The United States is calling for the immediate release of Korean American Kenneth Bae after North Korea sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against North Korea, reported Business Week.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the United States is asking the North Koreans to grant Bae amnesty.
“We’ve had longstanding concerns about the lack of transparency and due process in the North Korean legal system,” Ventrell told reporters in Washington. He also said that “this has happened in the past with U.S. citizens.”
In the past, former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have won the release of American prisoners in North Korea.
But a spokesman for Carter said he “has not had an invitation to visit North Korea and has no plans to visit.”
You can read more about the current state of relations between North Korea and the United States in Business Week.
