North Korea | Pyongyang sentences 2 S Koreans to life on spying charges

North Korea’s Supreme Court yesterday sentenced two South Koreans to life in prison with labor after finding them guilty of spying for Seoul.
Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil were convicted of state subversion and, under North Korean law, their sentences are final and cannot be appealed.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said prosecutors had sought the death penalty. State media earlier said the two were detained last year for allegedly collecting confidential state information and attempting to spread a “bourgeois lifestyle and culture” in the North at the order of South Korea’s spy agency and the U.S.
Analysts saw the sentences as retaliation against South Korea for the opening yesterday of a U.N. office in Seoul tasked with monitoring human rights in North Korea. The North has repeatedly called the office a grave provocation.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry expressed regret over the verdicts and urged North Korea to immediately release the men. South Korean officials have denied that the two men were involved in espionage.
Analysts say past detentions of South Koreans and Americans on spying charges were attempts by the impoverished North to wrest outside concessions. But yesterday’s sentences may have been connected to the opening in Seoul of the U.N. office.
“North Korea thinks South Korea is applying pressure on Pyongyang with the U.N. office so it’s responding by (sentencing) these South Korean nationals,” said analyst Cheong Seong-chang at the private Sejong Institute think tank in South Korea.
South Korean officials said Monday that North Korea cited the new U.N. human rights office last week when it announced a decision to boycott next month’s University Games in South Korea. AP