North Korea has sentenced a detained American man to eight years of hard labor for what Pyongyang says was illegal entry into the communist state and hostile acts.

The North’s official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said Aijalon Mahli Gomes confessed to entering the communist country illegally and “admitted all the facts which had been put under accusation.”

Gomes was also fined 70 million North Korean won or 700-thousand U.S. dollars.

KCNA said North Korea allowed Swedish diplomats to observe the trial of the American detainee at the request of the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which is the protecting power for the U.S. in North Korea for consular matters.

Gomes came to South Korea from Boston two years ago and had been working as an English teacher in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province. He crossed into the North in January via the North Korea-China border.