US prisoner faces harsher sentence in North Korea

North Korea has threatened to increase punishment for an American who was sentenced to hard labour for illegally entering the country, citing what it called a hostile US policy toward it.

Aijalon Mahli Gomes, from Boston, was sentenced in April to eight years of hard labour and fined $700,000 (£470,000) for entering the country illegally and for an unspecified "hostile act". The US has asked North Korea to release him on humanitarian grounds. A family spokeswoman did not immediately have a comment. North Korea has freed three other Americans detained for illegal entry, but ruled out Gomes's release amid tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship that Seoul blames on the North.

North Korea said it was examining what harsher measures it would take against Gomes under a wartime law, and would be compelled to consider applying the law if the US persists in its "hostile approach".