North Korea has a long history of detaining foreign citizens, especially Americans, on baseless criminal charges to use them for propaganda and “hostage diplomacy,” which is largely aimed at gaining concessions from foreign governments.

As part of the anachronistic policy, the North is currently detaining three American citizens, including one Korean-American missionary who has been locked up in the isolationist country for nearly two years. Kenneth Bae was detained in November 2012 on charges of “seeking to topple the North Korean regime” and has been serving 15 years of hard labor.

North Korea detained another American, Matthew Miller, in April for alleged misbehavior ― tearing up his tourist visa and seeking asylum upon entry, an act which Pyongyang linked to espionage. Miller was sentenced to six years in prison last week.

The third American, Jeffrey Fowle, was held in custody in June for leaving a Bible in a hotel, which North Korea said was a violation of its law. One need not have profound judicial knowledge to be convinced that none of the three committed crimes serious enough to deserve years of imprisonment on foreign soil.

The North allowed CNN to interview the detainees separately early this month. All three, as if they had agreed to do so, said they wanted their government to send an envoy to North Korea to help bring them home.

This speaks of the North’s desire to win over the same concessions it obtained when former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang in 2009 for the release of two American journalists. Jimmy Carter made a similar visit to the North Korean capital the following year to free an American missionary.

The North also wishes to use the American detainees as leverage in its dealings with the United States ― especially concerning the Washington and U.N.-led international sanctions on its regime and leaders, resumption of the six-party nuclear talks and international aid.

It is sad that the North is still bound by the outmoded, inhumane tactic of hostage diplomacy. All but the dim-witted leaders in Pyongyang know that detaining innocent foreign citizens only further damages its already notorious reputation as a rogue nation and the world’s most vicious violator of human rights.

Worse still, the North is holding the Americans at a time when it faces mounting international pressure on account of its human rights infringements.

For the first time as South Korea’s leader, President Park Geun-hye raised the issue of the North’s human rights at the U.N. General Assembly last week. Park’s address followed a ministerial meeting on North Korean human rights, the first of its kind, held on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described the North as an “evil system.”

The North Korean government issued its own human rights report ahead of the U.N. General Assembly, disputing the international claims about its human rights record.

On Saturday, its foreign minister, Ri Su-yong, said in an address to the general assembly that his government is willing to discuss human rights with the international community.

The world will take these statements as nothing but a deceitful rhetorical defense of its rights conditions unless North Korea releases the three men. North Korean leaders must realize that human rights and the protection of foreign citizens are no less important than renouncing weapons of mass destruction for improving its relations with the outside world and drawing the foreign investment they so badly need.