North Korea: verdict for missionary expected

(Vatican Radio) North Korea says it will deliver a verdict soon in the case of an American man arrested there and accused of subversion. The man's friends say he is a Christian missionary who has been trying to help orphans there.

North Korea's state news agency said the case of American Kenneth Bae will soon go to the Supreme Court there for judgment.

Bae's friends and colleagues say he is a Christian missionary who has travelled frequently to North Korea to help feed orphans there.

He was arrested in November last year after entering the country in a tour group. North Korea said he confessed to trying to "topple" the state, and that it has evidence of his intentions.

Officially, North Korea guarantees freedom of religion. But defectors have said authorities execute or imprison those who hold Mass secretly or distribute Bibles.

Last year, North Korea released another U.S. missionary, Eddie Yong Su Jun, without trial. And in 2010 it released two American Christians, one of whom said he had gone there to highlight human rights abuses.

But analysts say the case of Kenneth Bae could be more drawn-out: amid North Korea's current talk of nuclear war, his fate is one of the few ways right now it can try to pressure the United States into granting concessions.

Listen to Alastair Wanklyn’s report: