|
 North Korea in December released 85-year-old Korean War veteran
Merrill E. Newman, a former U.S. special forces soldier who had been
held since October after visiting the country as a tourist, and the
members of Congress applauded that in the letter seeking Bae's
freedom.
"You have done the right thing by releasing a fellow Korean War
veteran, Merrill E. Newman, to return home, you would be making
further progress on the humanitarian front by freeing Kenneth Bae to
reunite with his family," stated a copy of the letter obtained by
Reuters on Wednesday.
The letter, signed by Democrat Charles Rangel from New York,
Democrat John Conyers Jr. from Michigan, Republican Sam Johnson from
Texas and Republican Howard Coble from North Carolina, is not seen
as having nearly as much influence on the North Korean leaders as a
possible visit from a U.S. envoy.
Bae, 45, has been held for more than a year by North Korea, which
convicted him of trying to overthrow the state and sentenced him to
15 years of hard labor. Rangel and a congressman from Washington
state, where Bae lived, invited his family to attend President
Barack Obama's state of the union speech last month.
Bae's sister, Terri Chung, said in an interview she was grateful to
the four congressmen for calling attention to her brother's
situation. "When there's more awareness of Kenneth's plight, I think
that's always a good thing," she said.
Chung said Bae's Seattle-area family has not spoken to him since a
December 29 phone call, one of three that North Korea has allowed
Bae to have with his family since his detention in November 2012.
Bae's mother was permitted to visit him in Pyongyang in October.
FAMILY REUNIONS
Academic experts on North Korea said the letter was not likely to
sway authorities there to free Bae.
"I don't think they really care what four members of Congress think
... whether they're Korean War veterans or not," said Daniel
Sneider, associate director for research at the Asia-Pacific
Research Center at Stanford University.
[to top of second column] |
"They want someone coming to pay homage to them, and maybe they have
something they want to communicate and they want to communicate it
at that level," Sneider said.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last month
that an offer had been made to send U.S. North Korean rights envoy
Robert King to Pyongyang to secure Bae's release. King has not been
sent to North Korea on that mission, and how North Korea responded
to the offer is not clear.
Rangel, who was wounded in the Korean War and was awarded the Purple
Heart and Bronze Star for his service, had mentioned Bae's case in a
letter last year to North Korea that pleaded for the release of
Newman, who was still detained at the time.
The letter from the four congressmen was dated Tuesday and came as
North and South Korea agreed to allow some families separated by the
1950-53 Korean War to hold brief reunions.
The meetings between families from the two countries are planned for
February 20 to February 25 in Mount Kumgang, just north of the
border, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.
In their letter, the congressmen urged Kim Jong-un to extend the
reunion effort to the roughly 100,000 Korean-Americans with family
in North Korea.
(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
