Detained American in North Korea calls on US for help in release

A Korean-American Christian missionary detained in North Korea for more than a year has asked the U.S. government to help win his freedom, news reports said Monday. Kenneth Bae expressed hope that the U.S. government will do its best to secure his release during what he called a press conference held at his own request, The Associated Press reported from Pyongyang. Bae als said he wants to be freed and to return to his family as soon as possible. Bae, wearing a gray uniform, spoke to journalists in Korean for about three and a half minutes before leaving the scene with two North Korean guards, according Japan's Kyodo news agency. The North's official Korean Central News Agency did not report Bae's press conference as of 7 p.m. Still, the North's rare move suggested that it wants to hold talks with the United States on the issue. Bae was arrested in November 2012 on charges of unspecified anti-state activities. Last year, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Earlier this month, the U.S. government said it will use its own diplomatic channels for talks with North Korea to try to secure Bae's release. In recent years, several U.S. citizens were detained in North Korea but all of them were released later. In 2011, Eddie Yong Su Jn, a Korean-American missionary, was released after facing indictment on charges of committing an unspecified crime against the North's regime. In 2010, North Korea released Robert Park, a Korean-American Christian activist who crossed into the country on Christmas Day 2009 to draw international attention to the North's poor human rights record. In 2009, former U.S. President Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists caught during a reporting tour covering North Korean defectors near the border between China and North Korea.