US citizen to face trial in North Korea - state media

North Korea said that it would put a US citizen on trial for trying to overthrow the communist regime, in the face of soaring tensions between Pyongyang and the West, AFP reports.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said US citizen Pae Jun-Ho had admitted to the charges and would soon face "judgment."

Pae was arrested in November as he entered the northeastern port city of Rason, which lies inside a special economic zone near North Korea's border with Russia and China.

The announcement follows a months-long standoff on the Korean peninsula stoked by the North's nuclear test in February, which prompted the UN Security Council to impose fresh sanctions on the isolated nation.

South Korean media in December identified the detainee as a 44-year-old Korean-American tour operator.

He was travelling with five other tourists and was detained when a computer hard disk was found among the group's belongings, according to the South Korean newspaper Kookmin Ilbo.

Several Americans have been held in North Korea in recent years.