Freed US prisoners fly home from NK
Freed after more than a year in prison, three Americans flew homeward from North Korea yesterday toward a big middle-of-the-night celebration featuring President Donald Trump – the latest sign of improving relations between long-time adversaries in the buildup to a historic summit between Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Trump promised ‘‘quite a scene’’ at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington for the detainees, who were released as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea to finalise plans for the summit. Singapore was the likely site, late this month or in early June, for Trump’s most ambitious foreign policy effort yet.
Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska – for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon local time – the State Department released a statement from the freed men.
‘‘We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home,’’ they said. ‘‘We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.’’
The men had boarded Pompeo’s plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a separate aircraft with more extensive medical facilities. They were expected to arrive at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in the early hours of Thursday morning, local time.
Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea’s leader for the prisoners’ release – ‘‘I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this’’ – and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the ‘‘official suggestion’’ of the US president, said North Korea’s official news agency, KCNA.
North Korea had accused Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, all Korean-americans, of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation’s nuclear weapons.
Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US. Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama’s starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he’s convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.
Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim’s willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions – branded ‘‘maximum pressure’’ by the president. The small-hours ceremony yesterday was to be an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trump’s mind.
‘‘Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it,’’ he said when asked if the award was deserved. –AP