Former U.S. captive in North Korea to release memoir

NEW YORK, March 23 (UPI) -- Kenneth Bae, the American who spent two years in North Korea captivity, is due to release a memoir of his experiences in the isolated country.

Bae, who was detained in November 2012, chronicles his time as a prisoner of Pyongyang in a new book, Not Forgotten: The True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea, CNN reported.

The book is to be published by W Publishing, an imprint of HarperCollins.

The title is to be released on May 3, Voice of America reported.

According to Bae, he received more than 450 letters from around the world during his time of captivity in North Korea. The letter writers told him that he was "not forgotten," Bae said.

In a video statement related to his publication, Bae explained the cause of his arrest was accidental.

"I was arrested by North Korean authority because I made a terrible mistake by carrying a portable hard drive containing hostile, anti-North Korean material by accident," Bae said.

The former captive and missionary said that he is glad to be home, but also sad to have left the North Korean people behind.

North Korea sentenced Bae to 15 years of hard labor after his arrest on charges of "hostile criminal acts" against the state. Secret negotiations between the United States and Pyongyang eventually led to Bae's release, as well as to the repatriation of Matthew Todd Miller, another U.S. captive accused of "espionage."

Bae, who was freed in November 2014 and lost 60 pounds in captivity, plans to make a statement of his thoughts on the case of Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student who was recently sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, a publishing contact told VOA.

North Korean authorities detained the 21-year-old college student Jan. 2 as he was preparing to leave the country at the end of a tour. At the main airport in Pyongyang, officials took him to a room for questioning, and Warmbier's group was later told he had been taken to a hospital.