American Christian missionary Kenneth Bae has been imprisoned in North Korea for 15 months– his sister, Terri Chung– says that he's now the longest American detained there in recent history. She says her family is very scared about what's going to happen next after her brother's video-taped statement, CNN's Pamela Brown reports.

The American missionary, who has been held in North Korea for more than a year, read a statement before cameras in a Pyongyang hospital.

In the video he says "I would like to plea with the U.S. government, press and my family to stop worsening my situation by making vile rumors against North Korea and releasing materials related to me, which are not based on the facts." (translated)

Bae goes on to say that he committed a “serious crime” against North Korea’s government and that he did not experience any human rights abuse.

Experts say these new images of Bae could be a positive sign, given that North Korea’s history of coercing confessions before releasing their captives.

"The fact that they've paraded him out and gone through this farce suggests that they have some kind of demand in mind," says  Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Director of East Asia Non-Proliferation Program and an East Asia Scholar at the Monterey Institute of International Studies

Kenneth Bae's sister asks that President Obama and Secretary Kerry take immediate action to bring her brother home. Experts say Bae's confession follows North Korea's pattern of exacting false "confessions." Most recently– 85-year-old Merrill Newman, a Korean War veteran, was freed from the country after he says he was forced to give a false confession.

For background and updates as the story develops, go here.