FORMER U.S. President Jimmy Carter is preparing to take a trip to North Korea “very soon” to try and secure the release of Christian missionary , according to South Korea’s leading news agency.
Yonhap News Agency cited a broadcast from Radio Free Asia, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit news organization, as the source of the information regarding Carter’s purported trip to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
Yonhap reports:
   Former United States President Jimmy Carter plans to visit North Korea “very soon” to win the release of a Korean-American man detained there, a U.S. radio station reported Sunday.
   Carter “is scheduled to visit North Korea very soon to discuss the release of Kenneth Bae,” the Washington-based Radio Free Asia said in a report, citing multiple human rights officials.
   Last week, Kyodo News Service reported that Carter is considering a visit to Pyongyang at the invitation of the North Korean government, citing a U.S. source.
Bae, a naturalized U.S. resident of Lynnwood, Wash., was born in South Korea and living in China with his wife while operating a tour company when he was arrested on Nov. 3, 2012. Born Pae Jun Ho, Bae was prosecuted in April for hostile acts against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and began serving his sentence at a labor camp in May. It was revealed that in addition to visiting orphans during his trips to North Korea through his tour company, Bae apparently took part in evangelism activities. He shared during a 2009 sermon at a U.S. church that he hoped through prayer and worship to bring down North Korea’s walls, in a project he called “Operation Jericho.”
He most recently appeared in a video interview conducted by pro-Pyongyang publication The Choson Sinbo. In the video Bae reportedly apologized for the crimes and begged for help due to health issues, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty liver and a back problem.
“People here are very considerate, so I’m not working too hard. But my health is not in the best condition so there are some difficulties,” Bae reportedly said in Korean in the video shot at a labor camp. Bae noted at another point that he was being “patient and coping well.”
“And I hope that with the help of the North Korean government and the United States, I will be released soon,” he added.
Bae’s sister Terri Chung who lives in Washington state told local media over the weekend that her brother has written her letters pleading for help due to his “failing” health and a fear that he is going blind.
Chung told Seattle’s King5.com that the letters were handwritten and postmarked from Pyongyang in June.
“He is asking us directly and saying, ‘My health is failing, I need help.’ … There is a new note of desperation,” said Chung. CP
