SEOUL, South Korea — Former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday on a mission to win the release of an American held prisoner in North Korea, the North’s state-run media reported.

Mr. Carter was greeted at the Pyongyang airport by Kim Kye-gwan, a senior North Korean diplomat, according to the North’s official news agency, KCNA. Mr. Kim is North Korea’s envoy to the stalemated six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.

KCNA provided no further details.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency earlier had reported that Mr. Carter, 85, was travelling with his wife on a private jet. United States officials described his trip as a private humanitarian mission to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American from Boston who was sentenced in April to eight years of hard labor for illegally entering the North.