WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – North Korea has freed Jeffrey Fowle, one of three Americans detained by the country, and he is being flown home to his family in Ohio, the White House said yesterday.
Spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States welcomed the move, but pressed Pyongyang to free the two remaining Americans.
“While this is a positive decision … we remain focused on the continued detention of Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller and again call on the DPRK to immediately release them,” Earnest said, referring to the country’s official name of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The United States will continue to work actively on those cases, he added.
Fowle, 56, a street repair worker from Miamisburg, Ohio, was arrested in May for leaving a Bible at a sailor’s club in the North Korean city of Chongjin, where he was traveling as a tourist. The communist state is particularly sensitive to religious proselytizing.
Miller was arrested in April for a separate incident. The longest to be held by North Korea is Bae, a Korean-American missionary arrested in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor.
Bae’s sister, Terri Chung, said in a statement her family celebrated Fowle’s release but was in pain knowing her brother remained at a labor camp with an uncertain future.
“While we wrestle with the disappointment that Kenneth was not brought home as well, we believe, however optimistically, that this release could be a sign of hope for Kenneth,” the statement added.
North Korea made it a condition of Fowle’s release that the U.S. government transport him out of the country and set a time for him to be picked up, U.S. officials said.
