PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea has reportedly sentenced an American man of Korean origin to ten years of hard labour on charges of spying.

Kim Dong Chul has become the second American to be sentenced by North Korea over the last two months.

According to the Xinhua news agency, Chul was born in South Korea but became an American citizen in 1987 and was sentenced for subversion of the DPRK social system and espionage activities.

Kim is said to have made an apparent confession in Pyongyang in front of reporters in March. He had reportedly claimed that he was being paid by South Korean intelligence officers for the work that he was carrying out.

Reports however pointed out that forced public confessions by foreign prisoners are quite common in the totalitarian state.

When Chul was arrested in the special economic zone of Rason, North Korea has said that he had in his possession a USB stick containing military and nuclear secrets.

Chub further confirmed in a statement that in 2001, he moved to Yanji, a Chinese city near the Chinese-North Korean border that acts as a trade hub between the two countries.

From Yanji, Kim said that he commuted to Rason, a special economic zone on the North Korean side of the border, on a daily basis. He claimed that he served as president of a company involved in international trade and hotel services.

He also said, I was tasked with taking photos of military secrets and 'scandalous' scenes. They asked me to help destroy the (North Korean) system and spread propaganda against the government.

Declaring his sentence, North Korea said that Chul had spied on the countrys nuclear and military program on behalf of South Korean conservative elements.

In March 2016, Otto Frederick Warmbier, a student of University of Virginia was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for allegedly removing a political banner from a Pyongyang hotel.

He was convicted and sentenced after a one-hour trial in the Supreme Court.

North Korea is holding the much anticipated Workers Party congress starting May 6, the first such forum since 1980.

There are also reports of North Korea preparing to launch its fifth nuclear test ahead of the congress in a show of military might.