What a Fowle blow!
"North Korea frees US man; two more still detained" by Lara Jakes | Associated Press October 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — North Korea’s reclusive government abruptly freed an American man Tuesday, nearly six months after he was arrested on charges of leaving a Bible in a nightclub. But Pyongyang refused to hand over two other US citizens who are being held.
There was no immediate explanation for the release of Jeffrey Fowle, who was whisked to the US territory of Guam before heading back to his wife and three children in Miamisburg, Ohio. Relations between Washington and Pyongyang, never warm, are at a particularly low point, and the United States has tried unsuccessfully for months to send a high-level representative to North Korea to negotiate the release of all three men.
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State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Fowle was seen by doctors and appeared to be in good health. She declined to give details about his release except to thank Sweden, which has an embassy in Pyongyang, for its ‘‘tireless efforts.’’
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There was no immediate comment from the government of North Korean leader Kim Jung Un....
See: Kim Jong Un is Ill?
He is fine, and the CIA got its agent back.
The two others — Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller — were each sentenced to years in North Korean prisons after court trials that lasted no more than 90 minutes. The three entered North Korea separately....
The timing of the release was curious, given an editorial published Tuesday by North Korea’s state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, which described relations with the United States at ‘‘the lowest ebb’’ since a 1994 diplomatic agreement between the two nations. Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of that protocol, which froze Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program in return for the provision of nuclear power reactors and the eventual normalization of ties with the United States. The protocol has since unraveled.
OMG, a peace feeler from the North!
Miller, 24, was convicted six weeks ago of entering North Korea illegally to commit espionage and sentenced to six years of hard labor. North Korea’s Supreme Court said he tore up his tourist visa at Pyongyang’s airport upon arrival on April 10 and admitted to the ‘‘wild ambition’’ of experiencing prison life so that he could secretly investigate North Korea’s human rights situation.
In late September, he spoke briefly to an AP journalist. He said he was digging in fields eight hours a day and being kept in isolation, but so far his health wasn’t deteriorating.
Bae, 46, has been held since November 2012, when he was detained while leading a tour group in a North Korean economic zone. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for ‘‘hostile acts’’ after being accused of smuggling in inflammatory literature and trying to establish a base for antigovernment activities at a border city hotel.
Bae is a Korean-American missionary and is suffering from chronic health issues. He has said he feels abandoned by the US government.
He knew the risks when he was sent in.
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"North Korean detainee reunites with family in Ohio" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins and Lara Jakes | Associated Press October 23, 2014
WEST CARROLLTON, Ohio — An American arrested and held for nearly six months in North Korea for leaving a Bible at a nightclub returned home to Ohio on Wednesday to tears of joy and hugs from his wife and surprised children.
A plane carrying Jeffrey Fowle, who was released with help from a retired diplomat and former Ohio congressman, landed Wednesday morning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, where he was reunited with his family.
Moments after Fowle stepped off the plane, his three children and wife ran from a hangar for a shared hug.
Colonel John Devillier said Fowle’s children had not been told why they were going to the base. ‘‘The reaction from his children was priceless,’’ he said.
The surprise was the work of Fowle’s wife, Tatyana, who only told the children they were not going to school.
Tony Hall, a retired diplomat and former Ohio representative who used his connections with North Korean officials on Fowle’s behalf, said a lot of people were involved in obtaining his release, including the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, China and Japan.
Hall said he got involved at the request of Fowle’s family and attorney, as well as the State Department, which led the push for Fowle’s release.
Fowle arrived in North Korea on April 29 and was arrested in May for leaving a Bible at the nightclub, which Fowle acknowledged. Christian evangelism is a crime in North Korea, and he had been awaiting trial.
ChristIan evAngelism also provides non-official cover.
Two other Americans held separately by Pyongyang were recently sentenced to years in North Korean prisons.
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Also see: State House to get Korean War plaque
Maybe you would like to vent a little?
