Family of American seized in N. Korea pleads for help

The USA does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea, so Sweden is representing it in Pyongyang. Merrill Newman's family wants him home for Thanksgiving.

Secretary of State John Kerry says North Korea's detention of an elderly American Korean War vet is one of many 'dangerous steps' the hermit nation is taking, and that Pyongyang's ally China is trying to help gain the man's release.

Merrill Newman, 85, a grandfather from Palo Alto, Calif., was removed from his flight home last month after visiting North Korea on a tourist visa and has not been heard from since, his son Jeffrey told reporters.

The detention is one of multiple 'disturbing choices by the North Koreans,' Kerry told MSNBC. The North Korean government 'needs to recognize the dangerous steps it has been taking on many fronts,' including the 'treatment of its citizens, the startup of its nuclear reactor, [and] its rededication to a nuclear policy,' he said.

The country 'needs to figure out where it's heading' and to realize that the USA is not threatening or acting in a bellicose manner against it, he said.

China, which supports North Korea with food, fuel and other economic assistance, has been 'helpful,' and most likely to achieve Newman's release, Kerry told the news site.

Noel Clay, a spokesman for the State Department, said he could say little about the case because of privacy concerns. The USA and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.

The Embassy of Sweden in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang represents the interests of U.S. citizens in that country and is working 'to resolve the issue,' according to a State Department press release.

The State Department is warning against travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea.

Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico and 2008 presidential candidate, has also been talking to his North Korean contacts about Newman, said his spokeswoman, Caitlin Kelleher.

Before Newman's detention, he had talked to North Korean officials about his experiences during the 1950-1953 Korean War, said his son, Jeffrey Newman, who described the conversation as 'difficult.'

The war, fought between U.S.-led United Nations forces and North Korea and China, resulted in an armistice and left the northern and southern halves of the Korean peninsula still technically at war today.

A woman walks on a street in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, Jan. 15, 2013. Behind her is the pyramid-shaped 105-story Ryugyong Hotel, which North Korea began building in 1987 and has yet to complete. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)(Photo: David Guttenfelder AP)

Newman was traveling in North Korea with Bob Hamrdla, a retired history professor at Stanford University, who said in a statement that the cause of the incident 'has to be a terrible misunderstanding.'

A uniformed North Korean officer boarded the plane Oct. 26 and asked Merrill Newman for his passport before telling a stewardess that Newman had to leave the plane, Jeffrey Newman said.

'My dad got off, walked out with the stewardess, and that's the last he was seen,' Jeffrey Newman said at his home in Pasadena, California. 'All we want as a family is to have my father, my kids' grandfather, returned to California so he can be with his family for Thanksgiving.'

Contributing: news3blog.blogspot.com