Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea has given foreign media access to three detained Americans who said they have been able to contact their families and — watched by officials as they spoke — called for Washington to send a representative to negotiate for their freedom. 
  
 The three all described their situations as urgent. 
  
 American tourists Jeffrey Fowle and Mathew Miller, expected to face trial within a month for alleged anti-state crimes, said they do not know what punishment they could face or what the specific charges against them are. Kenneth Bae, a tour guide and missionary serving a 15-year sentence, said his health has deteriorated at the labor camp where he works eight hours a day. 
  
 They spoke with The Associated Press at a conference center in Pyongyang. ||||| Story highlights Kenneth Bae's sister asks North Korean authorities to have mercy 
  
 U.S. says Swedish reps have visited the three detained Americans since June 
  
 All three men said they have signed statements admitting guilt 
  
 North Korea monitors the interviews of Bae, Matthew Miller and Jeffrey Fowle 
  
 Three Americans detained in North Korea spoke out about their conditions and pleaded for U.S. help in interviews with CNN. 
  
 Kenneth Bae, Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle were presented to CNN's Will Ripley at a Pyongyang hotel Monday. Each was given five minutes for an interview. 
  
 All three men said they hope the U.S. government will send an envoy to North Korea to help get them out of their situations, similar to how former President Bill Clinton helped secure the release of two journalists in 2009. 
  
 Bae, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for "hostile acts to bring down its government," said he is working eight hours a day, six days a week at a labor camp. 
  
 North Korea claimed Bae was part of a Christian plot to overthrow the regime. 
  
 JUST WATCHED What could be up Kim Jong Un's sleeve? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What could be up Kim Jong Un's sleeve? 02:26 
  
 "Right now what I can say to my friends and family is, continue to pray for me," he said. 
  
 JUST WATCHED CNN talks with Americans held in North Korea Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN talks with Americans held in North Korea 03:19 
  
 JUST WATCHED American wrestlers travel to North Korea Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH American wrestlers travel to North Korea 02:26 
  
 JUST WATCHED CNN tours Kim Jong Un's water park Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN tours Kim Jong Un's water park 02:17 
  
 Despite what he called "hard labor," Bae said he has been treated "as humanely as possible." 
  
 Miller, who is accused of tearing up his tourist visa and seeking asylum upon entry, implored the U.S. government for help during his interview. 
  
 He said he wanted to tell the United States that "my situation is very urgent, that very soon I am going to trial, and I would directly be sent to prison." 
  
 He said he will not learn of his charges until he goes to trial. 
  
 Fowle, an American tourist accused of leaving a Bible in a hotel where he was staying, said he has "no complaints" about his treatment. 
  
 "It's been very good so far, and I hope and pray that it continues, while I'm here two more days or two more decades," he said. 
  
 All three men said they have signed statements admitting their guilt. North Korean officials monitored and recorded all three interviews, and CNN was unable to assess independently the conditions under which the men were being held. 
  
 U.S. National Security Council spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Monday that securing the Americans' release "is a top priority and we have followed these cases closely in the White House. We continue to do all we can to secure their earliest possible release." 
  
 State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "There is no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad. 
  
 "Out of humanitarian concern for Jeffrey Fowle, Matthew Miller, and their families, we request the DPRK release them so they may return home," Psaki said, using the initials for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "We also request the DPRK pardon Kenneth Bae and grant him special amnesty and immediate release so he may reunite with his family and seek medical care. We continue to work actively to secure these three U.S. citizens' release." 
  
 The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang acts as the "protecting power for issues involving U.S. citizens in North Korea," and the United States is in "regular, close coordination" with the embassy, she said. Swedish representatives visited Fowle on June 20, Miller on May 9 and June 21, and Bae 12 times since his detention, most recently on August 11 in a labor camp, Psaki said. 
  
 Surprise meetings 
  
 The circumstances leading up to the CNN interviews were bizarre. 
  
 A CNN team was on a government tour about two hours outside Pyongyang when it learned it had to leave immediately to meet with a high-level government official in the capital. 
  
 The crew boarded a van to a secret location, where it found out the meeting was with the three Americans. 
  
 Bae's family has been pushing for his release due to his worsening health. The 46-year-old suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure and has kidney stones. 
  
