Sen. Kerry works to free U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea

Aides to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) have been in talks with
North Korean officials in an effort to secure the release of an American man
detained in Pyongyang and sentenced this week to eight years of hard labor.

Aijalon Mahli Gomes, 30, was convicted in a trial on Tuesday
for illegally entering North Korea and another, unspecified, hostile act, the
nation’s state-run news agency reported this week. He was also fined an
equivalent of $700,000.

{mosads}Gomes, a Boston native who was teaching English in South
Korea, was detained on January 25 after crossing over into North Korea.

Kerry is Gomes’s senior senator in Massachusetts as well as
the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has taken the lead
in working with the State Department to win Gomes’ release, officials said.

Members of Kerry’s staff have been “in direct contact with
North Korean officials” in New York, spokesman Frederick Jones said. Because
the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with the Pyongyang regime, talks are
conducted using Swedish diplomats as intermediaries.

Gomes is the fourth American in just over a year to be
detained in North Korea. The plight of two U.S. journalists, Euna Lee and Laura
Ling, gained worldwide attention last year after former President Bill Clinton
flew to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and secure the
release of the women.

Officials said they were unaware of any discussions to send
a prominent emissary to bring Gomes home. Jones, the Kerry spokesman, noted
that North Korea’s handling of Gomes was similar to its handling of Lee and
Ling.

Swedish officials were present at Gomes’s trial to represent
U.S. interests, the State Department has said. The State Department is calling
for Gomes to be granted amnesty and immediate release, spokesman Noel Clay
said. The U.S. is also demanding that Swedish officials be allowed access to
Gomes. The Swedish have met with Gomes four times since his arrest, but they
have not been granted access since March 17. 

Kerry’s office “has been in close contact with both the
family of Mr. Gomes and with the State Department as they work to secure his
release,” Jones said.

The senator released a statement on Wednesday calling the
situation “a mother’s worst nightmare.”

“This young man belongs in Massachusetts with his family,
and I join with them in expressing my hope that North Korea will do the right
thing and send him home,” Kerry said.

Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), Gomes’s congressman, said he
was “greatly concerned” about Gomes and was also working with Kerry and the
State Department to bring him home.

A spokeswoman for Gomes’s family in Boston, Thaleia
Schlesinger, said Friday that the family was “clearly upset and hoping for his
return.” She referred questions about efforts to win his release to the State
Department.