Kenneth Bae has been held longer and sentenced more harshly than any previous American citizen sentenced in North Korea, reports CBS.
His family which lives in the Seattle area is growing increasingly impatient and is criticizing the U.S. State Department for not doing enough to win the American citizen’s freedom.
They’ve organized a petition drive on Change.org and have reached out to the media for help.
Bae has entered North Korea legally a dozen times. He is a Christian missionary and tour operator who was arrested for unspecified “crimes against the state” by North Korea in November and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
In an exclusive interview on CBS This Morning, the family urged the U.S. to try to do more.
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“All I know is that my brother is a good man,” Bae’s sister Terri Chung said.
“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,” she added.
The family revealed that they received a number of handwritten letters from Kenneth two weeks ago saying he was going blind and in ailing health and urged them to get help.
A video of Bae released by North Korean media has haunted the family.
“The sound my mother made when she watched that video, I will never forget,” Chung said. “It was just the most heart-wrenching, almost like an animal in pain.”
You can see the entire interview with the family on CBS This Morning