Speaking of not fair:
"US, S. Korea agree to delay shift in wartime command" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times October 25, 2014
SEOUL — The United States has moved to ease jitters among conservative South Koreans by delaying the return of wartime control of the South Korean military to Seoul until its forces are better prepared to deter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats or fight it in a war.
This, ironically, as the top military commands have recently met for peace talks.
Was wondering how the U.S. was going to wreck things, and now I see how. Stick their big butt in there.
The delay, agreed to Thursday at the Pentagon, means that the main US military command will stay in Yongsan, central Seoul, for the time being. The US military’s presence in the heart of Seoul, the South Korean capital, has increasingly become an issue, especially among younger South Koreans.
AmeriKa never leaves, and sometimes we even come back (Iraq).
The US military had been scheduled to vacate 653 acres of prime real estate in Yongsan by 2016, relocating most of its personnel to a base being built south of Seoul. If the main command post stays on, it would significantly reduce the size of land to be vacated, complicating the city’s plan to build a municipal park in Yongsan.
“We must deal with this issue in a realistic and coolheaded manner, considering national security,” Min Kyung-wook, the spokesman for President Park Geun-hye, said Friday.
Min’s comment came as the opposition denounced Park for breaking her election promise to retake control by 2015.
I can't say I'm surprised and not disappointed.
The United States assumed operational control of South Korea’s military in 1950 after it rushed US troops to the peninsula during the Korean War. It returned peacetime control to Seoul in 1994, but was still obligated to command combined US-South Korean forces in the event of war.
That pledge has been a central fixture of the US-South Korean military alliance, but many South Koreans, especially the postwar generations, began seeing it as a slight to their national pride.
At Seoul’s request, the United States agreed in 2007 to return that power to the South by 2012. The plan was for the South Korean military to build its capabilities to play a lead role in defense. But the date was pushed back to 2015, after the South accused North Korea of torpedoing a South Korean warship in 2010 and fears of military conflict rose.
Hmmmm! That event, which North Korea denied, turned out to be an Israeli sub purchased from Germany that sunk the ship.
And cui bono? Gave the U.S. an excuse to stay?
Conservative South Koreans demanded that Seoul ask the United States for another delay as a sense of vulnerability increased after the North’s successful launching of a long-range rocket in late 2012 and its third nuclear test last year.
Park, reversing her campaign pledge, asked President Obama during a summit in April to consider another delay.
The king of campaign pledge reversals!
After months of negotiations, the United States accepted South Korea’s request during the annual Security Consultative Meeting at the Pentagon on Thursday.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Han Min Koo, the South Korean defense minister, agreed to put in effect Seoul’s proposal for a “conditions-based approach” to transferring control.
Rather than setting a new target date for the transfer, the allies will now “focus on South Korea achieving critical defensive capabilities against an intensifying North Korean threat,” according to statements from both sides. The allies will negotiate details of the new transfer plan by next fall.
What have I been saying?
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Related: U.S. Troops Returning to Japan
Looks like pre-positioning for WWIII to me.
"Kerry says no apology to North Korea to free Americans" Associated Press October 25, 2014
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry urged North Korea on Friday to release two detained Americans to build good will with the United States, but ruled out a US apology to Pyongyang to win their freedom.
Kerry said North Korea should free Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae for humanitarian reasons and because they are being held ‘‘inappropriately.’’
Miller is serving a six-year jail term on charges of espionage, after he allegedly ripped his tourist visa at Pyongyang’s airport and demanded asylum. Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary with health problems, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for alleged antigovernment activities.
North Korea on Tuesday released another American, Jeffrey Fowle, who had been held for six months after he was charged with leaving a Bible in a nightclub.
Since then, North Korean legal specialists have had some unusual advice: that Washington formally apologize to Pyongyang, and the country’s autocratic leader will consider pardoning the other two.
Forget that. AmeriKa never apologizes.
‘‘We have made it clear that no apology or other statement is in the offing,’’ Kerry said after talks between top US and South Korean diplomats and defense officials.
Screw you then.
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