U.S.A.
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
November 17, 2014
American freed by North Korea asked for pizza
By Donna Blankinship
and Josh Lederman
The Associated Press
S
EATTLE — Kenneth Bae arrived home after two
years of imprisonment in North Korea, expressing
his gratitude to the U.S. government for securing
his release and revealing that his time there offered
lessons.
And his sister said that he had one stipulation for his
first meal back home: No Korean food.
“He said, ‘I don’t want Korean food, that’s all I’ve been
eating for the last two years,’” Terri Chung said outside
her Seattle church. “We had a late night eating pizza.”
Bae and Matthew Miller, another American who had
been held captive in North Korea, landed the evening of
November 8 at a Washington state military base after a
top U.S. intelligence official secured their release.
“It’s been an amazing two years, I learned a lot, I grew a
lot, I lost a lot of weight,” Bae, a Korean-American mis-
sionary with health problems, said at Joint Base Lewis-
McChord. Asked how he was feeling, he said, “I’m
recovering at this time.”
Bae, surrounded by family members, spoke briefly to
the media after the plane carrying him and Miller landed.
He thanked U.S. President Barack Obama and the people
who supported him and his family. He also thanked the
North Korean government for releasing him.
“I just want to say thank you all for supporting me and
standing by me,” Bae said. His family has said he suffers
from diabetes, an enlarged heart, liver problems, and back
pain.
Chung said Bae was in better shape when he arrived
than his family expected. She said he had spent about six
weeks in a North Korean hospital before he returned.
“That helped. As you know, he had gone back and forth
between the labor camp and hospital,” she said.
She said he was checked out by a doctor on the flight
back to the United States.
His plans for the near future include rest and food and
reconnecting with friends and family. Neither his wife nor
his children could make it back to Seattle in time for Bae’s
homecoming, his sister said.
They plan to gather the whole family together for the
Thanksgiving holiday, she said.
Members of Bae’s family, who live near the sprawling
military base south of Seattle, met him when he landed.
His mother hugged him after he got off the plane. Miller
stepped off the U.S. government aircraft a short time later
and also was greeted with hugs.
U.S. officials said Miller, of Bakersfield, California, and
Bae, of Lynnwood, Washington, flew back with James
Clapper, the director of national intelligence. Clapper was
the highest-ranking American to visit Pyongyang in more
than a decade.
Their release was the latest twist in the fitful
relationship between the Obama administration and the
young North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, whose
approach to the U.S. has shifted back and forth from
defiance to occasional conciliation.
A senior Obama administration official said the
president approved the mission and U.S. officials spent
several days planning the trip. Clapper spent roughly a
day on the ground and met with North Korean security
officials — but not with Kim, the official said aboard Air
Force One as Obama prepared to head to Beijing.
Clapper went with the sole purpose of bringing home
the two detainees, although the U.S. anticipated that
other issues of concern to the North would come up during
Clapper’s discussions, the official said.
“It was not to pursue any other diplomatic opening,”
said the official, who wasn’t authorized to comment by
name and demanded anonymity.
The U.S. had considered sending someone from outside
the government to retrieve the detainees, the official said,
but suggested Clapper after the North Koreans indicated
in recent weeks that they would release the detainees if
the U.S. sent a high-level official from Obama’s
administration.
Analysts who study North Korea said the decision to
free Bae and Miller now from long prison terms probably
was a bid to ease pressure in connection with its human-
rights record. A recent U.N. report documented rape, tor-
ture, executions, and forced labor in the North’s network
of prison camps, accusing the government of “widespread,
systematic, and gross” human-rights violations.
North Korea seems worried that Kim could be accused
in the International Criminal Court, said Sue Mi Terry, a
former senior intelligence analyst now at Columbia
University.
“This human-rights thing is showing itself to be an
unexpected leverage for the U.S.,” she said.
Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst now at the
Heritage Foundation, agreed that efforts to shine a
spotlight on the country’s human-rights record “startled
the regime and led to frantic attempts to derail the
process.”
Bae was serving a 15-year sentence for alleged anti-
government activities. He was detained in 2012 while
leading a tour group to a North Korea economic zone.
Miller was serving a six-year jail term on charges of
Juneau gets a new sister
city in the Philippines
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Juneau has a new sister city.
Community representatives have made official a sister-
city relationship with Kalibo, which is in the Aklan province
of the Philippines. Both communities have economic and
social similarities: They are tourism centers and capital
cities.
Roughly 800 of the 3,000 Filipinos living in Juneau are
from Aklan, KTOO reported.
Alex Carrillo said Juneau’s bond with Kalibo is more than
a sign of goodwill toward the Philippines.
“Filipinos are a big part of Juneau, I think. And it just
shows that the city of Juneau really appreciates us,” he said.
While in Juneau, the Kalibo delegation visited the Men-
denhall Glacier, Shrine of St. Therese, and local businesses.
