3 prisoners in N. Korea call for U.S. help

In this photo combo, from left to right, Mathew Miller, Jeffrey Fowle and Kenneth Bae, who are all Americans being detained in North Korea, speak to The Associated Press, Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea gave foreign media access on Monday to the three detained Americans who said they have been able to contact their families and, watched by officials as they spoke, called for Washington to send a high-ranking representative to negotiate for their freedom. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

In this photo combo, from left to right, Mathew Miller, Jeffrey Fowle and Kenneth Bae, who are all Americans being detained in North Korea, speak to The Associated Press, Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea gave foreign media access on Monday to the three detained Americans who said they have been able to contact their families and, watched by officials as they spoke, called for Washington to send a high-ranking representative to negotiate for their freedom. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Correction: Matthew Todd Miller is one of three Americans incarcerated in North Korea. A New York Times article that appeared in editions on Sept. 2 misspelled his given name.

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea granted two U.S. news organizations interviews with three incarcerated Americans on Monday, with all three prisoners apologizing for violating its laws and beseeching Washington to send a high-level emissary to negotiate their release.

The three had been interviewed before in orchestrated televised appearances in which they expressed contrition and asked the U.S. for help. But Monday was the first time the North Korean authorities permitted the two U.S. news organizations, CNN and The Associated Press, to speak to all three in the same location.

The choreography of the interviews seemed to make increasingly clear that North Korea wanted to use the three Americans as bargaining leverage to pressure Washington to engage the country in dialogue. The U.S., which has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, has led an effort to increasingly isolate the country over its nuclear and ballistic missile activities.

CNN and the AP said the interviews were conducted individually in different rooms. The prisoners said they were treated fairly by the North Korean authorities and had been allowed to contact their families. But they spoke while North Korean officials were present, suggesting they had been coached.

"I've been going back and forth from hospital to the labor camp for last year and a half," the longest-held prisoner, Kenneth Bae, told CNN, adding that he was working eight hours a day, six days a week at a labor camp.

Bae, 46, a Christian missionary, was arrested after having arrived in the North in late 2012. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for the "anti-state" crime of trying to build an undercover proselytizing network within the North with the aim of toppling its government.

Bae complained in the interview of failing health, including diabetes, backaches and high blood pressure.

The others, Jeffrey Edward Fowle and Mathew Todd Miller, reiterated assertions made in earlier interviews that they expected to face trial soon. They said they still did not know what specific charges they faced, although they both said they had signed statements admitting their crimes.

Fowle, 56, an Ohio municipal worker, entered North Korea in April on a tourist visa and was arrested after he left a Bible behind in a hotel. The authorities may have interpreted that act as Christian proselytizing, which is deemed a crime of trying to undermine North Korea's political system.

"Within a month I could be sharing a jail cell with Ken Bae," Fowle told the AP.

He confirmed he had been allowed to communicate with his wife and three children, ages 9, 10 and 12, who live in Miamisburg, Ohio, an Akron suburb, but that he had not spoken with them for three weeks.

"I'm desperate to get back to them," he said.

Bae had been permitted previously to speak to outside media, including a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan, to make appeals for the U.S. to send a high-level envoy to Pyongyang. In interviews with an AP television news crew a month ago, both Fowle and Miller made similar appeals.

Miller, 24, entered North Korea in April. But according to the North, he shredded his tourist visa upon arrival at the airport and demanded asylum. He was arrested for unruly behavior. In his interviews with the AP and CNN, he did not discuss whether he had sought to defect to North Korea.

He expressed frustration to CNN, saying that "there's been no movement from my government."

North Korea, regarded as one of the most repressive and impoverished countries, wants a direct dialogue with the U.S. in part to negotiate a peace treaty to bring a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which was halted by an armistice agreement. But the U.S. has demurred, insisting that the North has repeatedly acted deceptively.

The U.S. relies on the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang to represent the interests of its citizens held there.

A Section on 09/02/2014