 "I've been going back and forth between hospital and to the labor camp for the last year and a half," Bae told Ripley on Monday. 
  
 He said his health has "been failing" over the past 1½ months. 
  
 "My hands are numb and tingling, and it's difficult sleeping at night, and I was working in the field every day," Bae said. 
  
 U.S. officials have repeatedly called on North Korea to release Bae but to no avail. 
  
 Terri Chung, Bae's sister, told CNN on Monday the video was "really difficult to watch" because her brother is generally "full of life and very cheerful. ... It is clear from the video that he is under a lot of stress. And he talks about his health failing and being in complete isolation for almost two years. And it is devastating for our family to see that on TV." 
  
 But she told "New Day" that "I think he's doing the best he can. ... Two years of being isolated and working in a labor camp, I know it is not easy. So I think you can see it is taking a toll both physically and mentally." 
  
 The U.S. government has been working "behind the scenes to try to procure his release, and we are once again reiterating our thanks, but also too pleading with our government to continue their efforts to secure his release immediately," she added, describing her brother as a "hardworking father of three." 
  
 Chung later released a statement asking the North Korean authorities to have mercy. 
  
 "It is in your power to release my brother. You could do it today. Please do so. He has confessed to the crimes for which he has been charged, and he has served a longer detainment than any other American since the war," Chung said. 
  
 Miller: 'I deliberately committed my crime' 
  
 Dressed in a black turtleneck and often staring at the ground in his interview, Miller said he has admitted his guilt -- even though he won't learn of his charges until he goes to trial. 
  
 "But I will say that I prepared to violate the law of the DPRK before coming here," Miller said. 
  
 "And I deliberately committed my crime. I have already admitted my guilt and apologized to the government of the DPRK and I have been asking for forgiveness." 
  
 When asked why he reportedly sought asylum in North Korea, Miller said he already discussed his motive during his investigation and that "for the interview, it is not necessary." 
  
 He expressed frustration that "there's been no movement from my government." 
  
 "The American government is known for having a strong policy of protecting its citizens, yet for my case there is still no movement," he said. 
  
 Fowle describes 'desperate situation' 
  
 North Korea announced Fowle's detention in June, saying he had violated the law by acting "contrary to the purpose of tourism." 
  
 "The charges are violations of DPRK law, which stems from me trying to leave a Bible," the 56-year-old told Ripley. 
  
 "It's a covert act and a violation of tourists rules. I've admitted my guilt to the government and signed a statement to that effect and requested forgiveness from the people and the government of the DPRK." 
  
 Fowle said he expects his trial to start within a month. 
  
 "You guys should convey my desperate situation," he said. 
  
 "I've got a wife and three elementary school-aged kids that depend on me for support." ||||| SEOUL Aug 2American tourist Jeffrey Fowle was arrested by North Korean authorities for leaving a bible under a bin in the toilet at a club for foreign sailors, a source familiar with Fowle's case told Reuters. 
  
 During his ten day trip to North Korea, Fowle's fellow travellers described the middle-aged street repairs worker from Miamisburg, Ohio as a warm, amiable, quiet man. 
  
 On May 4, towards the end of an evening spent eating and drinking in Chongjin, a large industrial city on North Korea's east coast, Fowle's action led to him being thrown in jail, where he is awaiting trial in one of the world's most inhospitable countries. 
  
 He left a bilingual English-Korean bible in the restaurant he and his fellow travellers were about to leave, the source, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivities surrounding the case, told Reuters. 
  
 In it, Fowle had written his name and phone number, and inserted photos of himself and his family between its pages. 
  
 He was arrested three days later at the airport where he was due to board a flight out of North Korea. 
  
 Fowle and fellow detained U.S. tourist Matthew Miller - who was arrested in April for a separate incident - said they will face trial soon and have called on the U.S. government to help secure their release in an interview to the Associated Press, released on Friday. 
  
 A hand-written letter from Fowle shown in the interview confirmed he was arrested for intentionally leaving a bible in the northern city of Chongjin. 
  
 It is unclear why Fowle left the bible, the source familiar with Fowle's case said. Media reports in Ohio said the 56-year-old is a church goer and was once a member of his school's bible club - but there is little evidence to suggest he was a missionary. 
  
 The source familiar with Fowle's arrest also said he did not seem overtly religious. 
  
