Trump wins release of three imprisoned in North Korea
Diplomatic victory comes during plans for summit
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — President Donald Trump scored a diplomatic victory Wednesday as North Korea freed three U.S. citizens from prison to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a goodwill gesture prior to a planned summit between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Trump announced the men’s freedom Wednesday on Twitter, and two reporters traveling with Pompeo later saw the three Korean-American men boarding the secretary’s plane without assistance as it was set to return to Washington. The plane landed Wednesday afternoon in Alaska en The administration’s goals in further negotiations NEWS PG 10 Profiles of the three released prisoners NEWS PG 10 route to Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, where Trump said he would meet the plane early today.
“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.
Later, talking to reporters before a
Cabinet meeting, Trump thanked Kim in language that was unimaginable just months ago, as the two exchanged threats of nuclear annihilation. “I appreciate Kim for doing this,” Trump said.
The president also indulged in some self-congratulation. Asked if he thought he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump replied, “Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it.”
The administration was eager to win the men’s release to provide good diplomatic news after Trump on Tuesday withdrew the United States from the 2015 multinational nuclear agreement with Iran.
Despite the gesture from Kim, Trump acknowledged that his meeting with the North Korean leader — the first between an American president and a leader of the long-isolated country — could still be “scuttled.” The U.S. is demanding that North Korea give up its nuclear arsenal and building program, something Kim is expected to resist.
Kim’s overture on the prisoners, two of whom were detained last year and one late in former President Barack Obama’s tenure, came after he and Pompeo met for 90 minutes in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, to finish plans for Kim’s meeting with Trump.
Trump told reporters that the two sides had agreed to a place and time. It would not be held in the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea, he said, though more details weren’t available.
The trip this week by Pompeo came a day after Kim traveled by plane to confer with President Xi Jinping of China, North Korea’s closest ally.
The three citizens, ethnic Koreans, are Kim Dong Chul, a businessman arrested in 2015 and serving 10 years on espionage charges; and Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song, professors associated with Pyongyang University of Science and Technology who were captured last year.
Trump and Pompeo said the men appeared to be in good health. “Doctors are with them now,” Pompeo told the two reporters aboard his plane once it took off. “All indications are that their health is as good as could be, given what they have been through.”
Their release comes just under a year after the death of Otto Warmbier, an American college student detained on theft charges in Pyongyang in 2016. North Korea released Warmbier in a coma, and he died a week after returning to the United States.
For Pompeo, just two weeks into his job as the nation’s top diplomat, the release of the three men — together with planning what could be a historic summit meeting — People watch a news report showing portraits of the three detained Americans, Kim Dong Chul, left, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song, right, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. has made for a heady start.
His previous visit with Kim was over Easter weekend, when Pompeo was still CIA director, awaiting Senate confirmation to become secretary of state.
The release was not without last-minute drama.
After his 90-minute discussion with Kim earlier Wednesday, Pompeo returned to his hotel, and when reporters asked if there was good news on the detainees, he crossed his fingers.
A North Korean official later sought out Pompeo at his hotel and informed him that Kim had granted the men “amnesty.”
Pompeo replied: “That’s great,” according to the official.
All three men were accused by Pyongyang of subversion and “anti-state” activities.
That is a catchall phrase that the North Koreans use to incarcerate people for a range of alleged crimes, big and small.
Yoon Young-chan, a spokesman for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, welcomed the decision as a positive step toward a successful summit between Kim and Trump.
He also noted that the North’s decision to release the three ethnic Koreans could signal that Pyongyang might consider releasing six South Koreans who remain detained there.
“We hope that the South Koreans be released soon to expand reconciliation between the two Koreas and to extend the peaceful mood on the Korean Peninsula,” Yoon said.