text: Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, speaks at a press conference at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang, North Korea Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014. North Korea on Sunday presented to the media the American who... (Associated Press) 
   
   PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea on Sunday presented to the media an American man who says he illegally crossed into the country but has not been put into custody and is seeking asylum in Venezuela. 
   
   Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, of El Paso, Texas, said he entered North Korea by crossing the river border with China. Details of how and when he got into the country were not immediately clear. 
   
   In his comments to reporters, Martinez strongly criticized the U.S. for alleged human rights violations. 
   
   Martinez's mother, Patricia Eugenia Martinez of El Paso, told CNN that her son was bipolar and earlier had tried to enter North Korea by swimming across a river, but was stopped and shipped back to the United States, where he was placed in a California psychiatric hospital. 
   
   "Then he got out," she told the network. "He is very smart and he got the court to let him out, and instead of coming home to us he bought a ticket and left for China. He took out a payday loan online and left for China." 
   
   She said the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was looking for him. 
   
   Martinez made his comments at the People's Palace of Culture, which North Korean authorities have used in recent years for press conferences where they present North Korean defectors who have returned to North Korea, or on at least one occasion, a South Korean citizen who was detained in North Korea. It is also used for signing ceremonies between North Korea and other countries. 
   
   His comments came amid North Korea's own loud protests of a resolution in the United Nations that could open the door for its leaders to face charges of crimes against humanity for human rights violations, raising questions of whether Martinez was trotted out to the media for propaganda purposes. 
   
   North Korea recently released three Americans — two who had entered the country on tourist visas and Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary who had been convicted of "anti-state" crimes. ||||| Story highlights The man is identified as Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, of El Paso, Texas 
   
   His mother says her son is bipolar and has been in a psychiatric hospital 
   
   In a statement, he says he crossed illegally into North Korea 
   
   He denounces the American political and economic system in the statement 
   
   An American who said he crossed illegally into North Korea denounced the United States political and economic system Sunday morning at a press conference in that country. 
   
   The man said he was Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, a U.S. citizen raised in El Paso, Texas. 
   
   Martinez's mother, Patricia Eugenia Martinez of El Paso, said their son was bipolar and earlier tried to enter North Korea by swimming across a river, only to be stopped and shipped back to the United States, where he was placed in a California psychiatric hospital. 
   
   "Then he got out," she said. "He is very smart and he got the court to let him out and instead of coming home to us he bought a ticket and left for China. He took out a payday loan online and left for China." 
   
   Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, delivers his statement at a press conference he said he requested. 
   
   She said the U.S. Embassy in Beijing is looking for him. 
   
   "My son is very intelligent," she said. "He said he wanted to protect Latinos and he worried about the world and about people. At 15 he obtained his computer certificate. He loves to read and write and work on the computer. He loved to help poor people. He is our only child." 
   
   Later she released a statement that said: "I'm glad and relieved that my son is safe. I am appreciative to the North Korean authorities for pardoning my son and releasing him. I look forward to spending Christmas with him after they release him." 
   
   When asked how she knew her son was being released, she said it was from reading the press conference statement. 
   
   But the legal status of Martinez in North Korea is unclear and it's unknown if he's free to leave the country. 
   
   In his 4,000-word statement, Martinez admitted committing a crime by illegally entering the country but said he was "extremely grateful for having been pardoned from the punishments given to violators of these laws, and for the most generous reception I have received." 
   
   He delivered his statement at a press conference he said he requested. Images released by North Korea showed him wearing a suit and sitting in a room facing a large group of people. 
   
   North Korea said in a separate statement that Martinez entered the country in November, two days after American diplomat James Clapper arrived. Clapper negotiated the release of Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller, the last two American citizens known to be held by North Korea. They arrived back in the United States on November 8. 
   
   Martinez said he first tried to cross over from South Korea's Han River and tried again from China's Yalu River in Dandong. 
   
   He went on to criticize American politicians and police as well as the electoral and prison systems. 
   
   "The illegal war carried out against the nation of Iraq serves as a perfect example of how the U.S. government acts much like a Mafia enterprise, but criminally plundering entire nations of their resources, strategic reserves and economies instead of smaller scale business and individuals, and does so without a code of ethics," he said. 
   
   He said the electoral system in the United States "is unfairly built for the benefit of the wealthy through the necessity of costly fundraising for political candidates seeking office. The democracy of this nation is an illusion and its representatives act as nothing more than power brokers for those who can offer them." 
   
   Of the wealthy people in the United States, he said, "These billionaires in power are nothing short of sociopathic megalomaniacs on the path to absolute world domination." 
   
   He also talked about unidentified flying objects, CIA involvement in the cocaine trade, "ultrasonic" devices that cause people to hear voices and experience bodily discomfort and how the Western news media unfairly portrayed North Korea.
target: – North Korea has within its borders one Arturo Pierre Martinez, and both are currently making some noise, with the latter slamming the United States' human rights record at a press conference this morning. The 29-year-old is an American from El Paso, and he says he's in the country illegally, having crossed over via its border with China, reports the AP. Martinez says he's not being detained and that he's seeking asylum in Venezuela. Complicating matters is his apparent mental health status: His mother tells CNN that he is bipolar and that an earlier attempt to cross over into North Korea ended in Martinez being returned to the US and placed in a California psych ward. "Then he got out," she says. "He is very smart and he got the court to let him out and instead of coming home to us he bought a ticket and left for China. He took out a payday loan online and left for China." In a lengthy and rambling statement, Martinez says he's "extremely grateful for having been pardoned ... and for the most generous reception I have received." He goes on to address a laundry list of injustices, ranging from the American electoral system to its prison system and its billionaire "sociopathic megalomaniacs on the path to absolute world domination." Then, as CNN puts it: "He also talked about unidentified flying objects, CIA involvement in the cocaine trade, 'ultrasonic' devices that cause people to hear voices and experience bodily discomfort and how the Western news media unfairly portrayed North Korea." It's the latest salvo since the UN last month said Pyongyang's leaders should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.