February 7, 2014 at 6:06 AM 
 
 Former Washington resident Kenneth Bae gained an important ally on Thursday when President Barack Obama personally called for his release from a North Korean labor camp. 
 
 The president mentioned Bae in his remarks during Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast, which can be viewed at about the 16:39 mark in this video from the White House’s YouTube channel: 
 
 The Seattle Times has written numerous editorials (including this latest one posted Jan. 26) encouraging the U.S. State Department to help Bae’s family, based in Edmonds and Lynnwood. The 45-year-old American citizen was captured in November 2012 while guiding tourists through North Korea. 
 
 Obama’s attention to this issue can only help. On Wednesday, Reuters reports the four last surviving members of Congress to serve in the Korean War wrote a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asking for Bae’s release on humanitarian grounds. 
 
 Hopefully, the North Koreans take notice. 
 
 Here’s the transcript of Obama’s remarks, provided by the White House: 
 
 And finally, as we build the future we seek, let us never forget those who are persecuted today, among them Americans of faith. We pray for Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary who’s been held in North Korea for 15 months, sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. His family wants him home. And the United States will continue to do everything in our power to secure his release because Kenneth Bae deserves to be free. 
 
 Last week, I blogged for Opinion Northwest about Bae’s sister and mother attending the president’s State of the Union address. On Thursday, the family released a gracious statement responding to the president’s remarks. Here’s the full text of what they sent in an email: ||||| Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary who has been detained in North Korea for more than a year, appears before a limited number of media outlets in Pyongyang in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 20, 2014.... 
 
 U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) (front), a Korean War veteran, speaks during a ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean War, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, June 24, 2010. 
 
 The last surviving members of the U.S. Congress to have served in the Korean War have sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un asking him to release imprisoned American missionary Kenneth Bae. 
 
 North Korea in December released 85-year-old Korean War veteran Merrill E. Newman, a former U.S. special forces soldier who had been held since October after visiting the country as a tourist, and the members of Congress mentioned that case in seeking Bae's freedom. 
 
 "You have done the right thing by releasing a fellow Korean War veteran, Merrill E. Newman, to return home, you would be making further progress on the humanitarian front by freeing Kenneth Bae to reunite with his family," stated a copy of the letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday. 
 
 The congressmen, Democrat Charles Rangel from New York, Democrat John Conyers Jr. from Michigan, Republican Sam Johnson from Texas and Republican Howard Coble from North Carolina, are members of the House of Representatives. 
 
 Bae, 45, has been held for more than a year by North Korea, which convicted him of trying to overthrow the state and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor. Rangel and a congressman from Washington state, where Bae lived, invited his family to attend President Barack Obama's state of the union speech last month. 
 
 Bae's sister, Terri Chung, said in an interview she was grateful to the four congressmen for calling attention to her brother's situation. 
 
 "When there's more awareness of Kenneth's plight, I think that's always a good thing," she said. 
 
 Chung said her family has not spoken to Bae since a December 29 phone call, one of three that North Korea has allowed Bae to have with his family since his detention in November 2012. Bae's mother was permitted to visit him in Pyongyang in October. 
 
 FAMILY REUNIONS 
 
 A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last month that an offer had been made to send U.S. North Korean rights envoy Robert King to Pyongyang to secure Bae's release. King has not been sent to North Korea on that mission, and how North Korea responded to the offer is not clear. 
 
 Rangel had previously asked North Korea to free Bae in a letter sent last year that also pleaded for the release of Newman, who was still being detained at the time. 
 
 The letter from the four congressmen was dated Tuesday and came as North and South Korea agreed to allow some families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War to hold brief reunions, despite a campaign by Pyongyang demanding that Seoul cancel planned war games with the United States. 
 
 In their letter, the congressmen urged Kim Jong-un to extend the reunion effort to Korean-Americans. 
 
 "Nothing is more tragic than the separation of families and loved ones," the letter stated. "We encourage you to also create a pathway to allow some 100,000 Korean-Americans to meet with their divided families in the (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) before too many pass away." 
 
 At a meeting, officials from North and South Korea agreed that reunions between families from the two countries would take place on February 20 to February 25 in Mount Kumgang, just north of their border, South Korea's Unification Ministry said. 
 
