US citizen in North Korean trial

Matthew Todd Miller, who has been held in North Korean custody since April this year, will go on trial, according to North Korean state media.

The court date has been set for September 14, though it is unclear what charges he is facing.

"The Supreme Court of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to judge American Matthew Miller Todd, now in custody, on September 14, according to the indictment of a relevant institution," North Korean KCNA news agency said on Sunday.

On September 2, 24-year-old Miller, along with two other American citizens, was able to use a television interview with CNN from Pyongyang to plead for help from the US government.

"My situation is very urgent," Miller said in the interview. "I think this interview is my final chance to push the American government into helping me."

Miller, from Bakersfield, California, said he would learn of the charges against him at his trial. He was joined by fellow American Jeffrey Fowle, who was also arrested earlier this year after reportedly leaving a copy of the Bible in a hotel. Kenneth Bae was the third American to join the interview. He was arrested in November 2012 on charges of seeking to topple the North Korean government and is serving a 15-year sentence at a labor camp, where he said in the interview with CNN that he was being treated well.

North Korea had said in July it would put Miller and Fowle on trial on charges related to "perpetrating hostile acts."

The White House has called on Pyongyang to release its citizens and said it was continuing "to do all we can to secure their earliest possible release."

sb/av (Reuters, AFP)