North Korea Plans to Put 2 American Tourists on Trial

No trial date announced for Matthew Miller, Jeffrey Fowle
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 30, 2014 3:03 AM CDT
North Korea to Indict 2 Detained American Tourists
An American tourist Jeffrey Edward Fowle, from West Carrollton, Ohio is seen in this Sept. 2010 photo.   (AP Photo/William G.Schmidt/Dayton Daily News)

Two of the three Americans currently being detained in North Korea are facing prosecution. Matthew Miller, 24, and Jeffrey Fowle, 56, will be indicted; a trial could result in long jail sentences for both. The third US citizen detained in the country, 45-year-old Kenneth Bae, is currently serving a 15-year sentence. Miller and Fowle were both arrested earlier this year on separate tourist trips to the country, USA Today reports. "Their hostile acts were confirmed by evidence and their own testimonies," says the state news agency, according to Reuters.

As the Wall Street Journal points out, North Korea has recently released two other foreigners—American Merrill Newman and Australian John Short—and it's possible Pyongyang plans to find Miller and Fowle guilty, extract confessions from them as it did from Newman and Short, and then release them. No trial date has been announced. News of the indictment comes a day after North Korea fired two missiles into its eastern waters in defiance of a UN ban. (More Matthew Miller stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X