The U.S. recently sent a government official and a doctor to check on the health of an American citizen North Korea detained in January on charges of illegally entering the communist state.

A diplomatic source in Washington said that a working-level State Department official, accompanied by a doctor and an interpreter, visited Pyongyang last week to meet with Aijalon Gomes.

After returning to the U.S., they said that Gomes seemed to have no serious health problems.

Gomes was sentenced on April sixth to eight years of hard labor and fined 700-thousand dollars by the communist state. He has reportedly attempted suicide and staged a hunger strike.