North Korea has allowed CNN to interview three Americans who have been detained there for unspecified crimes against the state. CNN aired the interviews with Kenneth Bae, Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle on Monday.
| Saddam was pretty good about giving CNN access to Baghdad back in the day... |
"I've been going back and forth between hospital and to the labor camp for the last year and a half," Bae said in the interview. In the camp, he works eight hours a day, six days a week, doing agricultural work and other hard labor, he said.
But Bae told CNN's Will Ripley he is being treated humanely. He said he initially did not think he had done anything wrong but realized during his trial that he had violated the law. Bae, an evangelical Christian, was arrested for proselytizing in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
The CNN crew were on a visit to Pyongyang at the regime's invitation and only realized that they would meet the detained Americans after they were taken to an unknown location, Ripley said.
| Right. Sure. They were there to cover the North Korean cheerleading team when the opportunity just arose out of nowhere... |
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