“You look and rethink all options. It doesn’t mean you do, or you will,” the Defense secretary said.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday that the White House was working to confirm that North Korea had sentenced an American citizen to 15 years of hard labor.

"We've seen those reports ... and we're working with our protecting power, the Embassy of Sweden in Pyongyang, to confirm them," Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that Kenneth Bae of Washington state had been sentenced for "committing hostile acts" against North Korea. South Korean human rights campaigners say Bae may have angered the regime by taking photographs of impoverished children or public executions during his travels in the country.

The State Department on Thursday asked that North Korea grant amnesty to an American citizen sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Kenneth Bae, a tour operator from Washington state who has visited the country several times, was arrested last year near the border with China. North Korea has accused him of unspecified “hostile acts” against the state in a case that's largely seen as an effort to extract food aid and other concessions from the United States.

“There is no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad, and we urge the [North Korean] authorities to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Thursday. “We've had deep concerns about the transparency and due process across the breadth of the North Korean legal system.”

Business groups and lawmakers expressed support for President Obama's choices to complete his second-term economic team that is focusing heavily on expanding U.S. trade opportunities. 

Obama announced on Thursday that he wants Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker to head up the Commerce Department and Mike Froman to take the helm as the next U.S. Trade Representative before heading out of town for a three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica that will include talks about trade with the nation's third-largest trading partner. 

"In both instances, I'm going to be working to deepen our economic and trade relationships across Latin America — relationships that create jobs and growth here at home and offer our businesses growing markets where they can sell more American-made goods and services abroad," the president said. 

Obama departed Washington for a trip to Mexico and Central America that is likely to be dominated by immigration reform.

President Obama on Thursday rounded out his second-term economic team.

Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Washington put out a statement Thursday reiterating that its two citizens arrested in connection with the Boston bombing haven't been charged with aiding in the attack.

The statement follows an outpouring of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric on social media after police identified two Chechen brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as the perpetrators of the attack that killed three people and injured more than 200. The Boston Police Department arrested two Kazakh friends of Dzhokhar, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, with obstruction of justice on Wednesday for allegedly seeking to destroy evidence linking their friend to the bombings.

“We would like to emphasize that our citizens did not receive charges of involvement in the organization of Boston Marathon bombings. They were charged with destroying evidence,” the ministry said. “At present, our citizens receive the necessary consular assistance. Their guilt has not been proven and the investigation is ongoing. Both Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov cooperate with the investigative bodies and provide them assistance.

Conservative firebrand Allen West is the latest high-profile name to add his voice to calls for the creation of a select committee to investigate last year's attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the Obama administration's response.

The one-term Florida congressman and Army veteran endorsed the creation of the panel in a letter to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the sponsor of a resolution calling on Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to create the special panel. The resolution has 135 co-sponsors — more than half the Republican Conference — but is opposed by leadership and the chairmen of the committees of jurisdiction.

“As an Army officer, I learned the integral principles of war, unity of effort and unity of command. Having a singular select committee on the Benghazi issue requires adherence to those two fundamentals,” he wrote. “I urge the remaining Republicans who have not yet cosponsored to sign on to H. Res 36 when the House returns next week. After 8 months, it's time for a Select Committee to ensure the families of the victims and the American people get the answers they deserve.”

American weapons maker Raytheon will pay out $8 million to the State Department for repeated violations of federal arms control mandates.