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 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.
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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)
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