(Refiles to fix story links)
* North Korea holding two U.S. citizens
* Former detainee Kenneth Bae's memoir released in May
* Since then Bae has given interviews, made public
appearances
* Link to interview: James Pearson (LON:PSON)
SEOUL, June 20 (Reuters) - North Korea will not negotiate
with the United States over two American citizens it is holding
until former detainee Kenneth Bae stops publicly talking about
his time in prison, state media said on Monday.
Criticised over its human rights record for years, North
Korea has made use of detained Americans in the past to extract
high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no
formal diplomatic relations.
North Korea arrested Bae, a U.S. missionary, in November
2012 and sentenced him to 15 years' hard labour for crimes
against the state.
He was released two years later and has written an account
of his detention in a memoir released in May. Since then, Bae
has spoken about his experiences at several public appearances
and given interviews to promote the book.
During his detention, Bae said, he realised he had become a
"negotiating tool" for the North Koreans, some of whom he
described as "brainwashed" in a recent interview in South Korea
with a defector-run group that broadcasts into the North.
For translated version of Bae's interview with Unification
Media Group, please click
"As long as Kenneth Bae continues his babbling, we will not
proceed with any compromise or negotiations with the United
States on the subject of American criminals, and there will
certainly not be any such thing as humanitarian action," the
North's KCNA news agency said.
"If Bae continues, U.S. criminals held in our country will
be in the pitiful state of never being able to set foot in their
homeland once again".
Pyongyang is holding two U.S. citizens, both of whom it has
tried and sentenced to hard labour.
In March, Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old student of the
University of Virginia, was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour
for trying to steal a propaganda banner bearing the name of
former leader Kim Jong Il.
In April, a North Korean court convicted Korean-American
missionary Kim Dong Chul of crimes against the state and
sentenced him to 10 years' hard labour.
Last year, Canadian missionary Hyeon Soo Lim was sentenced
to hard labour for life for subversion of the state.
The United States and Canada both strongly advise citizens
not to travel to North Korea. This May, the U.S. State
Department said Americans who travelled there despite the
warnings risked "unduly harsh sentences".
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Link to translated version of interview
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