North Korean authorities presented an American man to media on Sunday morning who said he had crossed into the country illegally but had not been put into custody, the Associated Press reports. He is seeking asylum in Venezuela.

Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, was raised in El Paso, Texas. Martinez's mother, Patricia Eugenia Martinez, told CNN that Martinez has bi-polar disorder and had attempted to reach North Korea once before. He was stopped while attempting to swim across a river from South Korea and returned to California, where he was placed in a psychiatric hospital.

"Then he got out," she told CNN. "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 delivered a 4,000-word statement wearing a suit and tie at a press conference he said he had requested, hosted at the People's Palace of Culture. The statement was later published by the North Korean government's official Korean Central News Agency, according to the New York Times. Martinez thanked the North Korean government for not detaining him for the illegal act of entering North Korea, and criticized the United States for its human-rights violations.

On Tuesday, the United Nations voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution to recommend that North Korean leaders be prosecuted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

Martinez condemned police brutality in the United States, the war in Iraq, and economic stratification, CNN reports."He also warned of 'extremely dangerous and subversive technologies' related to U.F.O.s," the New York Times reported.

[Image via AP Images]