Kim Dong Chul (businessman)

Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1953. In 1980, he emigrated to the U.S., later becoming a Baptist pastor and a naturalized U.S. citizen. He settled in Fairfax, Virginia. In 2000, Kim moved to China with his wife, a Chinese Korean, to work as a missionary. He subsequently applied to enter North Korea, and by 2004 was residing in the Rason Special Economic Zone, where he built a hotel. == Imprisonment in North Korea ==

Kim was arrested in October 2015. In March 2016, he appeared at a government-arranged news conference in Pyongyang and "apologized for trying to steal military secrets in collusion with South Koreans"; the South Korean authorities have denied any involvement. In April 2016, North Korea sentenced Kim to 10 years of hard labor for espionage and other crimes. Kim's arrest and captivity, according to Russell Goldman of The New York Times, followed a pattern also seen with other detentions of U.S. nationals by North Korea: "A forced confession, a show trial, a sentence to years of hard labor with little chance of appeal." == Release ==

and First Lady Melania Trump welcome home (from left) Kim Dong-chul, Kim Sang-duk and Kim Hak-song. On May 9, 2018, several news outlets reported that Kim and fellow American detainees Kim Sang-duk and Kim Hak-song had been granted amnesty following a meeting between Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang to discuss details of the planned summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. The three men, alongside Pompeo, landed at Andrews Air Force Base shortly before 3 am eastern on May 10, thereby concluding a 17-month struggle by the Trump Administration to secure their release. Admission of espionage In an interview with NK News published on July 29, 2019, Kim admitted that he was spying for the American CIA and South Korean NIS since 2009. == See also ==