May 9, 2018

North Korea Releases Three Detained Americans

President Trump announced the news on Twitter in prelude to a planned nuclear summit.

Al Drago/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The three Americans detained in North Korea have been released and are making their way back to the US with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trump announced on Twitter Wednesday morning. The move comes as Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un finalize plans to meet to discuss terms to officially ending the Korean war and denuclearize North Korea. 

The president said that the three men appeared to be in “good health” and that he looked forward to meeting them.

Trump’s tweets repeated the administration’s claim that a date and time for the summit have been set, although he again did not provide any additional details.

Last week, Trump falsely asserted that the Obama administration had failed to secure the release of the three men, when only one of men, Kim Dong-Chul, had even been imprisoned during Obama’s presidency. Two of the men, Kim Hak-Song and Tony Kim, were detained after Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. 

Trump’s announcement comes one day after Trump officially withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal, a decision his predecessor condemned as “so misguided.” Obama argued that Trump’s Iran decision “risks losing a deal that accomplishes” what the US is aiming to do with North Korea.

This is a breaking news post. We will update as more information becomes available. 

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate