North Korea to indict American tour operator for trying to 'topple' its government WASHINGTON - North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of a detained American it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Kenneth Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. "The preliminary inquiry into crimes committed by American citizen Pae Jun Ho closed," the official Korean Central News Agency said. In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it. His crimes were proved by evidence. He will soon be taken to the Supreme Court of the DPRK to face judgment. DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It is not known what sort of sentence Bae faces, but under North Korea's criminal code, terrorist acts include murdering, kidnapping and injuring the country's citizens can lead to a death sentence or life in jail. In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts. They were freed later that year after former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang to negotiate their release. Including Ling and Lee, Bae is the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The other Americans were eventually deported or released after high-profile diplomatic interventions, such as by Clinton. North Korea has expressed rage over U.N. sanctions over a February nuclear test and ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, though analysts say Pyongyang's motive is to get its Korean War foes to negotiate on its own terms. "For North Korea, Bae is a bargaining chip in dealing with the U.S. The North will use him in a way that helps bring the U.S. to talks when the mood slowly turns toward dialogue," said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Seoul's Dongguk University. North Korea and the United States fought the 1950-53 Korean War and don't have diplomatic relations. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang represents the United States. KCNA didn't say when Bae's verdict will be announced. North Korea's state media and the U.S. government have made little information about Bae public. But his friends, colleagues and South Korean activists specializing in North Korea affairs said Bae is a Christian missionary based in a Chinese border town who frequently made trips to North Korea to feed orphans there. It is not known whether he tried to evangelize while in North Korea. Officially, North Korea guarantees freedom of religion. In practice, authorities crack down on Christians, who are seen as Western-influenced threats to the government. The distribution of Bibles and secret prayer services can mean banishment to a labor camp or execution, defectors from the country have said. Meanwhile, South Korea is pulling its citizens from a joint factory park in North Korea after Pyongyang rejected Seoul's demand for talks on the inter-Korean symbol of detente. The park was shuttered earlier this month after the North pulled its workers out of it, objecting to views in South Korea that the complex is a source of badly needed hard currency for Pyongyang. Meanwhile, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the House on Friday proposed to step up sanctions against North Korea amid growing concern over its nuclear programs. The bill, crafted by leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, would punish companies, banks and governments that do prohibited business with North Korea. Congressional staffers say it's intended not only to improve enforcement of existing sanctions, but also to expand them. The bill is modeled on sanctions in force against Iran. The bill was introduced by Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. Its prospects for becoming law are uncertain. The draft bill does not name any particular entities but potentially could impact companies and banks in China through which the North conducts most of its business. The draft gives the president authority to sanction governments for illicit dealings with North Korea but also authority to waive the bill's provisions on a case-by-case basis on national security grounds. The legislation could irk Beijing at a time when the Obama administration seeks greater Chinese cooperation in pressuring Pyongyang to end war threats and honor past commitments on denuclearization. Beijing signed up for the toughest U.N. sanctions yet on North Korea in response to a nuclear test in February. But Royce has called for tougher unilateral steps, as the U.S. government did in 2005 against a Macau-based bank because it held about $25 million in North Korean funds. That measure had a significant impact, but proved complicated to undo when nuclear negotiations with North Korea finally got back on track.