Q&A on the News

Q: Why were the detainees released from North Korea arrested there? —Bob Markert, Roswell

A: Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim were each accused of “anti-state activities” by North Korea, according to The Associated Press. All three are Korean-Americans, who had been working in North Korea at the time they were detained.

Of the three, Kim Dong Chul had been held the longest. The South Korean-born U.S. citizen and former Virginia resident reportedly ran a trade and hotel service company in Rason, along North Korea’s border with Russia. He was arrested in October 2015 and received a 10-year prison term with hard labor that following April for allegedly “perpetrating state subversive plots and espionage against” North Korea, the AP reported.

Tony Kim was accused of committing unspecified “criminal acts of hostility aimed to overturn” the North Korean government, according to AP, and was detained April 22, 2017 at Pyongyang airport. The accounting instructor had made at least seven trips to North Korea, teaching most recently at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).

Less than a month later, Kim Hak Song, who worked in the agriculture department at an experimental farm run by PUST, was detained for “engaging in unspecified ‘hostile acts’ against North Korea,” the AP reported.

The three prisoners were released and flown home to the United States last week.