US special representative to visit Pyongyang August 30

Robert King, US Special Representative for Human Rights Issues in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will visit Pyongyang on August 30 to secure a release of American citizen Kenneth Bae (also known as Pae Jun Ho), the Department of State announced on Tuesday. At the invitation of the government of the DPRK, Ambassador Robert King, US Special Representative on Human Rights Issues in the DPRK, will travel to Pyongyang on August 30 on a humanitarian mission aimed at securing a release of American citizen Kenneth Bae, the announcement said. A State Department official pointed out that the US Special Representative would request the authorities of the DPRK to amnesty Kenneth Bae for humanitarian considerations so that he could reunite with his family and set about restoring his health. In May this year, by a ruling issued by the Supreme Court of the DPRK, Korean American Kenneth Bae was sentenced to 15 year's forced work "for hostile actions with regard to the People's Republic". The American had been arrested on November 3, 2012, in the city of Rason in the DPRK's north-east where he had arrived on a tourist visa. Reports by the Korean Central News Agency said that during the investigation he "confessed his guilt". The information about the bringing of the US citizen before the court appeared in the period of a sharp aggravation of relations between Pyongyang and Washington. This was prompted by the holding of large-scale American-South Korean military exercises in the territory of the Republic of Korea with the participation of nuclear-capable strategic bombers. According to Pyongyang's version, such large-scale exercises are a rehearsal of an intrusion into the DPRK and "constitute a direct threat to the security of the North".