ICC Note: North Korea is universally accepted as the worst persecutor of Christians on earth today. It is completely illegal to practice Christianity or distribute any form of Christian literature. Kenneth Bae, an American citizen, was arrested while leading guided tours into the country in November of 2012. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly planning “hostile actions” against the state. More than likely he was arrested for missionary activities and is being used by the North Korean regime as a pawn to get concessions from the United States. In a recent letter to his family Kenneth says his health is declining after only a few months of serving his sentence. 
8/9/2013 North Korea (Jakarta Globe) – Kenneth Bae, a US citizen imprisoned in North Korea for crimes against the state, made a fresh appeal to the US government for help and chronicled his declining health in a letter that reached his family on Wednesday, his sister said.
Bae was sentenced in early May to 15 years of hard labor after North Korea’s Supreme Court convicted him of state subversion, saying the 45-year-old Christian missionary had used his tourism business to form groups to overthrow the government.
Bae has been held since he was detained in November as he led a tour group through the northern region of the country. His sentencing came amid acrimonious relations between Pyongyang and Washington over the reclusive state’s nuclear aspirations.
“He said it is definitely getting harder for his body to withstand the day-to-day labor, but he is trying his best to be strong and hold on,” Bae’s sister, Terri Chung, told Reuters in an interview at her mother’s home in a Seattle suburb. The letter was written July 14.
Bae spends eight hours a day, six days a week planting and plowing fields of potatoes and beans among other work at a prison for foreigners near Pyongyangwhere he is kept largely isolated, Chung said.
A naturalized US citizen born in South Korea who most recently lived in China, Bae has back pain, an enlarged heart, hypertension and diabetes and his vision has started to blur, Chung said.
“His health is deteriorating and he asks us to have our government help to bring him home,” said Chung, who teaches English at a Seattle community college.
North Korea has in the past used the release of high-profile American prisoners as a means of garnering a form of prestige or acceptance, rather than economic gain, by portraying visiting dignitaries as paying homage to the country and its leader.
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Bae has acknowledged being a missionary and has said he conducted religious services in the North. He has said he was moved by his faith to preach in North Korea, ranked for years as the nation most hostile to Christianity by Open Doors International, a Christian advocacy and aid group.
The random trickle of correspondence from Bae and the muted response from Washington have taken a toll on his tight-knit family in the United States. Chung said the family has received five sets of letters and two sets of phone calls – to his wife, mother and sister – in the nine months.
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