N. Korea Not to Free US Citizens until Former Detainee Stops ’Babbling’

Local Editor

North Korea will not negotiate with the United States over two American citizens it is holding until former detainee Kenneth Bae stops publicly talking about his time in prison, state media said Monday.

Criticized over its human rights record for years, North Korea made use of detained Americans in the past to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.

Bae, a US missionary, was arrested in North Korea in November 2012, and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the state.

He was released two years later and wrote an account of his detention in a memoir released in May. Since then, Bae spoke about his experiences at several public appearances and gave interviews to promote the book.

"As long as Kenneth Bae continues his babbling, we will not proceed with any compromise or negotiations with the United States on the subject of American criminals, and there will certainly not be any such thing as humanitarian action," the North's KCNA news agency reported.

"If Bae continues, US criminals held in our country will be in the pitiful state of never being able to set foot in their homeland once again," the statement added, referring to the two American citizens, both of whom it was tried and sentenced to hard labor.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team