NEW YORK – A man accused of spying on North Korea for the South Korean government has been charged with lying about his activities in the United States, federal authorities said Thursday.

Park Il Woo, also known as Steve Park, a South Korean citizen who has lived in the United States for 20 years, was arrested Wednesday and charged in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

U.S. law requires anyone acting as an agent of a foreign government to register with the attorney general and disclose the nature of the activity. An FBI agent said in court papers that Park, 58, had not registered.

Edward O’Callaghan, the chief of terrorism and national security for the U.S. attorney’s office, said Park had admitted meeting with South Korean intelligence officers and agreeing to be paid to travel to North Korea to gather information for South Korea.

Park’s lawyer, Deirdre Von Dornum, said her client has been a law-abiding resident for 20 years, and this was an instance in which “what appears to be quite bad turns out to be much less.”

She said the charges her client faces would result at worst in a sentence of one to two years in prison if he is convicted.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis said in court Thursday that Park could be freed on $150,000 bail, despite prosecutors’ claims that Park was a flight risk. As a condition of release, the judge ordered electronic monitoring.

Park had made 50 trips to China and the Korean peninsula over the last several years and had appeared to be engaged in espionage-type activities for at least five years, O’Callaghan said.

According to court papers, Park met with the FBI once in 2005 and twice this year, each time lying about his contacts with or knowledge of certain South Korean officials.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)