Seattle Family Pleads for Release of Brother Detained in North Korea - East Idaho News
World

Seattle Family Pleads for Release of Brother Detained in North Korea

  Published at

Getty 101212 JailCell?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1376022786782iStockphoto/Thinkstock(SEATTLE) — Seattle relatives are pleading for the release of an American man detained in North Korea for the past nine months. Kenneth Bae, a South Korean-born tour operator and Christian missionary, was arrested in November while leading a small tour group in the northeastern region of North Korea.  

Bae’s sister Terri Chung sent a message to North Korean leaders this week, explaining that her brother’s letters home say his diabetes is worsening.
 
“We’d like to say that we’re sincerely sorry for any crimes he may have committed there,” Chung pleaded. “We know that he didn’t mean to do so, that he had only the best intentions and wanted to help.”
 
Accused of hostile acts, Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after his arrest last November.

In the emotional message, Chung, who works as an instructor at North Seattle Community College, asked for the North Korean authorities’ mercy for her brother.

“We would ask that you issue mercy and that you grant him clemency and allow him to come home,” she said.

Chung’s message was not just for her brother’s captors.  She assured Bae that his family was working tirelessly to bring him home.

“We’re doing everything we can to appeal to our government and our leaders to do everything  in their power to bring you home as soon as possible,” Chung said.

Bae’s son Jonathan started a petition, calling for the U.S. government to take action to bring his father home.

In a special editorial published in the Seattle Times, Chung wrote that the North Korean government, “seems open to communication,” but stresses that “time is running out” for her ailing brother Kenneth.  
 
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION