Kim Dong Chul
Kim Dong Chul is pictured in tears while he was held by North Korea in 2016
A naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Korea, Kim Dong Chul was seized in North Korea on October 2, 2015 and accused of spying.
Though a resident of Virginia – he became an American citizen in 1987 – Kim had lived with his wife in Yanji, China since 2001.
He worked just across the North Korean border in the Rason-Sonbong special economic zone, where he ran a hotel services company. He was also a pastor.
Very little was known about his status until a CNN news crew interviewed him during their visit to Pyongyang in January 2016.
He told reporters during a news conference organized by the dictatorship two months later that he was a spy, explaining that he ‘apologized for trying to steal military secrets in collusion with South Koreans’ and called his own actions ‘unpardonable.’
The North accused him of receiving a USB drive and various papers containing nuclear secrets during a meeting with a defector from the regime.
After a one-day trial in April, he was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for his supposed espionage.
But previous victims of the regime have explained that they were forced to make similar public declarations of their guilt after being tortured, despite being innocent.
Kim Hak-song
Kim, who is in his mid 50s, was born in Jilin, China, and educated at a university in California
Kim Hak-song, also known as Jin Xue Song, had been working for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), undertaking agricultural development work with the school’s farm.
He was arrested at a Pyongyang railway station in May 2017 on suspicion of committing ‘hostile acts’ against the government, as he was boarding a train headed for his home in Dandong, China.
Kim, who is in his mid 50s, was born in Jilin, China, and educated at a university in California, CNN reported, citing a man who had studied with him.
He said Kim returned to China after about 10 years of living in the U.S., where he is a citizen.
PUST was founded by evangelical Christians overseas and opened in 2010, and is known to have a number of American faculty members.
Pupils are generally children from among the North’s elite.
It is not known whether Kim was sentenced for his supposed ‘hostile acts.’
Kim Sang-duk
Kim is a former professor at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China, close to the Korean border
Korean-American Kim Sang-duk – known as Tony Kim – was arrested in April 2017 at Pyongyang’s main airport as he tried to leave the country after teaching for several weeks as a guest lecturer, also at PUST.
Kim is a former professor at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China, close to the Korean border.
Its website lists his speciality as accounting.
He graduated from the University of California Riverside in 1990 with a master’s degree in business administration.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency has reported Kim as being in his late 50s and said he had been involved in relief activities for children in rural parts of North Korea.
It cited a source who described him as a ‘religiously devoted man.’
He was detained with his wife at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang on April 22, 2017 while waiting for a flight.
Police later arrested Kim but did not explain why. His wife was allowed to leave the country.
PUST said the arrest was not related to his work at the university.
In a Facebook post, Kim’s son had said that his family has had no contact with him since his arrest.
Kim will soon become a grandfather.