 Yet, at the Chongjin Seamen's Club - a faded compound originally designed as a hostel for visiting mariners that sells foreign whiskeys and serves local food - Fowle wrapped a bilingual English-Korean bible bound in fake leather in a Chinese newspaper and hid it the restroom, under a bin designed to discard the used toilet paper North Korea's ageing plumbing can't handle. 
  
 A cleaner found the package, and alerted local authorities. 
  
 When his guides asked if anyone had left anything at the club - a small cluster with shops, a sauna and noodle restaurants also open to locals with the cash to spend on cheap drinks - he said it was him, and that he "must've dropped it." 
  
 Fowle said at the time the bible had "fallen out of his pocket" when using the squat toilet, but the bible was too big to be pocket-sized, the source said. 
  
 While North Korea technically espouses freedom of religion it is ranked as one of the world's most oppressive regimes in terms of such freedom. Pyongyang has dismissed recent reports on its oppression of religion as an attempt by the United States to "tarnish the image" of the isolated country. 
  
 Two months before Fowle visited North Korea, Australian missionary John Short had been arrested for leaving bible tracts at areas open to tourists in the isolated country. Short, 75, was released on account of his advanced age after state media released a written apology. 
  
 Fowle appeared in an Associated Press video on Friday alongside Miller, who was arrested for ripping up his tourist visa and attempting to claim political asylum, according to state media. 
  
 North Korea has three U.S. citizens in custody, including Kenneth Bae, a missionary of Korean descent who was arrested in November 2012 and convicted and sentenced to 15 years hard labour last year. 
  
 FOWLE'S ARREST 
  
 Chongjin is one of the most sensitive cities open to tourists visiting North Korea. The scene for much of journalist Barbara Demmick's 'Nothing to Envy' book, based on a collection of interviews, it is the very epitome of the grim, grey Orwellian North Korea recalled by defectors. 
  
 "They don't mess about in Chongjin," one tourism source with experience of working in the city said. 
  
 If Fowle had hidden a bible anywhere else in North Korea, he probably wouldn't have been arrested, sources in the North Korean tourist industry said. Sources working in North Korea are often forced to remain anonymous when talking to the press for fear of state reprisal or loss of business. 
  
 If the staff at the Seamen's Club who found the bible had told Fowle's guides, and not the authorities, they might have avoided the arrest too, the source familiar with his arrest said. 
  
 Fowle hid the bible on May 4. He later admitted to the group that he had left it there deliberately, for "someone to read." 
  
 The rest of Fowle's group didn't talk to him when they heard what he had done. They felt he had put them in danger. 
  
 After the incident, Fowle had two days of normal sightseeing in Pyongyang, where he took photos of large bronze statues of North Korea's former leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. 
  
 He was arrested on May 7, once he cleared customs at Pyongyang's Sunan airport. (Reporting By James Pearson; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Simon Cameron-Moore) |||||
A:
The foreign media was caught off guard today after North Korea allowed reporters to speak to three Americans detained there, reports the AP. Kenneth Bae, Matthew Todd Miller, and Jeffrey Edward Fowle were each given five minutes for a TV interview with CNN, which aired their statements about their conditions and health. What emerged during the interviews (which the AP notes were monitored by Korean officials): All three told reporters they had been permitted to contact their loved ones and urged the US to send a rep to help secure their freedom, notes the AP. Bae, who reportedly has medical issues related to diabetes and an enlarged heart, says his health is deteriorating and that he's toiling in a labor camp to serve out his 15-year sentence, doing "hard labor" for eight hours a day, six days a week. Still, the 46-year-old missionary accused by North Korea of scheming to overthrow the government—an offense that could have been punishable by death—says he has been treated "as humanely as possible." Miller, 24—detained for "improper behavior" after he allegedly ripped up his tourist visa and demanded asylum—tells CNN that his "situation is very urgent" because he's heard he's going to trial soon and will go straight to jail. He notes he won't know what his charges are until trial day. Fowle was detained for supposedly leaving a Bible in a North Korean restroom, notes Reuters, but he tells CNN he's got "no complaints" about how he's been treated, adding, "It's been very good so far, and I hope and pray that it continues, while I'm here two more days or two more decades." Read more about Kenneth Bae and other detained Americans in North Korea.