SEOUL, April 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Thursday that it plans to indict a U.S. detainee for an unspecific crime, in its latest detention of an American, which comes ahead of a trip to Pyongyang by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

   Jun Young-su was arrested in November last year and has since been investigated by officials for committing a crime against the North, said North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), without saying when he entered the North.

   "He admitted his crime in the course of the investigation," the KCNA said, without elaborating. "The relevant organ is making arrangements to indict him according to the confirmation of the charges brought against him."

   The KCNA did not give any further details on the charges and time frame of the indictment.

   The confirmation came days after U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner urged North Korea to release the American detainee on humanitarian grounds, and as Carter prepares to visit Pyongyang for talks with North Korean officials.

   It was not immediately clear whether Carter can bring Jun home as he did last year when he secured the freedom of Aijalon Gomes, a Christian who was sentenced to eight years in a labor and re-education camp for sneaking into North Korea.

   Toner said Tuesday he was not sure whether the State Department will ask Carter to bring the citizen back home.

   "He's good at this," Toner said, but added, "I don't have any information whether we would."

   The North has informed the United States of the latest situation and provided consular access to the detainee through the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, said the KCNA. The embassy serves as a protecting power for the U.S. as Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations.

   In Washington, informed sources said Wednesday that the Korean-American detainee has been accused of getting involved in unauthorized religious activities in the reclusive communist state.

   The businessman in his 60s, who attends a church in Orange County, California, has traveled frequently to North Korea on a business visa, the sources said.

   Members of some South Korean and Korean-American churches have been caught in China in recent years for their role in helping North Korean refugees defect to South Korea or engaging in religious activities in North Korea.

   Jun's family and members of his church were not immediately reached for comment.

   North Korea claims it guarantees religious freedom, but in practice it severely cracks down on any religious activity, viewing it as a challenge to leader Kim Jong-il's rule.

   Kim is the subject of a massive cult of personality along with his late father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung.

   "North Korea's criminal code does not have a clause calling for prosecution over religious affairs, but the North can mete out harsh punishment to religious people under the pretext of treason," said Choi Eun-suk, a North Korea legal expert at Kyungnam University.

   In 2009, former U.S. President Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists caught while on a reporting tour covering North Korean defectors.

   Last year, North Korea also released Robert Park, a Korean-American Christian activist who crossed into the North to draw international attention to the North's poor human rights record, after months of detention.

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