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American jailed in North Korea invited arrest deliberately, state media says
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(6 months later)
An American sentenced to six years’ hard labour in North Korea pretended to have secret US information and was deliberately arrested in a bid to become famous and meet the imprisoned US missionary Kenneth Bae, North Korean state media said on Saturday.
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
Matthew Miller, 25, of Bakersfield, California, had prepared his story in advance and written in a notebook that he was seeking refuge after failing in an attempt to collect information about the US government, state agency KCNA said.
It said Miller wanted to become a “second Edward Snowden”, the former US intelligence contractor who released details of its surveillance programs.
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“He perpetrated the above-said acts in the hope of becoming a ‘world famous guy’ and the ‘second Snowden’ through intentional hooliganism,” KCNA said.
“This is an intolerable insult and mockery of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and he therefore, deserved punishment,” KCNA said.
Miller was arrested when he tore up the tourist visa he used to enter the isolated country in April, state media said at the time. He was sentenced to six years’ hard labour by a North Korean court last Sunday.
“The results of the investigation made it clear that he did so not because of a simple lack of understanding and psychopathology, but deliberately perpetrated such criminal acts for the purpose of directly going to prison,” state media said.
It said Miller had deliberately sought his arrest so he could investigate prison and human rights conditions, and negotiate the release of Bae, who is serving a hard labour sentence after being convicted of crimes against the state last year.
Miller’s case was exacerbated by the fact his actions followed “reckless remarks” by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, in which he described North Korea as a “country of evil,” state media said.
In February Kerry criticised North Korea as an “evil place” following the publication of an extensive human rights report by United Nations investigators who said North Korean security officials should be tried for crimes related to the systematic starvation, torture and imprisonment of citizens.
Bae is one of three US citizens now being held by North Korea. A third American, Jeffrey Fowle, was arrested for leaving a Bible in the toilet of a sailor’s club in the port city of Chongjin and is awaiting trial.
Unlike the other two, relatively little is known about Miller and his family has not spoken publicly about him.
Reuters reported this week that he spent months in South Korea pretending to be an Englishman named Preston Somerset, and invested time and money hiring artists to help create an anime adaption of Alice in Wonderland.
He did not seem to have close friends, a regular job or means of support during the months he spent in Seoul over a period of at least two years, acquaintances said. He gave no inkling of any interest in North Korea. The United States has said Pyongyang is using its citizens as “pawns” to win a high-level visit from Washington, which has repeatedly offered to send its special envoy for North Korean Human Rights, Robert King, to negotiate the release of Miller, Bae and Fowle.
