A North Korean news agency ran a brief statement Thursday saying its Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un released the American prisoner, Jeffrey Edward Fowle, following repeated requests from the White House. 

Fowle, who spent the last six months detained in North Korea, was allegedly released after Kim took "into consideration the repeated requests of U.S. President Obama," reported the official KCNA news agency.

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Fowle is one of the three U.S. citizens detained in the hermetic country for activities the government deems hostile. The 56-year-old municipal worker was arrested in the North Korean city of Chongjin last May for leaving a Bible in the comfort room of a sailor's club.

In the mercurial country where Kim's family is treated as demigods, acts of religious proselytization are considered crimes.

Although it was not confirmed whether Fowle was indeed intending to convert people into the Christian faith, experts on North Korea suggested he may have been suspected of the crime, The New York Times reported.

The White House announced his release Tuesday, saying the U.S. welcomes the act, but pressed the secretive North to release the other two American citizens, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller.

A Korean-American Christian missionary, Bae entered North Korea in November 2012 where he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Miller, 24, was sentenced last month to six years of hard labor, which involves isolation and farm work, according to Reuters. He was arrested in April for "hostile acts" shortly after arriving for vacation.

Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to offer further details or to speculate on North Korea's intention for the unexpected release of Fowle.

The United States, which has no formal diplomatic ties with the country, periodically relies on the government of Sweden to represent its interest to the North Korean government. Earnest told reporters that Sweden had played a key part in negotiating Fowle's release.  

TagsJeffrey Edward Fowle, North Korean prisoners, North Korea, Embassy of Sweden in North Korea, Kenneth Bae, Matthew Todd Miller