[AP/Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL -- U.S President Donald Trump welcomed the arrival of three Americans released by North Korea a day earlier in yet another conciliatory gesture ahead of the upcoming summit between the two countries.
Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song -- all Korean-Americans who were detained on charges of espionage or "hostile acts" against the communist regime -- were set free after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang for the second time in 40 days.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump greeted them at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, in a ceremony that apparently highlighted his administration's major diplomatic coup ahead of the November midterm elections.
Calling them "great, incredible people," Trump congratulated them on their release before his summit with Kim. "I am honored to have helped three folks," Trump said. But the true honor is going to be "getting rid of nuclear weapons," he added, apparently underscoring his resolve to pressure the North to renounce its nuclear ambitions.
The three expressed their joy, making victory signs with their fingers as they walked down the stairs from the airplane. "We are very, very happy," one of them told reporters. Kim Dong-chul, a Christian missionary, was arrested on spying charges in the North's special economic zone in Rason in October 2015.
Tony Kim, whose Korean name is Kim Sang-dok, was arrested on charges of hostile acts at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport in April last year. He was about to leave the North after his stint as a visiting professor at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
Kim Hak-song was detained for alleged hostile acts at Pyongyang Station in May last year when he was waiting to return to his home in Dandong, China. Before the arrest, he worked at PUST sharing agricultural technologies.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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