Pyongyang, April 07 (Saba) - North Korea sentenced a detained U.S. man to eight years of hard labour and a hefty fine for illegal entry into the communist state and hostility toward it, its official media reported on Wednesday, according to Qatar News Agency (QNA).

The move contrasts with Pyongyang's release in February of an American activist detained also for illegal entry, suggesting that the regime is trying to use the latest case as a negotiating card amid a nuclear standoff with Washington.

The trial took place Tuesday, attended by unidentified officials of the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency said in a four-paragraph dispatch monitored in Seoul.

North Korea identified the American as Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who crossed into North Korea through the border with China on Jan. 25. He was a former English teacher in South Korea with reportedly deep religious convictions.

Saba