US ready to send envoy to North Korea to secure citizen's release

The US is repeating its willingness to send an envoy to seek the freedom of an American detainee in North Korea after a pro-Pyongyang newspaper reported that such a visit was being planned.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not comment directly on the report in a Japan-based newspaper, which said that it briefly interviewed the detainee yesterday at a prison in the North Korean capital.