* Kim Dong Chul admits "unpardonable espionage" - North's
media
* Diplomats in capital notified of confession
* Kim says worked with South Koreans - media
(Adds detail from state media)
By Jack Kim and James Pearson (LON:PSON)
SEOUL, March 25 (Reuters) - A Korean-American man detained
in North Korea has confessed to stealing military secrets and
plotting subversion with South Koreans, the North's official
news agency and foreign media reported on Friday.
North Korea, which has been criticized for its human rights
record, has in the past used detained Americans to extract
high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no
formal diplomatic relations.
Kim Dong Chul, who has previously said he was a naturalised
American citizen and was arrested in North Korea in October,
admitted to committing "unpardonable espionage" under the
direction of the U.S. and South Korean governments and deeply
apologised for his crimes, the North's KCNA news agency said.
"The extraordinary crime I committed was defaming and
insulting the republic's highest dignity and its system and
spreading false propaganda aimed at breaking down its
solidarity," KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
A source in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang told
Reuters that diplomats were notified in the morning of the
confession and Kim's comments were similar to the recent
confession of another American being held there, Otto Warmbier.
Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour this month
for trying to steal a propaganda banner. The North is also
holding a Korean-Canadian Christian pastor, who is serving a
life sentence for subversion.
Kim apologised for trying to steal military and state
secrets in collusion with South Koreans, and said he was paid
for doing it. He described the acts as aimed at overthrowing the
North Korean regime, KCNA said.
Photographs issued by the North's state news agency showed
Kim bowing and wiping away tears.
Japan's Kyodo news agency and China's Xinhua news agency
also reported Kim's meeting with media outlets in Pyongyang
where he confessed to anti-state activities.
MEMORY STICKS
Kim spoke of making contacts with South Koreans to pass
secret information contained in USB memory sticks and also
images state media said were damaging to the North on data
storage cards.
Outside information is strictly controlled in North Korea
and ordinary people there often use USB sticks or other portable
memory drives to share foreign media.
An official introducing Kim to the media began the meeting
by praising North Korea's nuclear achievements and its leader,
Kim Jong Un, said the source in Pyongyang, who had direct
knowledge of the meeting.
A defector from the North previously told Reuters that Kim
was a Christian pastor who had worked in China and the United
States and sent medical aid into the North.
CNN reported in January that Kim was 60 and from Fairfax,
Virginia, and that he said he had spied on behalf of South
Korea.
Kim told media he was born in Seoul in 1953 and moved to the
United States when he was 19. He said he set up a business in
the North Korean special economic zone of Rason in 2008, KCNA
said.
He said his two daughters lived in New York and he had
siblings in South Korea, it said.
North Korea faces the prospect of further international
isolation after the U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions
after its fourth nuclear test in January, and a long-range
rocket launch in February.
(Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)