NewUS activist Jesse Jackson 'wrote letter' to Kim Jong-un urging talks for Bae's release
US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson says he is ready to meet North Korea’s leader to free imprisoned American Kenneth Bae and reduce ill will between the two countries, as the jailed missionary’s family expressed sadness that Pyongyang scrapped an invitation to hold talks on his release.
US officials have said that Jackson volunteered to travel to Pyongyang after the totalitarian state abruptly cancelled the visit of a US envoy, Robert King, who aimed to free Korean-American tour operator Kenneth Bae.
Jackson said in a televised interview with CNN that he had put “high hopes” in King, but after the trip was called off, wrote a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
[I told him I would] like to meet with him face-to-face to seek to work out some mutual respect, some recognising each other’s sovereignty
Jackson said he told Kim he would “like to meet with him face-to-face to seek to work out some mutual respect, some recognising each other’s sovereignty, each other’s will to peace”. It was unclear how he sent the letter to the North Korean leader or whether it was received.
The cancellation of the invitation, announced by the State Department on Sunday, comes only days after a detained Bae told a pro-Pyongyang newspaper that he expected to meet this month with King.
North Korea, which technically remains at war with US ally South Korea, has defiantly pursued nuclear weapons in what it says is its effort to counter hostility from the United States.
Bae, described by a North Korean court as a militant Christian evangelist, was arrested in November 2012 and later sentenced to 15 years of hard labour on charges of seeking to topple the government.