Former US President Jimmy Carter met North Korea's nominal head of state on Wednesday after touching down in Pyongyang for a private visit to win the release of an American jailed in the reclusive state. North Korean state television showed footage of Carter seated next to number two leader Kim Yong-nam.
"They had a talk in a warm atmosphere," state TV reported, without providing details of their conversation. Carter's visit comes amid heightened tensions on the peninsula after the torpedoing in March of a South Korean warship, which Seoul blames on the North and which prompted Washington to announce expanded sanctions against Pyongyang.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and his group were met at the airport by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, who represents Pyongyang at six-way nuclear disarmament talks that have been on hold for two years. Carter, 85, travelled to the North to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who was sentenced to eight years hard labour earlier this year for illegally entering the isolated state. Gomes, 30, tried to commit suicide out of despair, the North's state media said last month.
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