US citizen offers 'disturbing' info

A US citizen who illegally entered the Democratic People's Republic of Korea delivered a lengthy denunciation of US domestic and foreign policy on Sunday and said he was seeking political asylum in Venezuela, the DPRK's official media said.

The man identified himself as Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, from El Paso, Texas, in video footage of a news conference released by the DPRK's KCNA news agency and said he undertook "a risky journey" to the country "so that I could pass along some very valuable and disturbing information".

Martinez spoke of human rights violations committed by the US and its attempt to dominate other countries, KCNA said in an article released with the footage.

Martinez's mother told CNN that her son was mentally unstable and has bipolar disorder. He had previously tried to enter the DPRK from the Republic of Korea by swimming across a river. He was captured and sent back to the United States, where he was committed to a psychiatric hospital in California, she told CNN.

"He is very smart, and he got the court to let him out. And instead of coming home to us, he bought a ticket and left for China," CNN quoted Patricia Eugenia Martinez as saying.

In September, media in the Republic of Korea reported that a man in his late 20s had been picked up by ROK marines while swimming in a river that flows toward the DPRK. The man had been trying to go to Pyongyang to meet DPRK leader Kim Jong-un, local media reported at the time.

Martinez said in the KCNA article that he had been staying in a nice hotel and was being treated well by the DPRK government and that he would seek political asylum in Venezuela.

Martinez said he chose to come to the DPRK to talk about US policy because the country has successfully defied US influence by maintaining a "very powerful military".

It was not immediately clear how Martinez entered the country. CNN said he got there two days after US intelligence chief James Clapper arrived in Pyongyang to negotiate the release of detained US citizens Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae.

Reuters - AP

(China Daily 12/15/2014 page10)