 At previous reunions, about 100 families have been allowed to meet relatives on the other side for fleeting moments before being sent back to their respective homes. 
 
 (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Steve Orlofsky) ||||| SEATTLE (AP) — A U.S. citizen detained in North Korea for 15 months has been returned to a labor camp, prompting worries about his health, his sister said Friday. 
 
 Kenneth Bae, who led tour groups in North Korea, was arrested in late 2012 and sentenced to 15 years hard labor for unspecified hostile acts. Calls for his release on humanitarian grounds have gone unanswered. After he lost 50 pounds, he was moved last summer to a hospital from a prison work camp where he had been farming vegetables. 
 
 His sister, Terri Chung of Edmonds, Wash., said her family learned from the U.S. State Department on Friday that Bae was taken back to the labor camp on Jan. 20 — the same day Bae appeared before news reporters in Pyongyang, wearing a prison uniform stamped with the number 103. 
 
 "He's back to eight-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week hard labor," she said. "We can't help but be concerned about that." 
 
 The news coincided with the release of a story in a pro-Pyongyang newspaper based in Japan, Choson Sinbo, reporting that a U.S. envoy was expected to visit Bae. 
 
 State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not comment directly on the report, and she gave no indication that an invitation had been extended by North Korea. Psaki reiterated that the U.S. has made a longstanding offer to send its envoy on North Korean human-rights issues, Robert King. 
 
 In its report, Choson Sinbo said a reporter had interviewed Bae at the prison, and Bae said he had been notified that King could visit as soon as Monday and no later than the end of the month. 
 
 Such diplomatic outreach to North Korea is unpredictable, particularly as Washington and Pyongyang do not have formal ties. The North invited King to visit in late August to seek a pardon for Bae, but withdrew the invite at the last minute, to protest U.S. military exercises. More military drills between the U.S. and South Korea are planned this month. 
 
 Analysts say North Korea has previously used detained Americans as leverage in its standoff with the U.S. over its nuclear and missile programs, although Pyongyang said last May it would not use Bae as a bargaining chip. 
 
 Bae, a 45-year-old father of three, was born in South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. with his parents and sister in 1985. He had been living in China as a Christian missionary for about seven years before his arrest. Within the last few years, he began leading small tour groups, mostly of American and Canadian citizens, into a "special economic zone" designed to encourage commerce in northeastern North Korea. 
 
 The State Department and Vice President Joe Biden have requested his release, and on Thursday, President Barack Obama echoed those calls at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. 
 
 "We pray for Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary who has been held in North Korea for 15 months," Obama said. "His family wants him home, and the United States will continue to do everything in our power to secure his release because Kenneth Bae deserves to be free." 
 
 At his news conference Jan. 20, Bae urged the U.S. to work for his release: "I believe that my problem can be solved by close cooperation and agreement between the American government and the government of this country." He also apologized to North Korea and said he had committed anti-government acts. 
 
 Bae's news conference came weeks after North Korea freed an elderly American veteran of the Korean War, Merrill Newman, who had been held for weeks for alleged crimes during the 1950-53 conflict. 
 
 Bae's family has said he suffers from diabetes, an enlarged heart, liver problems and back pain. When his mother was allowed to visit him last October, he could only stand for 30 to 45 minutes at a time, his sister said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP writer Matthew Pennington contributed from Washington, D.C.
– US missionary Kenneth Bae has been sent back to the grind of a labor camp in North Korea. The State Department informed his family that the 45-year-old was discharged from the hospital—where he had gone after dropping 50 pounds—and ordered back to a prison work camp, reports AP. "He's back to eight-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week hard labor," says his sister in Washington state. "We can't help but be concerned about that." Bae, who ran tour groups to the country, got sentenced in 2012 to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the government. His case got two high-profile boosts yesterday: President Obama mentioned him at the National Prayer Breakfast, notes the Seattle Times, and the four remaining members of Congress who served in the Korean War sent a letter to Pyongyang asking for his release, reports Reuters. (The four are Charles Rangel, D-NY; John Conyers Jr., D-Mich.; Sam Johnson, R-Texas; and Howard Coble, R-NC.)