North Korea arrested a U.S. citizen for a “crime” against the country in November and is preparing to indict him after he admitted the alleged charges, state media reported.
Jun Young Su was allowed “necessary humanitarian conveniences” including visits by Swedish diplomats, who represent U.S. interests in North Korea, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. The news agency didn’t provide details of the alleged offense.
North Korea’s confirmation of the arrest comes before a visit by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who traveled to the country in August last year to win the release another American. A U.S. State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, on April 12 urged the government in Pyongyang to release the American on “humanitarian grounds,” without providing details of the detainee.
“It’s not coincidental that North Korea publicly confirmed the arrest before Carter’s planned visit,” said Kim Yong Hyun, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “Releasing the citizen to Carter can help set the mood for dialogue between the two nations on other pending issues like North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.”
Private Visit
Carter will travel to North Korea “in a strictly private capacity,” without carrying any official message from the government, Toner said March 24. The U.S. described Carter’s trip to Pyongyang in August when he returned with Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who had been held for seven months, a private mission.
Carter will make the trip between April 26 and 28 and will be accompanied by as many as three former heads of state, including former Irish president Mary Robinson, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported on April 10. The delegation will also include former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari and former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, the report said.
The arrested person is a Korean-American businessman in his 60’s, who traveled to North Korea for missionary work, Yonhap reported today, citing unidentified people in Orange Country, California, where the man is from.
In February last year, North Korea released an American missionary, Robert Park, after he was held for about two months. Gomes, who had been in anti-North Korea rallies while living in Seoul, may have been inspired by Park when he traveled to North Korea in January last year, according to Agence France-Presse.
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton went to Pyongyang in August 2009, winning the release of two U.S. journalists arrested in March that year for entering the country illegally.
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