North Korea has rescinded an invitation for a senior U.S. official to visit Pyongyang to seek the release of imprisoned U.S. missionary Kenneth Bae, a State Department official said on Sunday, adding civil rights activist Jesse Jackson had offered to go to Pyongyang to try to free Bae.

The official said the United States remained prepared to send King to North Korea to seek Bae's release.

Bae, a 45-year-old Korean-American, has been held for more than a year in North Korea after being sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on charges of trying to overthrow the state.

Bae told the Choson Sinbo newspaper the United States had offered to send Jackson, but North Korea had instead approved the visit by King.

Bae's sister, Terri Chung, told Reuters on Friday that Bae had been held in a labor camp from May 14 last year until Aug. 5, when he was moved to hospital. She said the family did not know where the camp was, but that it was far from Pyongyang and Bae was working eight hours a day, six days a week.

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