3 Americans Freed From North Korea Arrive Back In The U.S.
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Three Americans freed from North Korea arrived back in the United States early Thursday morning.
A military C-40 plane carrying Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim landed shortly before 3 a.m. at Joint Base Andrews near Washington D.C.
President Donald Trump was on hand to greet the three Korean-Americans. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump climbed red-carpeted stairs to privately welcome the trio aboard their plane.
The three former detainees will be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for further evaluation and medical treatment, the White House says.
Their freedom is a bonus from the warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.
The men were released Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid final plans for a Trump-Kim summit.
Singapore is the likely site for the historic meeting, late this month or in early June, and Pompeo says it would last one day and possibly a second.
State Department officials took great pains to keep three former detainees sequestered as they are flown back to the mainland U.S.
The three men, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.
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