The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Freedom ‘like a dream’
Three Americans released by North Korea welcomed back to US by Donald Trump amid grand ceremony on ‘special night’
US President Donald Trump welcomed home three Americans freed by North Korea and declared their release a sign of promise over his goal of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.
Speaking early yesterday at a Maryland air base, Mr Trump called it a “great honour” to welcome the men to the US but said “the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons”.
Mr Trump also thanked North Korea’s Kim Jong Un for releasing the Americans and said he believes Mr Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearisation at their upcoming summit. “I really think he wants to do something,” the president said.
First lady Melania Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and other top officials joined Mr Trump to celebrate the occasion at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, DC.
The men – Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim – had been released on Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.
Shortly before 3am, the president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men had travelled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately. The group then emerged at top of the plane’s stairs, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display. As the men entered into view, US service members burst into applause and cheers.
“This is a special night for these three really great people,” Mr Trump told reporters.
On the US relationship with North Korea, Mr Trump declared: “We’re starting off on a new footing.”
When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator: “It’s like a dream; we are very, very happy.”
They later gave the president a round of applause.
After Mr Trump’s remarks, the three men boarded a bus for Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, where they are to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.
The White House carefully choreographed the event, hoisting a giant American flag between two fire engines on the ground and inviting reporters to witness the return.
Mr Pompeo had secured the men’s release in Pyongyang after meeting Mr Kim on final plans for the Trump-Kim summit. Mr 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 the three 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.