TEMPO.CO, Pyongyang – North Korea declared that the country has imprisoned a United States citizen and force him to do forced labor for 15 years.
Pae Jun-ho, known also as Kenneth Bae, was arrested on November 2012 for trespassing North Korea through Rason, a harbor city at the Chinese border.
"The Supreme Court punished him for 15 years for his crime," said KCNA, North Korean News Agency.
Pyongyang refused to reveal Bae’s crime. Bae (44) is a Korea-US tour organizer, and a decent Christian, as quoted by Associated Press.
"We demand North Korea to release Kenneth Bae as soon as possible on behalf of humanity," said Patrick Ventrell, a spokesperson for the US Foreign Affair Minister.
Do Hee-yoon, a South Korean, said to AFP that Bae was arrested because he took pictures of thin North Korean children as an effort to draw the attention of foreigners. Meanwhile, US Officials mentioned that Bae went to North Korea with a valid visa.
There were several other US citizens arrested by North Korea in the last couple of years, including Eddie Jun Yong-su, a Californian entrepreneur, who went on his evangelism mission in 2011. He was released by Robert King’s delegation effort.
In 2009, former president, Bill Clinton, liberated television journalist Laura Ling and Euna Lee. In the following year, former president, Jimmy Carter, released Aijalon Mahli Gomes from eight years of forced labor for his illegal trespassing to North Korea.
AL JAZEERA | BBC | CHOIRUL