N. Korea unveils life of detained Korean-American man

A Korean-American man, detained in North Korea on sedition charges, hopes that he would be set free and allowed to go home after amnesty is granted, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Tokyo said Wednesday.

Kenneth Bae, whose Korean name is Bae Joon-ho, was arrested in November after entering North Korea with a group of tourists. Some identified him as a tour operator, while others said he worked as a Christian missionary.

In May, North Korea sentenced Bae to 15 years of hard labor for committing unspecified "anti-North Korea crime," claiming that he had attempted to overthrow its regime. The U.S. government has so far unsuccessfully tried to win his release.

"Bae, wearing a prison uniform with ID number 103, was imprisoned on May 14 and was seeding and weeding on corn, potato and bean farms in prison," the Chosun Sinbo newspaper said. "Bae wakes up at 6 a.m. and works from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m."

The paper, published by Chongryun, a pro-Pyongyang Korean residents' organization in Japan, said it confirmed Bae's latest status after visiting the prison where he is being kept.

In an interview, Bae, 44, expressed hope to convey his request for amnesty to the North Korean and U.S. governments, the paper said.

The report comes as North Korea is trying to open dialogue with the United States over its nuclear programs. The U.S. maintains that it would agree to engage North Korea for dialogue only after the communist country first shows by action, not words, its sincerity to denuclearize.

Bae is the sixth U.S. citizen to be detained by the North since 2009. All other Americans were freed via contacts between the two nations.

Since his detention in May, the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang has visited him once on behalf of the U.S. as Washington has no diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, the paper said.      

The paper also printed three photos of Bae with the story.

(Yonhap News)