They gave the US government back their spies.
"N. Korea abruptly releases 2 imprisoned Americans" by David E. Sanger | New York Times November 09, 2014
WASHINGTON — North Korea released two Americans who had been accused of trying to subvert the secretive state, after the director of national intelligence for the United States, James R. Clapper Jr., flew to the country on a secret mission and departed Saturday with the men aboard his aircraft.
In a terse statement issued by Clapper’s office, the Americans — Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller — were described as “on their way home, accompanied by DNI Clapper.” Officials said they were expected to land on the West Coast, where Bae and Miller both live, sometime Saturday night.
It was an unusual role for Clapper, the nation’s most senior intelligence official, whose job is to coordinate policy and operations among the nation’s 16 spy agencies.
Gruff, blunt-speaking, and seen by many in the Obama administration as a throwback to the Cold War, the retired general is an unlikely diplomat but, in the words of one US official, “perfect for the North Koreans.”
Bae, 46, had been held for two years after being convicted of using a Christian evangelical organization, Youth with a Mission, to preach against the North Korean government and planning a “religious coup d’état.”
After a brief trial, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on a farm, raising concerns about his fragile health.
Miller, 25, entered North Korea seven months ago and reportedly tore up his visa, and by some accounts sought asylum. He was charged with unruly behavior, and North Korean officials suspected he was trying to get inside one of the country’s feared prison camps, to write about it later.
Together with the release last month of Jeffrey E. Fowle, who had been held for six months, the decision to let the two Americans go is the latest evidence that Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s unpredictable and untested young leader, is trying his first approaches to the Obama administration since taking power.
Officials would not say whether Clapper traveled with a letter from President Obama, but an administration official said he “was there to listen” and to “reiterate our views.”
Obama said Saturday that “we’re very grateful for their safe return” and praised Clapper for successfully completing what he called “a challenging mission.”
In fact, the image of Clapper’s flying into the last stronghold of hard-line communist dictatorship may be the director’s best chance to revise a national image that was bruised when he was asked, in an open congressional hearing, whether intelligence officials collected data about ordinary Americans. “No sir,” he responded. “Not wittingly.”
Months later, the revelations by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, made clear that, in the most charitable interpretation, Clapper had issued a misleading statement to protect classified programs.
Obama leaves Sunday for China, North Korea’s last protector. Presumably the subject of how to deal with Kim, for whom Chinese leaders have expressed their suspicion and disdain, will come up in meetings with President Xi Jinping.
Have they?
Miller, of Bakersfield, Calif., was accused of entering North Korea with the “ambition” to experience life in a North Korean prison and later become a firsthand witness about the human rights conditions in the North, the Associated Press and The Choson Sinbo, a South Korean paper, reported.
In recent weeks, a top North Korean diplomat, Jang Il Hun, met in New York with a group of Americans to argue that a United Nations report documenting the North’s extensive prison camp system was based on fabrications.
Yeah, and it came out right as the North and South started talking.
The ambassador seemed concerned that Kim could face charges at the International Criminal Court for human rights violations.
At least Israel does not have to worry.
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I'm crying for the South:
Prosecutors said members of the Yoo family, along with their deceased patriarch, embezzled $169 million from a church that Yoo Byung-eun helped found and from a fleet of companies including Chonghaejin, which were run with use of church funds and with loyal church members installed as business executives.
See: Son of S. Korean ferry owner guilty of embezzlement
"South Korea to make official inquiry into ferry sinking" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times November 08, 2014
SEOUL— The South Korean National Assembly passed a bill Friday initiating an independent investigation into the sinking of the ferry Sewol in April, which killed 304 people in a tragedy that traumatized and polarized the country.
The passing of the bill, together with two other bills engendered by the disaster, followed months of political bickering that has pitted President Park Geun-hye’s governing party against the victims’ families and the opposition parties that support them.
In May, when Park tearfully apologized for her government’s failure to prevent the disaster and for its bungling of rescue efforts, she endorsed a new independent inquiry that would supplement an investigation already undertaken by prosecutors.
Smells of cover up.
Park also promised to introduce bills to disband the coast guard and fight corporate and bureaucratic corruption that she said had helped create safety loopholes.
But talks on how to form an independent investigative commission proved highly divisive.
South Korea's 9/11 Commission?
Victims’ families and opposition lawmakers demanded a panel that would have the right to subpoena and prosecute government officials, saying the current investigations did not look broadly enough into the government’s failures. But the governing party and its conservative supporters resisted the demand, fearing the opposition might use such a panel to launch political offensives against Park.
It was only in recent weeks that the rival parties worked out a compromise. The 17-member panel will not have subpoena and indictment powers, but its chairman will be selected from candidates recommended by the families.
The families will also have veto power in selecting candidates for the special prosecutor, who will work in parallel with the commission and have subpoena and indictment powers.
The commission will operate for up to 18 months and the special prosecutor for up to six months.
On Friday, the National Assembly also passed a bill to create a national safety agency. The agency will absorb parts of the functions of the coast guard and national fire department, which will be disbanded in an effort to streamline the country’s emergency response system. Under the new law, the government will also create an agency to fight conflicts of interest involving government officials.
Also approved Friday was a bill that will enable the government to more aggressively search for and confiscate assets owned by people responsible for disasters like the ferry sinking.
Behaving like the North, aren't they?
The 6,825-ton Sewol capsized off southwestern South Korea on April 16, while carrying twice as much cargo as legally allowed. The accident was one of the country’s worst peacetime disasters. The vast majority of the dead were students trapped in the dangerously listing vessel after its crew repeatedly urged them to stay put.
A court is scheduled to sentence the ship’s captain and 14 other crew members Tuesday. Prosecutors have asked for the death penalty for the captain and for life imprisonment for three other senior crew members. The four have been charged with murder.
Separately, prosecutors Thursday asked for four to 15 years in prison for 11 ferry and cargo company officials and shipping inspectors on embezzlement or accidental homicide charges stemming from the disaster.
Earlier this week, Yoo Dae-kyoon, the eldest son of the business mogul who controlled the company that ran the Sewol ferry, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to three years in prison.
The authorities accused members of the Yoo family of stealing the equivalent of millions of dollars from the ferry company, money they said could have been used for safety measures that were not put in place on the Sewol.
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How about a round of applause for them, huh?
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Americans freed by North Korea grateful at not being forgotten
