North Korea Hands Trump a Huge Win
By Business Insider. North Korea has released three US citizens detained there, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing a South Korean activist who campaigns for the release of detainees.
The releases would meet some of the US’s demands for North Korea to demonstrate sincerity before a historic meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — something that John Bolton, Trump’s hawkish national security adviser, reiterated during an interview on Fox News on Sunday.
The three citizens— Kim Dong-chul, Kim Sang-duk, and Kim Hak-song — have been released from a labor camp and given health treatment and ideological education in Pyongyang, the Financial Times report said.
“We heard it through our sources in North Korea late last month,” Choi Sung-ryong told the news outlet. “We believe that Mr. Trump can take them back on the day of the US-North Korea summit or he can send an envoy to take them back to the US before the summit.” (Read more from “North Korea Hands Trump a Huge Win” HERE)
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Release of Americans Held in North Korea ‘Imminent,’ Source Says
By CNN. The official told CNN the North Koreans made the decision to free the Americans two months ago, and that North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho had proposed their release during his visit to Sweden in March.
US officials insisted at the time that their release “must not be related or used to loosen the main issue of denuclearization,” the source said.
The three Americans, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, have been detained in North Korea for months.
Donald Trump, who looks set to become the first sitting US President to meet a North Korean leader during a planned summit with Kim Jong Un, said last month his administration was fighting “very diligently to get the three Americans back.” (Read more from “Release of Americans Held in North Korea ‘Imminent,’ Source Says” HERE)
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