US envoy to visit N. Korea Aug. 30 for Kenneth Bae

Amb. Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, will visit North Korea on Aug. 30 to secure the release of U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae held there, the State Department announced Tuesday (U.S. time).

Bae, 44, was detained in North Korea in November last year and sentenced to 15 years in a North Korean labor camp for “hostile acts to bring down its government.”

King will become the first senior U.S. government official to visit North Korea since Kim Jong-un took power in December 2011.

AJP