North Korea says it will release a Korean-American detained in the communist country since November of last year.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday that North Korea has decided to release Jun Young-su on humanitarian grounds after Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Ambassador Robert King expressed regret over the case and promised best efforts to prevent a recurrence on behalf of the U.S. government.

The North said that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and head of a relief agency Franklin Graham also pleaded leniency on behalf of Jun.

The detainee has been held in North Korea for six months, and the North’s KCNA reported on his arrest on April 14th.

Jun, a U.S. citizen based in California, is a businessman in his sixties traveling between the U.S and North Korea and engaging in missionary activity.