North Korea releases American as U.S. envoy visits

BEIJING (Reuters) - An American citizen detained in North Korea on unspecified charges for six months has been released, U.S. rights envoy Robert King said on Saturday following a visit to the secretive state's capital to assess its pleas for food aid.

North Korea's official KCNA news agency only said King had left after a visit "to consult on humanitarian issues" and made no mention of the detainee, Jun Young Su.

"We are very happy to report that Mr. Jun, the American citizen being held in Pyongyang, has been released. We are also delighted that in a day or two he will be back with his wife and family," King said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Jun had arrived in Seoul. "I have to go to the hospital now. Let's talk next time," it quoted him as saying.

Jun was arrested last November and admitted committing a crime "against the state" during an investigation, North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported. North Korea said on Friday he would be released on "humanitarian grounds.

Media reports say Jun was a businessman from California and that he had been doing missionary work in the isolated North.

King, who led a team of five people to evaluate the North's pleas for food, said he had reached no agreement on food aid.

King's five-day trip was the first official U.S. visit to North Korea since 2009, and comes amid signs the U.S. is looking to revive multilateral talks on the country's nuclear program after a hiatus of more than two years.

"While there our team had three-and-a-half days and very serious and thoughtful talks with the Foreign Ministry. We were warmly welcomed. We were received at the highest level," he told reporters, without saying which officials he had met.

"We discussed a number of issues and we will report back to Washington on our meetings. We did not negotiate or agree to any provisional food assistance. That is a decision that will have to be made in Washington."

King added that a field team will remain in Pyongyang until the end of next week.

His visit came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-il wrapped up a secretive visit to China, his third to Asia's biggest economy in just over a year.

The U.S. has come under mounting pressure to resume food aid to North Korea after a U.N. report said earlier this year that more than six million people urgently need help in the diplomatically isolated country.

The North, squeezed by tightened international sanctions for nuclear and missile tests in 2009, has asked about 40 countries for food aid.

The U.S. suspended food supplies to the North in 2008 over a monitoring dispute and has said it will only resume them with the South's agreement.

(Additional reporting by Cho Mee-young in Seoul and Junko Fujita in Tokyo; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)