CNN was given access to both men this week, just days after isolated North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test
The Supreme leader of North Korea - Kim Jong-un.(Aljazeera)
A Korean-American
man who says he is being held in North Korea was a Christian pastor who
had worked in China and the United States, a North Korean defector who
met him and travelled with him in 2007 told Reuters.
CNN
reported on Monday from North Korea that it had been given access to a
man claiming to be an American, who identified himself as Kim Dong Chul, and who said he had been arrested in North Korea on spying charges.
He appealed for help from the United States or South Korea to rescue him.
A
U.S. State Department official declined to comment on the report about
Kim, saying that speaking publicly about specific cases of detained
Americans can complicate efforts to get them released.
If
confirmed, Kim, who CNN said was 60 and formerly of Fairfax, Virginia,
would be the second Western citizen known to be held in North Korea. The
other is Korean-Canadian.
CNN was given access to both men this week, just days after isolated North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test.
The
test angered its main ally, China, as well as the United States. Kim
would be the first American to be held by the North since it released
three U.S. citizens in 2014.
A North Korean
defector, Ma Young-ae, told Reuters on Tuesday that she had met Kim in
the United States and he had told church gatherings he was a missionary
helping North Koreans.
"He told the churches
that he was a missionary working on North Korea and sending stuff from
China into the North to help poor North Koreans," Ma told Reuters by telephone, recalling Kim making speeches around California and Virginia in 2007 and seeking donations.
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