A Korean American detained for six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state, the North's media said Thursday — a move that could trigger a visit by a high-profile American if history is any guide.

Kenneth Bae, a Washington state man described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released without serving out their terms, some after trips to Pyongyang by prominent Americans, including former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

With already abysmal U.S.-North Korean ties worsening since a long-range rocket-launch more than a year ago, Pyongyang is fishing for another such meeting, said Ahn Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies think tank in South Korea.

"North Korea is using Bae as bait to make such a visit happen. An American bigwig visiting Pyongyang would also burnish Kim Jong Un's leadership profile," Ahn said. Kim took power after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in December 2011.

The authoritarian country has faced increasing criticism over its nuclear weapons ambitions. Disarmament talks including the Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia fell apart in 2009. Several rounds of U.N. sanctions have not encouraged the North to give up its small cache of nuclear devices, which Pyongyang says it must not only keep but expand to protect itself from a hostile Washington.

Pyongyang's tone has softened somewhat recently, following weeks of violent rhetoric, including threats of nuclear war and missile strikes. There have been tentative signs of interest in diplomacy, and a major source of North Korean outrage — annual U.S.-South Korean military drills — ended Tuesday.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department said it was working with the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang to confirm the report of Bae's sentencing. The United States lacks formal diplomatic ties with North Korea and relies on Sweden for diplomatic matters involving U.S. citizens there.

Bae's trial on charges of "committing hostile acts" against North Korea took place in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. KCNA referred to Bae as Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling for his Korean name.

Bae was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, state media said. The exact nature of Bae's alleged crimes has not been revealed.

Friends and colleagues say Bae was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed orphans. Bae's mother in the United States did not answer calls seeking comment Thursday.

There are parallels to a case in 2009. After Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket and its second underground nuclear test that year, two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after sneaking across the border from China.

They later were pardoned on humanitarian grounds and released to Clinton, who met with then-leader Kim Jong Il. U.S.-North Korea talks came later that year.

In 2011, Carter visited North Korea to win the release of imprisoned American Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labor for crossing illegally into the North from China.

Korean American Eddie Jun was released in 2011 after Robert King, the U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights, travelled to Pyongyang. Jun had been detained for half a year over an unspecified crime.

Jun and Gomes are also devout Christians. While North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government.

U.N. and U.S. officials accuse North Korea of treating opponents brutally. Foreign nationals have told varying stories about their detentions in North Korea.

The two journalists sentenced to hard labor in 2009 stayed in a guest house instead of a labor camp due to medical concerns.

Ali Lameda, a member of Venezuela's Communist Party and a poet invited to the North in 1966 to work as a Spanish translator, said that he was detained in a damp, filthy cell without trial the following year after facing espionage allegations that he denied. He later spent six years in prison after a one-day trial, he said.

I have always wondered why people choose to travel to these barbaric countries. Hard to feel sorry for anyone who puts themselves in this position.

Some people are not too bright.

who is the loser here the people the Government set in their chair only decide and the innocent will die this is sad really sad...and like (oldhippie1952) said ...some people are not too bright im saying some government are not too bright ,,look at all country and see what we get from their plane

Oh don't worry. I know not to visit when that kind of ish is going on. I don't think I'll visit the South, either. Just incase. I would never go for a holiday at any place that's known for terrorism.

Rawrr_Girl. Do you feel safe in uk ?
Terrorist plots in the UK | MI5 - The Security Service
... the UK . Learn more about recent terrorist plots in the UK . ... 1,834 people have
been arrested under the Terrorism Act during this period.
https://www.mi5.gov.uk/home/the-threats/terrorism/international-terrorism/international-terrorism-and-the-uk/terrorist-plots-in-the-uk.html
Mi5.gov.uk

The so-called New IRA was formed last year from a loose alliance of hardline republican groups.
Unlike former groupsit is enjoying success in attracting fresh support from the Province's disaffectedyouth. Sources claim the group has attracted up to 700 new members and is 'actively recruiting'.
Like previous groups it operates on fear, doling out punishment beatingsand shootings on a weekly basis, as well as plotting attacks onthe security services and other British targets.
Sources acknowledgethat its leaders are beyond the control ofSinn Fein.
There are fears that the group also has ambitions to mount a new campaign on the mainland. Recentevents suggest it may have access to the equipment needed to conduct a campaign, but there are doubts about whether it yet has the logistical and organisational skills to sustain a series of attacks on the mainland.

Dennis Rodman calls on Kim Jong Un to do him 'a solid' and release American detainee

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/07/dennis_rodman_calls_on_kim_jong_un_to_release_american_detainee

HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE AND al d unpleasant words found in this country then how wil they themselves live. if for tour i fel into such country then i better resign d visit.