Some expressed hope that the relationship will encourage
the cities to share goods, services, and information, and that
tourism would get a boost.
Dr. Makarius Dela Cruz, Kalibo’s municipal health officer,
said the Aklan province needs support to provide better
healthcare to its residents, and the local government in
Juneau could help with that.
John Pugh, chancellor of the University of Alaska
Southeast, said there also could be a trade in education,
including student and faculty exchanges.
CAPTIVITY CONCLUDED. Kenneth Bae, left, who had been held
in North Korea since 2012, hugs his mother, Myunghee Bae, after arriving
at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, after he was freed during a
top-secret mission by James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelli-
gence. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
espionage after he allegedly ripped up his tourist visa at
Pyongyang’s airport in April and demanded asylum.
North Korea said Miller had wanted to experience prison
life so he could secretly investigate the country’s human-
rights situation.
Bae and Miller were the last two Americans held
captive by the reclusive Communist country.
Last month, North Korea released Jeffrey Fowle of
Miamisburg, Ohio, who was held for nearly six months.
He reportedly left a bible in a nightclub in the hope that it
would reach North Korea’s underground Christian
community.
Fowle said his fellow Americans’ release is “an answer
to a prayer.” He said he initially thought Bae and Miller
had been released with him last month. “I didn’t realize
they weren’t released with me until I got on the plane,” he
said.
Bae and Miller had told The Associated Press that they
believed their only chance of release was the intervention
of a high-ranking government official or a senior U.S.
statesman. Previously, former presidents Bill Clinton and
Jimmy Carter had gone to North Korea on separate
occasions to take detainees home.
Victor Cha, a North Korea expert and former national
security official in the George W. Bush administration,
said Clapper was the most senior U.S. official to visit
North Korea since then-Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright went in 2000 and met with Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong
Un’s father.
Cha said sending Clapper would have satisfied North
Korea’s desire for a cabinet-level visitor, while avoiding
some of the diplomatic baggage of dispatching a regular
U.S. government official. The U.S. and North Korea do not
have formal ties, a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War
that ended without a peace treaty.
The detainee releases do not herald a change in U.S.
posture regarding North Korea’s disputed nuclear
program, the main source of tension between Pyongyang
and Washington, said a senior administration official who
spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss national
security matters.
International aid-for-disarmament talks have been
stalled since 2008.
The last concerted U.S. effort to restart those
negotiations collapsed in spring 2012.
The U.S. notified allies of Clapper’s trip to North Korea
and alerted members of the congressional leadership once
his visit was underway, the official said.
Chung said her brother was staying with family
members and enjoyed visiting with his loved ones upon his
return.
“He was cut off from all of that for two years,” she said.
“His only contacts were his guard, and maybe doctors and
a handful of times the Swedish embassy.”
Chung said she was thrilled to have her brother home
and that “he bears no ill will” over his ordeal.
Associated Press writers Ken Dilanian and Matthew Pennington;
AP Diplomatic writer Matthew Lee; White House Correspondent
Julie Pace; AP writer Nedra Pickler; AP National Security writer
Lara Jakes in Muscat, Oman; and AP writer John Seewer
in Toledo, Ohio contributed to this report.
Oregon Christmas tree grower gives trees hot bath
OREGON CITY, Ore. (AP) — An
Oregon grower is giving its Christmas
trees a hot bath before shipping to make
sure buyers don’t get slugs and yellow
jackets as unexpected presents.
The Kirk Company of Oregon City
sends harvested trees on conveyer belts
through an enclosed washer to kill or
knock off pests, the agricultural
publication Capital Press reports.
“What you’re trying to do with that is
control hitchhikers,” said Bob Bishop, a
trade specialist with the federal Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The trees also get moisturized and
stay fresh and green longer, he said.
It’s the second year the company has
tried the experiment that’s drawing
attention from foreign agricultural
officials and other Oregon growers who
are less likely than Kirk to have the
water or electrical capacity to bathe
trees.
“Growers in general hope it doesn’t
come to this,” said Chal Landgren, a
Christmas tree specialist with the
Oregon State University Extension
Service.
Oregon leads the nation in Christmas
tree production with about 7 million
trees sold in 2013, or 17 percent of the
U.S. total, according to federal statistics.
The crop is worth more than $100
million a year.
Agriculture
officials
from
the
Philippines and Malaysia observed the
washing process earlier this month.
Kirk co-owner Gary Snyder said the
Hawaiian market is his biggest concern.
Inspectors in the state are leery of
invasive species and require fumigation
if bugs are discovered in a load of trees.
“I’m shipping 75 to 80 containers to
Hawaii,” Snyder said. “If less than five of
them get held up for slugs, I’ll feel
successful.”
The Kirk Company ships about
500,000 trees a year and has operations
in Oregon, Washington, North Carolina,
and Nova Scotia.