Bae was born in South Korea in 1968. He moved to the United States at age 16 with his family in 1985, first settling in See more

Bae met his wife, Lydia, two weeks after starting at the University of Oregon, and got married a year later. They have two children. Bae later moved to Dalian, China in 2006, and then to Dandong, China, near neighborin… See more

In December 2012, human rights activists in Seoul reported that an American had been held in North Korea for a month. On December 21, 2012, North Korea announced that it had charged an American identified a… See more

On May 14, 2013, he was moved to a special prison. Bae would do eight hours of farm labor a day.
Bae sent hand-written letters to his family claiming that he was going blind and that help was n… See more

On the day he was sentenced, the United States called for the immediate release of Kenneth Bae on humanitarian grounds. During the 2013 Korean crisis, North Korea stated that the reason the country did not invite US of… See more

Bae was released by North Korean authorities on Saturday, November 8, 2014 along with fellow American Matthew Todd Miller. In 2016, Bae published a book about his ordeal: Not Forgotten: The True Story of My Impriso… See more