North Korea open to talks on release of jailed American Kenneth Bae after family receive letters in mail

The family of Kenneth Bae, an American sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in North Korea, have received letters from him in the mail for the first time this past week.

They say that his health is worse and ask the family to press the US government to help secure his release, Bae's sister said on Friday.

North Korea experts said the message of the handwritten letters - and their method of delivery, which could not have happened without Pyongyang's approval - suggested that the authorities were open to the idea of negotiations on Bae. That had seemed remote three months ago when he was found guilty of committing "hostile acts" against the government.

North Korea said Bae, 44, a devout Christian, who had sought to build a clandestine proselytising base in a country, where the Communist government regards missionary work as sedition.

The possible opening in Bae's case came against a backdrop of other indications that North Korea, despite its harsh public language toward the US, is pursuing multiple ways of pushing for direct contact after months of threats and new weapons tests. So far, the Obama administration has resisted the overtures.

Bae's sister, Terri Chung, said from her home in Edmonds, Washington, that Bae had been able to communicate a few times during his imprisonment, which began with his arrest in November, though those contacts were through intermediaries acting on behalf of Sweden's ambassador in North Korea, who monitors US interests. Then weeks went by with no further word.