North Korea says it has decided to free a detained American missionary who crossed its border to raise human rights issues.
Robert Park slipped across the frozen Tumen River into North Korea from China on Christmas Day carrying letters calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to shut the country's camps for political prisoners and step down from power.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that the North "decided to leniently forgive and release him, taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrong doings into consideration."