A 29-year-old man named Arturo Pierre Martinez, who claims he illegally crossed into North Korea and is not being held in custody, addressed the media at a North Korean press conference on Sunday and announced he is seeking asylum in Venezuela.

As he criticized the United States of America for its alleged human rights violations, Arturo Pierre Martinez of El Paso, Texas, explained how he entered North Korea by crossing the river border with China.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency reported on Sunday, according to RT, Martinez said he had taken "a risky journey" so that could pass along some "very valuable and disturbing information."

Martinez added he is staying at a nice hotel and thanked the authorities for their hospitality.

Aside from his U.S. criticisms, he wanted to share his information about the “ultrasound devices” that make people hear voices, and his assertion that the CIA sells cocaine.

Martinez has a history of mental illness.

Patricia Eugenia Martinez, Martinez's mother, said her son was bipolar and earlier attempted to enter North Korea by swimming across a river, at which point he was stopped and shipped back to the United States. He was also placed in a California psychiatric hospital.

As reported in CNN, his mother described how he got out of the hospital and ended up at the North Korean press conference.

"He is very smart and he got the court to let him out and instead of coming home to us he bought a ticket and left for China. He took out a payday loan online and left for China."

Martinez made his anti-U.S. comments at the People's Palace of Culture, a venue which North Korean authorities have used in recent years for press conferences wherein they showcase North Korean defectors who have returned to North Korea and, in one occasion, a South Korean citizen who was held in North Korea.

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