WASHINGTON: An American held hostage for six months in North Korea arrived home yesterday after his surprise release, stressing he had been well treated and voicing support for two US citizens still being held.
Jeffrey Fowle was reunited with his wife and three children in his home state of Ohio, after Pyongyang allowed a Pentagon plane to fly into the North Korean capital on Tuesday to collect him.
“Jeff would like you to know that he was treated well by the government of the DPRK (North Korea) and he’s currently in good health,” his family said in a statement, read by their spokesman.
They thanked the State Department, the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang that acted as a go-between to secure his release, former US ambassador and Ohio politician Tony Hall and everyone who offered “love, support and prayer” during Fowle’s detention.
North Korea said the “criminal” Fowle was freed as a “special measure” on the orders of leader Kim Jong-Un after “repeated requests” from US President Barack Obama.
In a brief report, the official KCNA news agency said Fowle, 56, had been handed over to the US authorities in accordance with relevant legal procedures.
But US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted Washington, which has no diplomatic ties with the North, had made no concessions to Pyongyang to win his release.
“No, there was no quid pro quo,” Kerry said during a visit to Berlin, adding the United States was “very concerned about the remaining American citizens who are in North Korea.”
His deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf again refused to reveal any details of how Fowle’s release was brokered, saying Washington did not “want to take any options off the table or do anything that would limit our ability, publicly or privately” to free the other Americans.
Fowle was smiling broadly as he stepped off his plane after arriving at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, US television showed.
But his family said Fowle’s thoughts were still with Americans Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae, who remain in incarcerated at hard labour camps.
AFP
