"They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set," President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday.
WASHINGTON--Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has secured the release of three Americans held as prisoners in North Korea and is flying home with them — a move that could further smooth relations ahead of the historic planned summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.
"I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting," Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. "They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set."
The president added in a second post that he would personally meet Pompeo and the three released prisoners upon their arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, scheduled for 2 a.m. Thursday.
The release of the three men comes amid larger negotiations over a planned meeting between Trump and the North Korean leader. POLITICO reported Tuesday afternoon that Pompeo was in the final stages of talks to secure the prisoners' freedom. Reuters and other outlets reported last week that the three had been moved from a labor camp to a hotel near Pyongyang.
The secretary of state’s visit to Pyongyang was intended to coincide with Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal, signaling progress on one foreign policy negotiation even as the administration withdrew from an agreement struck by former President Barack Obama.
"President Trump appreciates leader Kim Jong Un’s action to release these American citizens, and views this as a positive gesture of goodwill," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Wednesday morning. "The three Americans appear to be in good condition and were all able to walk on the plane without assistance. All Americans look forward to welcoming them home and to seeing them reunited with their loved ones."
The three men released Wednesday by North Korea are Kim Sang-duk and Kim Hak Song, both of whom were teaching at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology and who were detained in April and May of 2017, respectively, as well as Kim Dong Chul, a businessman arrested in 2015 on charges of spying for South Korea.
Their release also marks another step in the sudden warming of relations between the U.S. and North Korea, which began publicly earlier this year at the Winter Olympics in South Korea, where Vice President Mike Pence watched the opening ceremonies seated near a North Korean delegation that included Kim Jong Un’s sister.
Pompeo’s trip this week to North Korea was his second this spring and his first as secretary of state. The then-CIA director met over Easter weekend with Kim Jong Un, the first known instance of a U.S. official meeting with a North Korean leader since then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s face-to-face with Kim Jong Il in 2000.
