Pompeo visits North Korea, returns with 3 US detainees
TOKYO/WASHINGTON: North Korea released three American prisoners and handed them over to US secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, clearing a major obstacle to an unprecedented summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Korean-American men, who all have the surname of Kim but are not related, were set free after being held for as long as two years in the isolated nation.
The release, which was praised by the White House as a “gesture of goodwill,” appeared to signal an effort by Kim to set a more favourable tone for the planned summit and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut Pyongyang’s nuclear bomb test site.
“I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting,” Trump tweeted. “They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set.”
Trump did not disclose the date and location of the summit planned with Kim. He said he will announce the site for the summit within three days and it will not be held at the demilitarised zone along the border between the two Koreas.
“It will not be there,” he told reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting at the White House when asked if the planned meeting would be at the DMZ. “We’re going to announce it within three days.”
Earlier, Trump had suggested having the summit at the Peace House in the DMZ would carry a symbolic value that having it in a third country would not
Kim has taken a series of steps to ease tensions with the US after he declared North Korea had the capability to target any American city with a nuclear weapon. Trump welcomed the gestures, even while keeping the military option on the table if the planned talks collapse.