U.S. urges N. Korea to free detained Americans

The United States renewed its appeal to North Korea on Sunday to release three American citizens held in the communist nation after Pyongyang said the country's highest court will try one of them next week.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said earlier Sunday that the North's Supreme Court decided to judge Matthew Todd Miller on Sept. 14. Miller has been indicted on charges of tearing up his tourist visa and seeking asylum upon entering the North in April.

He is one of three American citizens currently detained in the North. 

The two others are Jeffrey Edward Fowle, who entered the North in late April and has since been detained for leaving a Bible in a hotel, and Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary, who was detained in late 2012 and has since been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for unspecified anti-state crimes.

 "We are aware of news reports that Matthew Miller will face trial in North Korea this week. There is no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad," State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said in response to a Yonhap News Agency's request for comment. 

"Out of humanitarian concern for Jeffrey Fowle, Matthew Miller, and their families, we request the DPRK release them so they may return home. We also request the DPRK pardon Kenneth Bae and grant him special amnesty and immediate release so he may reunite with his family and seek medical care," she said.

Sunday's announcement by the North was seen as yet another attempt by Pyongyang to use the detained Americans as leverage to reopen negotiations with the U.S.

Earlier this month, the North has allowed CNN to interview the three, and all of them said they want their government to send an envoy to North Korea to help bring them home, just as former President Bill Clinton visited the North and helped secure the release of two American journalists in 2009.

Robert King, special U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights issues, had planned to visit the North early this year to win the release of Bae, but Pyongyang canceled his invitation at the last minute. It was the second time that the North abruptly reversed its decision to allow his trip.

That suggests the North may want a higher-level U.S. official to visit the country.

North Korea has long called for unconditional resumption of negotiations on nuclear and other bilateral issues, but the U.S.

and South Korea have demanded that the communist nation first take concrete steps to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization if negotiations are to restart.  (Yonhap)