow North Korea's leadership, a crime that is punishable by death.

But the most recent charge is not as severe-Bae will have to work at a North Korean labor camp instead. He will be moved to said camp within 10 days following the ruling.

Human rights workers in South Korea are singing a different tune about Bae. They say he ran tours to North Korea, where he aimed to do work helping orphans. They claim officials in Pyongyang might have taken up offense with some of the photos that Bae had snapped and saved on his computer.

The case has occurred at an unstable time-threats of civil war and harsh rhetoric, coupled with the potential use of heavy weaponry have been coming from North Korea in the past couple of months.

When Bae was first indicted, state-run Korean Central News Agency said that the American came clean about his plans to overthrow the government.

"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it," they said. "His crimes were proved by evidence," they added, not stating what evidence in particular proved his guilt.

Earlier this year, former American ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson attempted visiting Bae during a trip to Pyongyang, but the government denied him visitation.