Carter on way to North Korea to free U.S. prisoner
SEOUL (Reuters) – Former President Jimmy Carter has left the United States and is en route to North Korea on a mission to win the release of an American being held prisoner there, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday.
The visit would take place amid heightened tensions on the peninsula after the torpedoing in March of a South Korean warship, which Seoul blames on the North and which prompted Washington to announce expanded sanctions against Pyongyang.
Carter, 85, and his wife are flying in a private jet and not a U.S. military plane, Yonhap said, quoting a U.S. diplomatic source.
A U.S. official had said Carter would travel to the North on a private humanitarian mission to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who has been sentenced by the communist state to eight years of hard labor. (more)