North Korea's highest court has sentenced an American tourist to 15 years in prison with hard labour for subversion.
He allegedly attempted to steal a propaganda banner from a restricted area of his hotel at the request of an acquaintance, who wanted to hang it in her church.
21-year-old Otto Warmbier was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial at the North's Supreme Court.
Warmbier was arrested as he tried to leave the country in early January.
In a statement made before his trial, he told a gathering of reporters in Pyongyang he tried to take the banner with a political slogan on it as a trophy for the mother of a friend.
North Korea said he committed an anti-state crime with "the tacit connivance of the US government and under its manipulation."
Warmbier had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel, which is located on an island in a river that runs through Pyongyang, the capital.
It is common for sections of tourist hotels to be reserved for North Korean staff and off-limits to foreigners.
In his comments, Warmbier said he was offered a used car worth $US10,000 ($A13,413) by a member of the church.
He said the church member told him the slogan would be hung on its wall as a trophy.
He also said he was told that if he was detained and didn't return, $200,000 would be paid to his mother in the form of a charitable donation.
Warmbier, from Wyoming, Ohio, said he accepted the offer of money because his family is "suffering from very severe financial difficulties."
US tourism to North Korea is legal, but the State Department strongly advises against it.
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