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NKorea detains American tourist, 85
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North Korean officials detained an 85-year-old American veteran of the Korean War last month as he sat in a plane set to leave the country, the man’s son said.
A uniformed North Korean officer boarded the plane on October 26 and asked Merrill Newman, a tourist from Palo Alto, California, for his passport before telling a stewardess that Newman had to leave the plane, according to his son Jeffrey Newman.
“My dad got off, walked out with the stewardess, and that’s the last he was seen,” Jeffrey said.
It wasn’t clear what led to the detention. The son said he was speaking regularly with the US State Department about his father, but US officials wouldn’t confirm the detention to reporters, citing privacy issues. North Korean media have yet to comment on reports of the detention.
The son said that, according to his father’s traveling companion, Newman earlier had a “difficult” discussion with North Korean officials about his experiences during the 1950-53 war.
North Korea has detained at least six Americans since 2009, often for alleged missionary work, but it is unusual for a tourist to be arrested.
Speaking to reporters in Beijing yesterday, US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies wouldn’t confirm Newman’s detention but said, generally, that Washington was working with the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which acts as America’s protecting power because Washington and Pyongyang don’t have official diplomatic relations, “to try to move this issue along and of course calling on North Korea ... to resolve the issue and to allow our citizens to go free.”
Merrill Newman was traveling with his friend Bob Hamrdla, who was allowed to return. Hamrdla said in a statement that “there has to be a terrible misunderstanding” and asked for Newman to be quickly returned to his family.
Jeffrey Newman said his father always wanted to visit North Korea and took lessons in the language before leaving on the nine-day trip. He believed the inspiration came from the three years his father spent as an infantry officer in the Korean War, but said his father never talked about his service.
Jeffrey said the Swedish ambassador had delivered his father’s heart medication to the North Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry, but it was unclear whether he had received it.
“We don’t know what this misunderstanding is all about,” he said. “All we want as a family is to have my father, my kids’ grandfather, returned to California so he can be with his family for Thanksgiving.”
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