The mother of Kenneth Bae, the ailing American missionary serving a 15-year sentence of hard labor in North Korea, said on Tuesday that “it broke my heart to leave him behind” after the North Korean authorities had permitted her to visit him in a Pyongyang hospital.

In a statement released by the Bae family, the mother, Myunghee Bae, 69, also expressed thanks to North Korean officials, who allowed her to see Mr. Bae, 45, three times over the course of a five-day stay in the country. Family members had held out hope that the gesture might have led to clemency for Mr. Bae, and it was clear from the statement that they were disappointed.

Mr. Bae, an American of Korean descent, was detained in the port city of Rason last November. He was convicted of hostile acts against the North Korean government for proselytizing and was dispatched in May to a prison camp, where he lost 50 pounds and has suffered from diabetes, an enlarged heart, liver problems and chronic back pain. He was transferred in August to a hospital in Pyongyang, where he was convalescing, and his mother was granted permission to visit North Korea last Thursday. She left on Monday.

“I was happy to see him and to hold him, but it broke my heart to leave him behind,” she said in a statement posted on a Web site created to publicize a campaign to free Mr. Bae, whose family lives in Washington State. “His yearlong imprisonment has taken a heavy toll not only on Kenneth but on the whole family: every day the pain and anxiety continue to carve a deep scar on all of our hearts.”