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SEOUL : North Korea on Tuesday said it has detained an American for illegal entry, its first apparent reference to a Christian activist who crossed into the communist state on a lone rights crusade.
"An American was detained after illegally entering the DPRK (North Korea) through the DPRK-China border on December 24," Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said in a one-paragraph report.
Robert Park, 28, was reported by colleagues to have crossed the frozen Tumen River from China in a one-man protest against repression in the hardline North.
A US citizen of Korean ancestry, he claimed he had seen a vision from God of North Korea's liberation and redemption, his colleagues said, adding that Park crossed the border shouting "I came here to proclaim God's love".
Park carried a letter calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to release political prisoners, shut concentration camps and take steps to improve rights and conditions, his colleagues said.
The US State Department expressed concern on Monday the North may have detained the activist from Tucson in Arizona.
It said Sweden, which represents US interests in Pyongyang in the absence of diplomatic relations, has offered to seek more information.
Cho Sung-Rae, one of Park's fellow activists in Seoul, said Park was detained on Christmas Day and not December 24.
"I don't understand why North Korea is trying to distort facts," Cho told AFP. "Maybe it could be part of its attempt to avoid criticism that he was detained on Christmas Day."
Cho urged Pyongyang immediately to release Park and said the US government should intervene, even though Park has said he would not seek such intervention.
Tim Peters, a leading Christian activist on North Korea's human rights, said he respects Park's boldness and audacity.
"But in dealing with an iron-fisted regime like North Korea's, I can't help but feel his action was misguided and reckless," Peters told AFP, citing a letter Park reportedly carried urging leader Kim to step down.
In March, two US television journalists who crossed into North Korea from China while working on a story about human trafficking spent more than four months in jail for illegal entry.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years' hard labour but were freed following a mission led by former US president Bill Clinton in August.
Kim Yong-Hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the North is expected to expel Park after various formalities since the case is different from that of Ling and Lee.
Kim told AFP he does not expect the incident to create a major diplomatic problem with the United States at a time when the North is trying to improve relations.
After months of sabre-rattling marked by a nuclear test and missile launches, the North used Clinton's visit to extend peace feelers.
US envoy Stephen Bosworth visited Pyongyang this month to try to persuade it to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
"There is no reason for North Korea to dance to his (Park's) tune," Kim said. "North Korea knows that prolonged detention would stoke international criticism of its human rights conditions."
The US State Department in its rights report says the North is believed to hold 150,000-200,000 people in political prison camps.
Plans to release a video clip of Park praying on the river before crossing have been disrupted by demands for money from one of the activist's two companions at the time, Cho said.
He said the man, a North Korean defector, is demanding 100 million won (86,000 dollars) for the video clip and may be trying to sell it to media organisations.
China, which hosts the six-party talks, urged the two sides to settle the issue.
"We hope the US and the DPRK will properly resolve this issue and uphold the larger interest of stability on the Korean peninsula," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
Security along North Korea's rugged northeast border with China is easier to breach than elsewhere. Many North Korean refugees often walk into China across shallow rivers or cross frozen rivers during the winter. - AFP/ms
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