N. Korea says it will release detained American missionary

SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Friday it will release a U.S.
missionary who crossed the border from China late last year calling on Pyongyang
to improve its human rights conditions.
North Korea has "decided to leniently forgive and release" Robert Park, a
28-year-old Korean-American who entered the communist state in December across
the frozen Tumen river, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The authorities have taken "his admission and sincere repentance of his wrong
doings into consideration," the KCNA said in the English-language report
monitored in Seoul.
The North had said an investigation was under way regarding an American citizen
who "illegally" entered the country on Dec. 24 without naming him.
The release comes as China plans to send a high-ranking official to North Korea
to prod the country toward stalled international talks on its nuclear arms
programs and possibly invite its leader to Beijing.
The KCNA did not make mention of another American that it had said remains under
detention after trespassing across the border between China and North Korea.
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