 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. Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, of El Paso, Texas, said he entered North Korea by crossing the river border with China. 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. Details of how and when he got into the country were not immediately clear. "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, speaks at a press conference at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang, North Korea Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014. 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. 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.
– 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.