Detainee’s wife appeals for his release
Print Edition
The wife of a US retiree detained in North Korea has appealed to Pyongyang to release her husband, as US authorities said they have so far been refused access to him.
Merrill Newman, 85, was taken off a plane as he was about to leave the country nearly a month ago.
His wife called the detention “a misunderstanding” and demanded his return to an “anxious, concerned family.”
She said her husband of 56 years, a Korean war veteran, was finishing a 10-day tour of North Korea on October 26, “a trip he had looked forward to making for a long while.”
“The postcards sent to friends while on that trip describe good times, good weather and knowledgeable guides,” she said, in a statement issued by the retirement complex where the couple live in Palo Alto, near San Francisco.
Lee Newman said her husband was detained just before his Asiana Airlines flight was due to depart for Beijing. “Merrill, already seated, was approached by a Korean official and escorted off the plane. He has been detained somewhere in North Korea since that time,” she said.
“We have had no word on the state of his health, whether or not the medications sent to him through the Swedish Embassy in North Korea have been delivered or why he was detained.”
Her appeal for his release came as the US State Department confirmed that North Korea has acknowledged it is holding Newman, but has so far barred Western officials from any access to him.
Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “We are working in close coordination with representatives of the Embassy of Sweden to resolve this issue.”
Washington and Pyongyang have no diplomatic ties, and the Swedish Embassy represents US interests in the country.
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