US war veteran released before Biden’s DMZ trip
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North Korea yesterday released a detained American veteran of the Korean War as US Vice President Joe Biden visited the world’s last Cold War frontier.
US officials said Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old from California, headed home after arriving in Beijing.
North Korea deported him “from a humanitarian viewpoint,” its official Korean Central News Agency said, citing his “sincere repentance” as well as his age and health condition.
His release came hours before Biden visited the demilitarized zone which has split the Korean peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Wearing a baseball cap and brown bomber jacket, Biden visited a front-line hilltop observation post and surveyed the North Korean landscape through a pair of binoculars.
“North Korea today released someone they should never have had in the first place, Mr Newman,” Biden said earlier after laying a wreath at the war memorial in Seoul.
“It’s a positive thing they’ve done,” said Biden, visiting South Korea as the last stop on a three-country Asia tour that has already taken him to Japan and China. Biden also urged Pyongyang to free another US citizen, Kenneth Bae, a 45-year-old tour operator who was arrested a year ago and sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor on charges of seeking to topple the government.
Biden said Bae was being held for “no reason” and “should be released immediately.”
Newman, who has a heart condition, was plucked off a plane in October as he was leaving Pyongyang following a tourist visit.
His family said he was detained on October 26 shortly before take-off from the North Korean capital. Biden’s office said the vice president had spoken to him by telephone.
“I offered him a ride home on Air Force Two, but as he pointed out, there’s a direct flight to San Francisco, so I don’t blame him, I’d be on that flight too,” Biden told reporters.
Newman told reporters at Beijing airport that he was “very glad to be on my way home,” according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.
Asked about the first thing he planned to do, the veteran said he would “go home and see my wife,” Yonhap reported.
Facilitate dialogue
Bae’s family welcomed Newman’s release and said in a statement: “We believe that our Kenneth should also come home soon.”
Dongguk University professor Kim Yong-Hyun, a North Korea expert in Seoul, said Pyongyang had freed Newman in a bid to facilitate dialogue with Washington. Biden said he had no direct role in securing his release.
“North Korea knows that the detention of a sick, old man will aggravate relations with the United States,” Kim said.
Last week Pyongyang for the first time officially admitted holding Newman, saying he was detained for “hostile acts” after entering the country “under the guise of a tourist.”
North Korea had accused him of committing crimes both as a tourist and during his participation in the Korean War six decades ago.
The North also claimed that Newman masterminded espionage and subversive activities during the war and was involved in the killing of North Korean soldiers and innocent civilians.
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