The United States says it has held regular contact with a U.S. citizen being detained by North Korea for entering the country illegally.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Monday that Washington has had regular contact with Aijalon Gomes through the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which is the protecting power for the U.S. in North Korea for consular matters.

Crowley said Washington has concerns about Gomes’ health and welfare, adding that the U.S. has called on Pyongyang to release him on humanitarian grounds.

However, Crowley added that Washington has no plans to send a special envoy to the communist state to negotiate the release of the American.

Gomes was detained by North Korea in January on charges of illegally entering the communist state and was sentenced on April sixth to eight years of hard labor and fined 700-thousand dollars.

In a recent report, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said Gomes attempted suicide.