U.S. Korean War Veteran Arrested in North Korea (+video)
California Man Pulled Off Plane in North Korea, Detained, Son Says
By Chelsea J. Carter, CNN
An 85-year-old American man on an organized tour of North Korea was pulled off a departing plane in Pyongyang just minutes before it was to depart, the man’s son told CNN on Wednesday.
The family has had no contact with Merrill Newman of Palo Alto, California, since he was detained on October 26, his son Jeff Newman said.
“This is a misunderstanding. My father is a (Korean War) veteran and wanted to see the country and culture he has been interested in for years,” Jeff Newman said. “He arranged this with a travel agent that was recommended and said was approved by the North Korean government for travel of foreigners. He had all the proper visas.”
The U.S. State Department is working to resolve the matter with North Korea’s top ally, China. Ambassador Glyn Davies, the U.S. Special Representative for North Korean Policy, met in Beijing for several hours on Thursday with his Chinese counterpart.
“We are working very hard … to try to move this issue along,” Davies said, following the session. “We certainly think that North Korea should think long and hard about (this) and understand that for the United States this is a matter of core concern for us.”
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Photo Credit: GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty U.S. Issues Harshest Travel Warning in 18 Years Against North Korea
by Max Fisher
The State Department has long cautioned Americans about visiting North Korea, but on Tuesday it went a big step further, issuing a blanket warning against all American travel to the country. This was the first such State Department warning since North Korea began allowing American tourists in 1995, immediately raising the question: why?
The travel warning cited, somewhat cryptically, “the risk of arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens in North Korea.” It noted that two Americans traveling on valid visas have been previously arrested. But neither of those was especially recent. Eddie Jun Yong-su was arrested in November 2010, allegedly for illegal missionary work, and released in March 2011. Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012 on similar charges and is still being held.
The travel warning does not explain what, if anything, has happened since last November that led the State Department to elevate its warning. A State Department spokesperson said that they could not comment due to U.S. privacy laws but emphasized that travel warnings of this severity are typically in response to “chronic” threats to U.S. citizens. Some early, unconfirmed reports are emerging that an elderly American man may have been detained.
A rising number of Americans visits North Korea every year on heavily orchestrated, state-monitored tours, a source of hard currency for the government there. The vast majority travel without incident. But, as NKNews.org editor Chad O’Carroll explained earlier today, the potentially lucrative business has attracted new tourist companies, some of which have little experience with North Korea’s complex and highly sensitive restrictions. A source in the North Korean tourism industry suggested to O’Carroll, “Tourists traveling with some of the newest companies could be more likely to unwillingly fall afoul of North Korean laws.”
A little before noon, U.S. Eastern Time, the San Jose Mercury News reported that an 85-year-old man from Palo Alto “has been detained in North Korea for more than three weeks” after North Korean authorities removed him from the plane that was to fly him out of the country. The report identifies the man as Merrill Newman, which is significant, as previously arrested Americans have been of Korean descent. The story also quotes a State Department spokesperson as declining to confirm or deny the story and saying only, “We are aware of reports that a U.S. citizen was detained in North Korea.”
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