Quick facts:
WHO: Kenneth Bae, an American missionary
WHAT: North Korea imprisoned an American citizen
WHEN: November 2012
WHERE: North Korea
WHY: Bae was arrested on accusations by the North Korean government of planning to bring down the government through religious activities.
• Kenneth Bae was imprisoned by the North Korean government in 2012 during a tour he was giving of the country’s economic zone.
• North Korea extended an invitation to a U.S. envoy to visit the capital, Pyongyang, to discuss the release of Bae and then revoked it Monday.
• Bae’s family continues to worry about his safety and his ability cope with the stress of a labor camp.
SEATTLE — The family of a Washington state man imprisoned in North Korea for more than a year expressed alarm and sadness Monday after an invitation was canceled for a U.S. envoy to visit Pyongyang and discuss Kenneth Bae’s release.
Terri Chung, Bae’s sister, said in a statement, however, that relatives are encouraged by a growing number of people — including the Rev. Jesse Jackson — calling for her brother’s freedom.
“It has been 474 days since Kenneth has been detained in the DPRK,” the statement said, referencing the nation’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “Kenneth is just an ordinary American father of three who is desperately trying to return to his family.”
The statement continued, imploring U.S. and North Korean leaders “to work together to let this U.S. citizen come home to his family.”
Bae, 45, of Lynnwood, a suburb about 15 miles north of Seattle, had been living in China for seven years. He was taken into custody in November 2012 while leading a tour group into a North Korean economic zone.
The cancellation, 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 U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights issues, Bob King.
The move signals an apparent protest of upcoming annual military drills between Washington, D.C., and Seoul, South Korea. North Korean officials also said the U.S. has mobilized nuclear-capable B-52 bombers during training near the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea called the planned drills a rehearsal for invasion, a claim the allies deny.
On Monday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said King was still prepared to meet with North Korean leaders in the future.
The State Department also has said Jackson, the civil rights leader, has offered to travel to North Korea at the request of Bae’s family.
“We support the efforts, of course, of the family but also of Reverend Jackson to bring Kenneth Bae home,” Harf said.
Analysts said North Korea has previously used detained Americans as leverage in its standoff with the U.S. over its nuclear and missile programs; North Korea denies this.
The North accused Bae of smuggling in inflammatory literature and trying to establish a base for anti-government activities at a border city hotel.
Chung said Bae’s Christian faith got him into trouble.
In August, North Korea also rescinded an invitation for King to visit, saying Washington had perpetrated a grave provocation by flying B-52 bombers during military drills with South Korea.
Chung said Friday that her family learned from the State Department that her brother had been taken back to a labor camp from a hospital where he had been treated after losing 50 pounds.
On Monday, Chung said in the statement that the family is “gravely concerned that the stress Kenneth endures at the labor camp will be too much for him.”
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