North Korea’s Supreme Court has sentenced Kenneth Bae, an American citizen, to 15 years’ hard labor on charges that he committed crimes against the state.

Kenneth Bae, 44, was arrested in North Korea on November 3 last year. He has been held in an undisclosed location without trial since then.

On Thursday morning, the North Korean State news agency, KCNA, issued a short statement announcing that Mr Bae had been tried and sentenced for “hostile acts” against the country.

Bae was born in South Korea, but he is a US citizen and has spent much of his life in the United States.

The North Korean statement was brief, and referred to him by his South Korean birth-name.

“A trial of Pae Jun Ho, an American citizen, took place at the Supreme Court of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) on April 30.

“He was arrested while committing hostile acts against the DPRK after entering Rason City as a tourist on November 3 last year.

“The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of compulsory labour for this crime,” the statement read.

Bae, who is married with children, runs a tour company based in China and was a frequent visitor to North Korea. He entered North Korea with four other tourists for a five-day trip in November.

They are all believed to have been issued with tourist visas.

Bae has a strong Christian faith and is thought to have used his trips for humanitarian work. He is known to have visited and fed North Korean orphans.

There are unconfirmed suggestions that he had photographed some orphans on his November trip which might have prompted his arrest.

Very little has been made public about diplomatic negotiations surround his case, but suggestions from North Korea that he was trying to overthrow the government have been dismissed by the US.

“These charges, we believe, are completely unwarranted,” State Department official Joseph Y Yun said last week. “We really do urge North Korea to release him. There is no reason to hold him.”

Bae’s case was also raised briefly at Monday’s US State Department briefing in Washington DC.

“We call on the DPRK to release Kenneth Bae immediately on humanitarian grounds,” US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

The US does not have a diplomatic presence in the North Korean capital Pyongyang. Washington uses the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang as a conduit to exert diplomatic pressure and gain consular access in situations like this.

It is understood that Swedish diplomats had been given access to Bae as recently as Friday last week.

Bae’s family have made no public comments since his arrest. has spoken to one of his close friends who said that the situation was delicate and that the family are concerned that public comment could make negotiations harder.

Bobby Lee, a former class mate of Bae’s at the University of Oregon is leading the campaign by friends for publicity in the case.

“He is in a cold prison cell in a nation closed off from the world. We need to shine a spotlight into that cell and make sure Kenneth is not forgotten. Most people have never heard of Kenneth Bae. We need to change that.

“We are still trying to put all the pieces together and trying to understand the processes in North Korea which of course are not transparent. Our actions and strategies will probably evolve over time because we are still learning,” Mr Lee said.

Another friend, Dennis Kwon, said: “He is such a warm hearted person. I can’t imagine him really breaking the law. I think maybe he may have taken some photos because he couldn’t just walk away from seeing what he saw.”

In 2009, two American journalists were held in North Korea and sentenced to hard labour. Bill Clinton, the former US president, travelled to Pyongyang and negotiated their release with then-leader Kim Jong Il.

Tensions between Pyongyang and Washington have been high over the past few months with rhetoric on both sides at a level not seen for years.

Dr Robert Kelly, professor of international relations at Pusan University in South Korea told Sky News that Bae’s detention was clearly part of a much wider diplomatic game.

“North Korea has done this before: detain someone and hold onto them to use at a later date as a bargaining chip,” he said. “It is a way for North Korea to capture the spotlight once again. They are using this as part of the crisis.”

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency has said that Jimmy Carter, another former US president, is seeking a trip to North Korea which would, in part, be designed to negotiate Bae’s release.

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