Former president Jimmy Carter plans to visit North Korea soon on a mission to secure the release of a 30-year-old American man jailed there in April, Foreign Policy magazine said on Monday.
"Jimmy Carter is set to travel to North Korea very soon, according to two sources familiar with the former president's plans, in what they characterized as a private mission to free a US citizen imprisoned there," the magazine said.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is planning to leave "within days," it said.
The United States has repeatedly voiced concern about the health of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American serving eight years' hard labor in North Korea for illegally crossing the country's border with China.