Robert King, the U.S. government’s point man on North Korean human rights, is to visit North Korea later this week to try and secure the release of Kenneth Bae, an American citizen who has been in detention in the country since last year.
A brief State Department media note released yesterday explains, “At the invitation of the [North Korean] government, Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Ambassador Robert King will travel to Pyongyang August 30th on a humanitarian mission focused on securing the release of U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae.”
It continues, “Mr. Bae was arrested in [North Korea] in November 2012 and was convicted April 30th by the [North Korean] Supreme Court of committing hostile acts against North Korea. As the U.S. Government has on a number of occasions since the April 30th verdict, Ambassador King will request [North Korea] pardon Mr. Bae and grant him special amnesty on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family and seek medical treatment.
This will be the first official visit by a senior U.S. government official since May 2011, when King visited to secure the release of Eddie Jun, a Korean-American, meaning that it is also the first such visit by a senior official under the rule of Kim Jong Eun.
Bae is in increasingly poor health, and was recently admitted to a Pyongyang hospital.
