N. Korea calls off U.S. envoy's trip aimed at securing release of jailed American

[News_Editor]

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- North Korea has rescinded its invitation for a senior American diplomat to travel to the country to negotiate the release of a Korean American man who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for plotting to overthrow the North Korean government, U.S. officials said on Friday.

Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said the North Korean government had rescinded its invitation for Robert King, the special U.S. envoy for North Korean Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues, to visit Pyongyang on Friday and Saturday. "We are surprised and disappointed by North Korea's decision," she said.

It was not immediately clear why Friday's meeting was called off. "We have sought clarification from the DPRK about its decision and have made every effort so that Ambassador King's trip could continue as planned or take place at a later date," Harf explained, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The U.S. State Department had announced earlier this week that King would travel to Pyongyang on Friday on a humanitarian mission focused on securing the release of Pae Jun Ho, who is better known by his American name Kenneth Bae. The planning of the trip was in response to an invitation from the North Korean government, but no other details were released.

"We remain gravely concerned about Mr. Bae's health and we continue to urge the DPRK authorities to grant Mr. Bae special amnesty and immediate release on humanitarian grounds," Harf said on Friday, adding that King intends to remain in the Japanese capital of Tokyo before returning to Washington on Saturday.

Bae was arrested in November 2012 after he traveled from China to the North Korean special economic zone of Rason with a group of businessmen. He was sentenced in April to 15 years of hard labor after being found guilty of committing hostile acts aimed at toppling the North Korean government.

The family of the jailed American have denied the allegations, describing Bae as a tour operator and Christian missionary. But the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the 'hostile acts' allegedly committed by Bae had been proven in court with evidence, although it gave no other details.

Myung Hee, Bae's mother, criticized the U.S. government last month for not making enough efforts to help free her 44-year-old son, who has now been detained longer than any previous American prisoner in North Korea. His sister Terri Chung disputed the charges Bae was convicted of, but acknowledged the North Koreans may have considered his religious convictions to be threatening.

"All I know is that my brother is a good man. He's an idealist, and a man of strong convictions, and he may have been maybe a little overzealous, and maybe made some wrong choices," Chung told CBS News, just weeks after the family had received handwritten letters from Bae in which he begged for their help and said he was going blind, with his health failing due to diabetes and a heart condition.

Myung, who has a weekly call with the U.S. State Department, said she believed the U.S. government was not doing enough to get her son released. "I don't see any action," she told CBS News at the time. "I want to ask them, send an envoy or do something. As a mother, I am really getting angry. Really getting angry. What do they do?"

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who previously visited North Korea and played a role in getting jailed Americans back home, told the news network last month that he had met with the North Korean ambassador at the United Nations (UN) but indicated it would likely take 'out-of-the-box diplomacy' to secure Bae's release.

"[The Ambassador's] message was pretty harsh, it was not good," Richardson said. "It was: Kenneth Bae's there for a while, no high-profile rescue this time. We're not going to go easy on this. He committed a crime. We have no relationship, no dialogue, so that's the way it's going to be."

North Korea and the United States have no diplomatic relations, but Sweden acts as a protecting power. The U.S. State Department previously said officials from the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang had visited Bae several times, but they did not attend the sentencing in April.

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