WASHINGTON — Will three U.S. citizens detained by North Korea finally be allowed to leave the country? President Donald Trump seems to think so. On Wednesday night, he tweeted out a message that suggested the Americans could soon go free.
Trump tweeted, “As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned!”
(Two of the three prisoners were in fact detained by North Korea after Trump’s inauguration.)
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, now a member of Trump’s legal team, also indicated the possibility of release on Thursday in an interview with Fox News. “We got Kim Jong Un impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today,” he said.
Here is a look at the men who might soon go free:
Kim Hak-song: Hak-song was detained by North Korean officials last year. The agricultural consultant is being held on accusations of having planned “hostile acts,” a vague term that has been used to charge individuals with attempts to overthrow the regime.
Kim Dong-chul: Dong-chul is the only one of the three prisoners who was detained before Trump’s inauguration, in October 2015.
The former Virginia resident is now in his mid-60s and was living in the Chinese city of Yanji before he was detained. North Korea sentenced him to 10 years in prison for allegedly spying on and trying to subvert North Korea.
Tony Kim: The 59-year old accountant, who was born in South Korea but was a naturalized U.S. citizen, had been teaching at the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in Yanji for more than 15 years. He was detained by North Korean authorities on April 22, 2017, as he was trying to leave the country with his wife, who has since returned to the U.S. He was accused of “acts of hostility” and aiming to overthrow the regime.
