Ex-U.S. official sentenced to 13 months in jail for leaking information on N. Korea

WASHINGTON, April 2 (Yonhap) -- A former State Department arms specialist was sentenced to 13 months in prison Wednesday for leaking classified intelligence on North Korea to a Fox News reporter in 2009.

Stephen Jin-woo Kim, a Korean-American man, earlier pleaded guilty to passing information about the possibility of a North Korean nuclear test to James Rosen, Fox's chief Washington correspondent.

The ruling by the U.S. District Court here ends Kim's four-year court battle, which was viewed as reflecting the Obama administration's tough handling of unauthorized disclosures of secret government information.

Kim's case sparked criticism from free-press advocates.

Kim, 46, is expected to begin serving his term as early as in the middle of next month.

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