NK not to use jailed American as 'bargaining chip' with US
Source: AFP |
May 6, 2013, Monday
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NORTH Korea said yesterday it would not use a jailed US citizen as a "bargaining chip" with Washington, and no prominent Americans would be invited to discuss his case.
"Some media of the US said that the DPRK (North Korea) tried to use Pae's case as a political bargaining chip. This is a ridiculous and wrong guess," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency. ''The DPRK has no plan to invite anyone of the US as regards Pae's issue."
The North said last Thursday it had sentenced Pae, known in the US as Kenneth Bae, to 15 years' hard labor for "hostile acts" aimed at toppling the communist government.
The Korean-American tour operator was arrested in November as he entered the port city of Rason.
Several Americans have been held in North Korea in recent years, and been freed after visits by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
In 2010 Carter negotiated the release of US citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who was sentenced to eight years' hard labor for illegally entering the country. In 2009 Clinton managed to free US television journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, also jailed for an illegal border crossing.
The ministry spokesman said Pyongyang had showed "generosity ... from the humanitarian point of view" in the past, but the latest case proved that such generosity will "be in no use in ending Americans' illegal acts."
"As long as the US hostile policy goes on, American's illegal acts should be countered with strict legal sanctions. This is a conclusion drawn by the DPRK."
The latest development comes amid high military tension on the peninsula.
Pyongyang, angered by new UN sanctions for its third nuclear test in February and by US-South Korean joint military drills, has issued blistering threats of missile and nuclear attacks targeting South Korea and its ally the US.
The allies may discuss ways to defuse the tension during a summit in Washington on Tuesday.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, during her first US trip since taking office in February, will discuss with President Barack Obama issues including North Korea's nuclear weaponry and policy coordination in the face of Pyongyang's threats, her spokesman said.
The US has called for the immediate release of Bae, whose alleged offense is unclear.
North Korea's spokesman said yesterday that Bae's belongings confirmed the crime for which he was convicted but did not elaborate.
"He entered the DPRK with a disguised identity in an intentional way under the back-stage manipulation of the forces hostile toward the DPRK," the spokesman said, adding he had made a confession.
A spokeswoman for Carter said last Thursday he had received no invitation to visit North Korea and had no plan to make a trip, after Seoul's Yonhap news agency said the Nobel laureate intended to visit.
In 1994 Carter paid a landmark visit to North Korea and helped end a nuclear crisis that had raised fears of war.
"Some media of the US said that the DPRK (North Korea) tried to use Pae's case as a political bargaining chip. This is a ridiculous and wrong guess," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency. ''The DPRK has no plan to invite anyone of the US as regards Pae's issue."
The North said last Thursday it had sentenced Pae, known in the US as Kenneth Bae, to 15 years' hard labor for "hostile acts" aimed at toppling the communist government.
The Korean-American tour operator was arrested in November as he entered the port city of Rason.
Several Americans have been held in North Korea in recent years, and been freed after visits by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
In 2010 Carter negotiated the release of US citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who was sentenced to eight years' hard labor for illegally entering the country. In 2009 Clinton managed to free US television journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, also jailed for an illegal border crossing.
The ministry spokesman said Pyongyang had showed "generosity ... from the humanitarian point of view" in the past, but the latest case proved that such generosity will "be in no use in ending Americans' illegal acts."
"As long as the US hostile policy goes on, American's illegal acts should be countered with strict legal sanctions. This is a conclusion drawn by the DPRK."
The latest development comes amid high military tension on the peninsula.
Pyongyang, angered by new UN sanctions for its third nuclear test in February and by US-South Korean joint military drills, has issued blistering threats of missile and nuclear attacks targeting South Korea and its ally the US.
The allies may discuss ways to defuse the tension during a summit in Washington on Tuesday.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, during her first US trip since taking office in February, will discuss with President Barack Obama issues including North Korea's nuclear weaponry and policy coordination in the face of Pyongyang's threats, her spokesman said.
The US has called for the immediate release of Bae, whose alleged offense is unclear.
North Korea's spokesman said yesterday that Bae's belongings confirmed the crime for which he was convicted but did not elaborate.
"He entered the DPRK with a disguised identity in an intentional way under the back-stage manipulation of the forces hostile toward the DPRK," the spokesman said, adding he had made a confession.
A spokeswoman for Carter said last Thursday he had received no invitation to visit North Korea and had no plan to make a trip, after Seoul's Yonhap news agency said the Nobel laureate intended to visit.
In 1994 Carter paid a landmark visit to North Korea and helped end a nuclear crisis that had raised fears of war.
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