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Source: Reuters -
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North Korea has said it will put a 30-year-old US man on trial for illegally entering the country.
The man is likely the US citizen the North has held since January after he supposedly entered the reclusive state from China, South Korean government officials told local media.
The North identified the man as Aijalon Mahli Gomes, adding he was from Boston. His "crime has been confirmed", its official KCNA news agency said without elaborating.
North Korea has used detained American citizens as bargaining chips with the United States and the trial announcement comes as Washington has been putting pressure on Pyongyang to end its year-long boycott of nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks.
In previous cases, the North has typically released Americans a few months after their capture.
Earlier this month, North Korea allowed diplomats from Sweden, which represents US interests in the state with which Washington does not have formal diplomatic ties, to visit the US citizen detained since the start of the year.
The United States has provided few details about the case.
South Korean news reports have said the border-crosser entered the socialist North because he no longer wanted to live in the capitalist world.
The North in February released a US religious activist it had held since December who admitted to illegally entering the country to raise awareness about its human rights abuses.
Last year, it convicted two US journalists who entered the country to several years of hard labour, but released them after a few months in captivity when former US President Bill Clinton went to Pyongyang to secure their freedom.
