Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American man who spent two years at a North Korean labor camp, called Wednesday for greater attention to the people of the communist nation, saying he had a first-hand look at how they are suffering in "darkness."

Bae was detained in the North from 2012 to 2014 after being sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for carrying a hard drive with anti-North Korean material. In November 2014, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper made a secret trip to Pyongyang and brought Bae and another American detainee home.

Bae's recently released book details his ordeal in the communist nation.

"People in North Korea should matter to the rest of the world. That's why I named the book 'Not Forgotten,'" Bae said during a discussion at Congress.

"Not only wasn't I forgotten by the media, by the people, or by God, but the people of North Korea should not be forgotten because the 24 million people live under such an oppressive regime and they are suffering from living in darkness," he said during the discussion organized by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY).

From conversations with prison guards and others, Bae said he learned that the North Koreans had no knowledge of what's going on in the outside world. When he told them that the U.N. secretary-general is a South Korean, their reaction was, "No way.

It's not possible. How can a South Korean become a secretary-general of the U.N.? South Korea is supposed to be a puppet country of the United States."

"People are totally cut off from the outside world," Bae said.

"We need to remember the people like North Koreans were cut off from society. By writing this book, I'm hoping that people have a little bit deeper understanding of what it is like in North Korea and also to be able to have more compassion for the common people of North Korea."

While in the North, Bae said he developed relationships with people around him and they started to consider him more of a friend. When he left the North, the last word from the prison's warden was, "I want to see you again some day, not as my prisoner."

Bae also said he opposes U.N. sanctions on the North, saying they affect ordinary people.

"I believe that by trying to find a peaceful resolution through more dialogue and more diplomatic channels will be the better way of dealing with the North Korean issues than a military standoff. That's what my take on this case is," he said.

Bae said his 735-day detention was "long and long enough."

"If you asked me now, 'Do you want to go back as prisoner?' I'd say 'No,' but I would love to go back if circumstances have changed, and policies have changed and maybe some day someone like me will be welcomed back to North Korea with a blessing, with the U.S. government's and then also the government of the DPRK so that some day we will be able to live more harmoniously," he said. (Yonhap)