Published : Feb. 10, 2014 - 19:07
Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, arrived in North Korea, APTN reported Monday, a trip seen to help facilitate the release of a Korean-American man detained there.
Gregg was accompanied by a group of four representatives of the Pacific Century Institute, a U.S civic group, it showed.
His visit comes as the reclusive country revoked its invitation for a U.S. special envoy to visit Pyongyang for talks on Kenneth Bae.
Donald Gregg (Yonhap)
Amb. Robert King, special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, had planned to travel to the communist state sometime this month, but Pyongyang canceled its invitation for King, citing an annual joint military drill between the U.S. and the South.
In August of last year, the North also rescinded its invitation to King, who attempted to visit Pyongyang to resolve the Bae issue.
Bae, a Christian missionary, was arrested by North Korean authorities in November 2012 after entering the socialist nation on a tourist visit.
The North later announced that he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the state.
APTN is The Associated Press (AP)'s video news affiliate. The AP was allowed to open a bureau in North Korea in 2012, becoming the first Western media outlet in the country. Other foreign media that had been allowed in the country before were all from the old Soviet Union, its successor Russia and China.
Gregg served as the U.S. envoy to South Korea between 1989 and 1993 after more than three decades of service in the CIA with a focus on Asia.
(Yonhap)