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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Despite grueling labor and verbal torment, Kenneth Bae always hoped he'd be able to come home.
In his first live interview since his release in late 2014, Bae described what he went through on CNN's "New Day" on Monday.
Bae was the longest-held U.S. citizen detained in North Korea since the Korean War. In 2013, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for committing "hostile acts" in the country.
"I worked from 8 a.m. to 6 pm. at night, working on the field, carrying rock, shoveling coal," Bae told CNN's Chris Cuomo.
Adding to the physical pain was the verbal abuse he received from North Korean officials, Bae said.
He said one prosecutor repeatedly told him, " 'No one remembers you. You have been forgotten by people, your government. You're not going home anytime soon. You'll be here for 15 years. You'll be 60 before you go home.' "
But after a flurry of diplomatic efforts, Bae was released. Even now, a year and a half later, Bae told Cuomo it's amazing to be back on U.S. soil.
"I'm thankful every day and grateful for so many people that were involved in trying to get me home," he said. "It's unreal just to see that I'm actually sitting in the studio talking to you ... 735 days in North Korea was long enough. But I'm thankful."
I depended on God, and lived one day at a time, Kenneth Bae about his imprisonment in North Korea https://t.co/7Fx8MIKOSi
— New Day (@NewDay) May 2, 2016
Bae, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, moved to China in 2005 and established a company that specialized in tours of North Korea, family and friends said.
He was leading a tour when he was arrested in November 2012. He was sentenced in April 2013 over "hostile acts."
It's not clear what these were. But in a pretaped statement released in March, Bae said he "made a terrible mistake by carrying a portable hard drive containing hostile, anti-North Korean material by accident."
Bae is a devout Christian, which led some to speculate he was carrying religious items. North Korea is officially an atheist state.
But it was Bae's faith that helped him deal with the physical and verbal agony.
"Along the way, I found my way adjusting to life in the North Korean prison, just depending on God," he said Monday.
"And I knew the U.S. government would do everything possible that (would) bring me home."
Bae's plight gained widespread publicity after former basketball star Dennis Rodman -- who once called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a friend and "very good guy" -- lambasted Bae on CNN's "New Day" in 2014.
Rodman later apologized, saying he had been drinking.
But Bae thanked Rodman for his 2014 outburst, saying it drew attention to his ordeal in North Korea.
"I thank Dennis Rodman for being a catalyst for my release," Bae said Monday.
Bae's health deteriorated during his captivity -- he lost about 60 pounds and at one point was placed in a North Korean hospital to recuperate.
In November 2014, the U.S. State Department announced it had secured the release of Bae and another American held by North Korea, Matthew Todd Miller.
Bae then thanked the U.S. and North Korean governments and did not speak publicly until his March statement that promoted his book, which will be released Tuesday.
The memoir, which will be published HarperCollins' Christian-themed division, will likely have strong religious undertones.
"One thing I want people to take away from reading the book is God's faithfulness," Bae said. "After I was released, I was reminded that God has not forgotten the people of North Korea."
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