N. Korea preparing to indict two Americans

North Korea said Monday it is preparing to indict two American detainees for carrying out what it says were hostile acts against the country.

"Their hostile acts were confirmed by evidence and their own testimonies," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report, referring to Jeffrey Fowle and Matthew Miller who are being held by the isolated country. It gave no details on when they would face court. Miller is also referred to as Matthew Miller Todd.

KCNA said North Korea is making preparations to bring them before a court.

Fowle, a 56-year-old street repairs worker from Miamisburg, Ohio, was arrested after entering North Korea as a tourist on April 29 and and North Korea's state media said in June that authorities were investigating him for committing acts inconsistent with the purpose of a tourist visit. A spokesman for Fowle's family said he was not on a mission for his church.

Miller, 24, was taken into custody by North Korean officials after entering the country in the same month, ripping up his tourist visa and demanding asylum, according to state media. Miller was traveling alone, said a statement from Uri Tours, the travel agency that took the 24 year-old to North Korea. The statement was published on the company's website, according to Reuters.

A spokesman for the New Jersey-based travel agency said Miller was in "good physical condition" and his parents were aware of the situation, but have chosen not to make any statement regarding their son's arrest.

North Korea has also been separately holding Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae since November 2012. He is serving 15 years of hard labor for what the North says were hostile acts against the state.

The United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, so Sweden, which has an embassy in Pyongyang, oversees consular issues for the U.S. there. 

North Korea has detained and then released other Americans in the past year, including Korean War veteran Merrill Newman. He was expelled after Pyongyang held him for more than a month after accusing him of being a war criminal

Pyongyang has been strongly pushing tourism lately in an effort to bring in foreign cash. The tourism push has been directed at Chinese, who by far are the most common visitors to the North, but the still small number of Western tourists to North Korea has been growing.

Despite its efforts to bring in more tourists, the North remains highly sensitive to any actions it considers political and is particularly wary of anything it deems to be Christian proselytizing.

In May, the U.S. State Department issued an advisory urging Americans not to travel to North Korea because of the "risk of arbitrary arrest and detention" even while holding valid visas.

After Miller's detention, Washington updated its travel warning to the North to note that over the past 18 months, "North Korea detained several U.S. citizens who were part of organized tours. Do not assume that joining a group tour or use of a tour guide will prevent your arrest or detention by North Korean authorities."

North Korea periodically accuses the United States of military hostility and conspiracy to overthrow its leadership. The two states have been locked in a tense diplomatic conflict over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

The Korean Peninsula is still in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from the North.

Al Jazeera and wire services