Jimmy Carter is planning to depart for Pyongyang soon to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American citizen who has been incarcerated in North Korea since he entered the country illegally on January 25th.
According to a Foreign Policy report, Carter will spend one night in North Korea before returning with the American.
“Jimmy Carter is set to travel to North Korea very soon, according to two sources familiar with the former president’s plans, in what they characterized as a private mission to free a U.S. citizen imprisoned there,” the magazine reported.
The health of 30-year old Gomes, who is currently serving a sentence of eight years for illegally entering the country, has become an increasing cause for concern after he reportedly tried to take his own life in early July.
Reporting the suicide attempt, Chosun Central News Agency claimed, “Gomez, the imprisoned American, due to his disappointment at his own sense of guilt and the U.S.’ failure to set up measures for his rescue, recently attempted suicide and has been moved to hospital for emergency treatment.”
Today’s Foreign Policy report also claims that a team of U.S. officials was recently dispatched to North Korea in secret to try and get Gomes out, but had been unable to persuade the North Koreans to release him.
The fact that the North has agreed to release Gomes upon the visit of Carter, however, may indicate that the former president will return with more than just the released American.
Carter is known in North Korea as the man who visited Kim Il Sung shortly before his death in 1994 to negotiate during the first nuclear crisis.
