Americans Detained In North Korea Speak To CNN's Will Ripley
KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet. Now CNN speaks exclusively to three Americans held in North Korea. Struggling Manchester United make a shock move for Colombian striker Falcao. And activists in Hong Kong make a stand after China confirms the city must choose its next leader from a list hand-picked by Beijing. Now, we begin with a television exclusive from North Korea. Right now, three Americans are being detained in the reclusive nation. And they sat down with CNN just a short time ago to talk about their treatment and send messages home. Let's briefly tell you about these three men. Now Kenneth Bae has been held the longest. He was arrested November 2012 accused of hostile acts to bring down the government in Pyongyang. Now Bae is serving a 15 year prison sentence. Matthew Miller Todd was taken into custody this April. And according to North Korean media, he entered the country seeking asylum and tore up his tourist visa. And Jeffrey Edward Fowle has been detained since May. He allegedly left a bible in a hotel room. Now CNN was allowed to speak with each man for about five minutes. And CNN's Will Ripley joins us now live from Pyongyang. And Will, what did they tell you?</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they told us that their situation is growing increasingly desperate. Kenneth Bae, as you know, has already been convicted of crimes against the North Korean government here and he is serving a 15 year sentence at a labor camp where he works -- he works hard labor eight hours a day, agricultural work, we're told. And he works six days a week. But recently he was in the hospital, because he says his health conditions have been failing. Here is what he told us when we spoke to him.</s>KENNETH BAE, AMERICAN DETAINED IN NORTH KOREA: I'm serving 15 year sentence right now. And I've been going back and forth from hospital to the labor camp last year-and-a-half. And right now I'm serving at the labor camp right now.</s>RIPLEY: Tell me about the conditions at the labor camp.</s>BAE: Condition at labor camp is I'm working eight hours a day six days a week and working agricultural work to other hard labor that is required to do every day.</s>RIPLEY: Do you feel you're being treated humanely.</s>BAE: Yes.</s>RIPLEY: And, your message to your family.</s>BAE: Well, I'm sure they're very worried about my health at this time. And even though right now last month, month-and-a-half my heart is getting -- it's been failing, so right now what I can say to my family and friends is to continue to pray for me and also ask them to continue on (inaudible) getting me released here.</s>RIPLEY: Your message for the American government.</s>BAE: Well, American government right now I've been asking the American government to act upon getting me released here. And I do believe that special envoy need to come in order to resolve the situation that I am in right now. So, I do ask U.S. government to send an envoy soon as possible and other -- I think that's the only hope that I have right now, you know, for me to go home and be reunited with my family.</s>RIPLEY: What is the bottom line about your situation here and the message that you want to put out to the world.</s>BAE: So right now is that I'm here. I've been here for almost two years now. And then I do believe that I'm -- I've been treated humanely as possible. They have been doing that for me. But at the same time I realize that at this point that is -- I've been here -- I am the American that has been here the longest since the Korean War. And I do believe that sooner that this get resolved it would be better for not only myself, for the rest of the other Americans may come in the future as well.</s>RIPLEY: Bae was found guilty of what the North Korean government calls a Christian plot to overthrow the regime here. The other two Americans are currently being detained, but they're not in prison yet. In fact, they're staying in hotel rooms here in Pyongyang. Matthew Miller is the young man who tore up his tourist visa when he entered the airport here and sought asylum, and also Jeffrey Fowle, a father from Dayton, Ohio left a bible behind while he was on a government rail tour that he was taking as a tourist. Both men say they have signed confessions and have apologized to the North Korean government and its people for breaking the law here. But now all three men are desperately asking for some kind of intervention from the U.S. government to get them back home, Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: There in North Korea, how did you secure these interviews? And under what kind of conditions did you conduct these interviews with Kenneth Bae and the other American prisoners in North Korea?</s>RIPLEY: When we arrived here in Pyongyang five days ago, Kristie, one of the first things we did was put in a formal request to speak with the detained Americans. And we were told that it was highly unlikely that that request would be granted. So today we set out on another day of a government guided bus tour. We were supposed to be touring a temple two hours north of the capital city here. When we were in the middle of lunch abruptly pulled out of lunch and told we needed to get in a van right now and head back towards the city to speak with a high ranking government official. As we were in the van, our government minders were making phone calls with top level officials. But we still thought that we were going to talk to someone in the government as we pulled in here to Pyongyang to a hotel in the center of the city. And only when we got out of the van and prepared to walk in the building were we told that plans had changed and we would speak with the detained Americans. But they were very specific conditions. We have five minutes with each of them. And we could only talk about certain topics, which were the charges they were facing, the conditions that they're being held in, and any message they have for their families and the government. If we exceeded the time or strayed beyond those topics we were told there would be consequences for that. We abided by the conditions that we agreed to. We interviewed the men under five minutes for each of them. And tonight we're not awaiting to see what the U.S. government response will be to their plea for help.</s>LU STOUT: All three men making that plea, an appeal for their release. But what will it take to get North Korea on board to release these three Americans in its custody?</s>RIPLEY: You know, the sense I get from speaking with government officials here -- and we have been able to have some pretty candid conversations -- is that now is the time when the North Korean government appears to be ready to open up a direct line of communication. And it's very important to them to have a line of communication with the United States. There's a lot of tension right now in this region. Certainly North Korea for years has been the focus of sanctions from -- you know, unilateral and multi-lateral sanctions. The United States a driving force there. It's obviously had quite an effect on the economy of this country. At the same time, one of their huge benefactors here in North Korea is China. There have been some tensions along the border with China that have developed in recent months. And so it seems that the North Koreans appear to be open and willing and eager, in fact, to have some line of discussion with the United States. And I would imagine they are hopeful that a big name from the United States, someone like a Bill Clinton who came here to secure the release of journalists who crossed over illegally, or one of the detainees mentioned George W. Bush. Some big name from the United States coming here to Pyongyang to sit down with government officials and perhaps work out a deal possibly to secure the release of these American citizens.</s>LU STOUT: So what they want is some sort of high level intervention. Will Ripley, we'll leave it at that. Will Ripley reporting live for us with that exclusive from inside North Korea. You're watching News Stream. Still to come, Britain promises to take on the fight against radical Islam starting at home. We'll take a look at what Muslims in the country's capital are saying about the UK's new crackdown on terror. We'll also bring you live to northern Iraq where we've seen an ISIS defeat. Details ahead.