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North Korea frees 3 American prisoners ahead of a planned Trump-Kim summit
by Carol Morello, Anna Fifield and David Nakamura May 9, 2018
by Carol Morello, Anna Fifield and David Nakamura May 9, 2018
Kim Dong-chul is escorted to his trial in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 29, 2016
PYONGYANG, North Korea — In a gesture that appeared to set the stage for a landmark summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, North Korea released three American prisoners into the custody of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit here Wednesday.
Trump made the announcement in a morning tweet as Pompeo flew the three men out of Pyongyang on his government plane, saying they were in good health and that he planned to meet them upon their arrival early Thursday at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
The secretary 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 wrote. In a follow-up tweet, he called it: “Very exciting!”
The dramatic disclosure capped a 13-hour visit by Pompeo to the North Korean capital during which he met with several top officials, including Kim for 90 minutes, and finalized a time and location for the leaders’ summit, which is expected in late June.
Though White House officials did not disclose details, Trump told reporters the summit would not be held in the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea — where Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held an emotional meeting two weeks ago. That left Singapore, which Trump said last week was also under consideration, as the most likely site.
Trump had not made the freeing of the three Americans, Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song, a prerequisite for the summit. But the move was viewed in Washington as a necessary trust-building measure ahead of the hard-knuckle negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The president had harshly criticized the Kim regime over human rights violations, repeatedly raising its treatment of American college student Otto Warmbier, who died last summer days after being released in a coma from 17 months of captivity. The release of the other three Americans, who were examined by a physician traveling with Pompeo and reportedly boarded the plane without assistance, allowed Trump to claim a victory in his audacious diplomatic gambit.
“Frankly, nobody thought this was going to happen and I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this and allowing them to go,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday afternoon.
North Korea’s state news agency characterized the meeting with Pompeo in unusually warm terms in a report published Thursday, saying that Kim had congratulated the new secretary of state on his appointment and said he was “highly appreciating that the U.S. president has shown deep interest in settling the issue through dialogue.”
Kim said that summit “would be a historic meeting for the excellent first step toward promotion of the positive situation development in the Korean peninsula and building of a good future,” the Korean Central News Agency said.
He echoed Pompeo’s line that they had reached a “satisfactory consensus” on the summit.
Yet even amid the optimism about the summit, some senior Trump administration officials sounded caution that the United States will not prematurely soften its stance toward North Korea. Last year, the North conducted nuclear and ballistic missile tests in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, prompting Trump to derided Kim as “Little Rocket Man.”
In a statement, Vice President Pence vowed that the United States “will not let off the pressure until we achieve full denuclearization.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the release of the Americans a “step in the right direction” but emphasized that “total denuclearization remains our top priority.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5d9ff5c6dd7d
