“I’m asking the US or South Korean government to rescue me”, Kim said during an interview with CNN.
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Since the speakers were plugged back in, the North has sought to respond in kind, with its own amplified messages extolling the virtues of leader Kim Jong-Un, and attacking South Korean President Park Geun-Hye.
Kim defended last week’s explosion as “a self-defensive step” meant to protect the Korean peninsula “from the danger of nuclear war caused by the U.S.-led imperialists”, according to a report Sunday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. He used the CNN interview to appeal for help. They said he has travelled to the state more than 100 times since 1997, and that his trips are not political in nature. Kim admitted to CNN that he had been working as a spy since 2013, after establishing a cross border business between the two Koreas in 2007.
Kim still has a wife and child in China, and has been unable to contact them during his imprisonment.
If Kim’s claims are true, he will be the only United States citizen now held by North Korea.
In 2014, Pyongyang released Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, two other American prisoners.
The House is to vote Tuesday on legislation to punish North Korea for the test by expanding sanctions, a move with strong bipartisan support despite questions about how effective new restrictions could be.
That the network was granted “unprecedented” access to Hyeon Soo Lim – a pastor with the Light Korean Presbyterian Church west of Toronto – suggests North Korean authorities may be softening their stance, Lisa Pak said.
The U.S. State Department declined to confirm to CNN whether Kim is a U.S. citizen, but a passport provided by North Korean officials lists his birth country as Korea and nationality as the United States.
He receives three meals per day and medical care, the report says.
Lim, who was interviewed at a Pyongyang hotel, his hair cropped short and wearing a grey padded prison uniform bearing the number “036” on his chest, also revealed that he asked the authorities for a copy of the Bible, but has yet to receive one.
Trump’s comments follow North Korea claiming to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.
Lim was no stranger to North Korea, having led multiple aid missions to the country, involving work with orphanages, nursing homes and food processing factories.
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Trump called Jong-Un a “maniac” during remarks about North Korea’s nuclear program during a rally at Ottumwa, Iowa, but conceded, “You gotta give him credit”.
