We thank God for Mr. Newman’s release and are thankful he is now home.
American citizen, Merrill Newman, is deported from North Korea and is now home with his family! The 85-year-old Korean War veteran turned tourist who has been held captive in North Korea for more than a month for alleged hostile acts has landed in San Francisco after catching a flight from Beijing China.
North Korea state media said Saturday that Merrill Newman, a war veteran, was released because he had apologized for his alleged crimes during the Korean War and because of his age and medical condition. When he arrived, he was joined by family members at the San Francisco International Airport and spoke briefly to the media saying he was happy to be home, but tired.
Earlier, Newman was met by U.S. embassy staff in Beijing. Vice President Joe Biden extended an offer to have Newman return to the United States with him on Air Force Two but Mr. Newman declined. Biden said, “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.” Mr. Newman’s detention has only increased diplomatic tensions and was culminated when North Korea released a video of him reading a confession to war crimes. While it is not clear if his confession was coerced, I’d lay pretty good odds that it was.
Vice President Biden, who was at the same time in South Korea on a three-nation Asian tour, praised North Korea for releasing Mr. Newman and said he played “no direct role” in securing the veteran’s release. Newman’s son, Jeffrey, said he spoke briefly with his father from Beijing and that he was “in excellent spirits and eager to be reunited with his family.” He continued, “As you can imagine this has been a very difficult ordeal for us as a family, and particularly for him.”
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf urged Pyongyang to pardon “as a humanitarian gesture” another American, Kenneth Bae, who has been held in the North for more than a year. “We are pleased that Mr. Merrill Newman has been allowed to depart the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and re-join his family,” Harf said after Newman’s release. “We welcome the DPRK’s decision to release him.”
Pyongyang has been accused of previously coercing statements from detainees, and the four-page statement Newman read was riddled with stilted English and grammatical errors, such as “I want not punish me.” That’s a pretty dead give away in my view. Mr. Newman’s statement, carried in the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, said the war veteran allegedly attempted to meet with any surviving soldiers he had trained during the Korean War to fight North Korea. Newman “masterminded espionage and subversive activities against the DPRK and in this course he was involved in killings of service personnel of the Korean People’s Army and innocent civilians,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.
North Korea remains technically in a state of war with the South and with the United States because the war ended with a truce, not a peace treaty. Before Mr. Newman’s detention, North Korea has detained at least six Americans since 2009.
We thank God for Mr. Newman’s release and continue to pray for all other political prisoners and detainees still being held by North Korea.