Bloomberg is reporting that the mother of Kenneth Bae has been allowed by North Korea to visit her son who has been imprisoned there for almost a year.
Bae was hospitalized back in August after losing 51 pounds, but his mother Myunghee Bae told Kyodo His health didn’t look “that bad,”
In a video message recorded in Seattle prior to her leaving for North Korea, Bae’s mother said “It’s hard to describe the agony of the past year since my son has been imprisoned in the DPRK. I spend every day thinking about him and praying for his homecoming. I miss him so much! And I worry endlessly about his health and want to see and check his condition with my own eyes. I don’t really know what to expect for my trip. All I know is that I want to see my son.”
Efforts to win Bae’s release have been frustrated by the lack of diplomatic relations between the United States and North Korea. He was arrested for crimes against the state while working as a tour guide in the country. A planned visit by US Special Envoy Robert King to negotiate for Bae’s release was abruptly cancelled by the North Koreans back in August.
North Korea has periodically held Americans as a way of gaining attention as well as concessions from the US, but no American has been held in recent times there longer than Bae.
You can read more reaction from the US and growing tensions between the two countries in Bloomberg.
