US citizen gets ‘generous reception in N.Korea

A US citizen who said he had crossed illegally into North Korea held a press conference in Pyongyang Sunday to denounce his own country’s US political and economic systems.
The man identified himself as Arturo Pierre Martinez, aged 29 and from El Paso in Texas, CNN and the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.
He entered the North from China in November, according to a North Korean statement cited by the broadcaster, just two days after the US spy chief James Clapper arrived in Pyongyang to secure the release of two other detained Americans.
Martinez had earlier tried to swim across the Han river between the two Koreas to enter the North, only to be caught and sent back to the US where he was placed in a psychiatric hospital, his mother told CNN.
“But he got out,” Patricia Eugenia Martinez said, adding her son was bipolar.
“He…got the court to let him out and instead of coming home to us he bought a ticket and left for China,” she said.
At the press conference Martinez admitted the illegal entry but said he was “extremely grateful” for the North to have pardoned him and to have offered him “the most generous reception”, according to KCNA.
Images obtained from the North’s government showed him wearing a suit and tie and delivering a statement.
The North aired the criticisms by Martinez of his own government at a time when Pyongyang is under growing international pressure to improve its human rights record.
The UN Security Council is expected to meet this month on the North’s rights record, following a proposal to refer it to the International Criminal Court on possible charges of crimes against humanity.
A US State Department official said it was aware of reports that an American citizen had crossed into North Korea.
“The Department of State strongly recommends against all travel by US citizens to North Korea,” the official said.
“We have no additional information to share at this time.”
Martinez said he plans to seek political asylum in Venezuela, another ideological foe of the United States.
He added that he had been staying at a “very nice hotel” while being investigated for illegal entry.
South Korean troops in September caught a US man trying to swim across the river border with the North but did not disclose his identity.