MERRILL NEWMAN, AMERICAN DETAINED IN NORTH KOREA, REPORTEDLY IN GOOD HEALTH
Fahima Haque
Dec 2nd 2013
Associated Press writers Foster Klug and Eun-Young Jeong, and Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The family of an elderly U.S. tourist detained for more than a month in North Korea said Saturday the Swedish ambassador has seen the man and found him to be in good health.
Merrill Newman's family in California said in a statement that the State Department told them that the Swedish ambassador to North Korea had visited the 85-year-old at a Pyongyang hotel.
"We were very pleased to hear that the Ambassador was allowed to pay this first visit to Merrill," the statement said. "As a result of the visit, we know that Merrill is in good health. ... Merrill reports that he is being well treated and that the food is good."
An Obama administration official called for his release, urging North Korea to consider his age and health conditions.
Sweden handles consular issues for Americans in North Korea as the U.S. and North Korea have no diplomatic relations.
Newman's family said the ambassador's visit eased their concerns about his health, and pleaded with North Korean authorities to take his health and age into account and let him go as an act of humanitarian compassion.
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Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Monday, December 2, 2013
Friday, November 22, 2013
Did North Korea Detain the Wrong US Korean War Vet?
Did North Korea Detain the Wrong US Korean War Vet?
ABC News
By COLLEEN CURRY
Nov. 22, 2013
North Korean authorities pulled a visiting tourist U.S. citizen off a plane last month and have been detaining him in the country ever since, but may have mistaken the man for another American of the same name.
Merrill E. Newman, an 85-year-old grandfather from Palo Alto, Calif., traveled to North Korea last month with a tour group out of Beijing.
Authorities have kept Newman's situation quiet for weeks, but former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former ambassador to the U.N., confirmed to ABC News today he has been in touch with his North Korean contacts working on the situation. The State Department has declined to release details about Newman's status.
Newman was a Korean War veteran, one of many that has gone back to visit North Korea in the decades after their service.
But another North Korean veteran named Merrill H. Newman, age 84, was, until recently, the better-known Merrill Newman. He received a Silver Star for his time in the Korean War.
"The thought entered my head," said Merrill H. Newman, reached at his home in Beaverton, Ore. "The name is the same and there's always that possibility, but I have no way of knowing."
"The thing that has been kicked around by media people, not me, is that I received a Silver Star for 60 years ago in Korea and I have the same name, so the question has come up, could it be that in the process of maybe Googling, like anybody can, and finding that perhaps they thought there was a connection there? I don't know. I have no way of knowing," he said.
read more here
ABC News
By COLLEEN CURRY
Nov. 22, 2013
North Korean authorities pulled a visiting tourist U.S. citizen off a plane last month and have been detaining him in the country ever since, but may have mistaken the man for another American of the same name.
Merrill E. Newman, an 85-year-old grandfather from Palo Alto, Calif., traveled to North Korea last month with a tour group out of Beijing.
Authorities have kept Newman's situation quiet for weeks, but former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former ambassador to the U.N., confirmed to ABC News today he has been in touch with his North Korean contacts working on the situation. The State Department has declined to release details about Newman's status.
Newman was a Korean War veteran, one of many that has gone back to visit North Korea in the decades after their service.
But another North Korean veteran named Merrill H. Newman, age 84, was, until recently, the better-known Merrill Newman. He received a Silver Star for his time in the Korean War.
"The thought entered my head," said Merrill H. Newman, reached at his home in Beaverton, Ore. "The name is the same and there's always that possibility, but I have no way of knowing."
"The thing that has been kicked around by media people, not me, is that I received a Silver Star for 60 years ago in Korea and I have the same name, so the question has come up, could it be that in the process of maybe Googling, like anybody can, and finding that perhaps they thought there was a connection there? I don't know. I have no way of knowing," he said.
read more here
Sunday, July 7, 2013
AP IMPACT: MIA work 'acutely dysfunctional'
AP IMPACT: MIA work 'acutely dysfunctional'
Associated Press
ROBERT BURNS
51 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's effort to account for tens of thousands of Americans missing in action from foreign wars is so inept, mismanaged and wasteful that it risks descending from "dysfunction to total failure," according to an internal study suppressed by military officials.
Largely beyond the public spotlight, the decades-old pursuit of bones and other MIA evidence is sluggish, often duplicative and subjected to too little scientific rigor, the report says.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the internal study after Freedom of Information Act requests for it by others were denied.
The report paints a picture of a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a military-run group known as JPAC and headed by a two-star general, as woefully inept and even corrupt. The command is digging up too few clues on former battlefields, relying on inaccurate databases and engaging in expensive "boondoggles" in Europe, the study concludes.
In North Korea, the JPAC was snookered into digging up remains between 1996 and 2000 that the North Koreans apparently had taken out of storage and planted in former American fighting positions, the report said.
Washington paid the North Koreans hundreds of thousands of dollars to "support" these excavations.
Associated Press
ROBERT BURNS
51 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's effort to account for tens of thousands of Americans missing in action from foreign wars is so inept, mismanaged and wasteful that it risks descending from "dysfunction to total failure," according to an internal study suppressed by military officials.
Largely beyond the public spotlight, the decades-old pursuit of bones and other MIA evidence is sluggish, often duplicative and subjected to too little scientific rigor, the report says.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the internal study after Freedom of Information Act requests for it by others were denied.
The report paints a picture of a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a military-run group known as JPAC and headed by a two-star general, as woefully inept and even corrupt. The command is digging up too few clues on former battlefields, relying on inaccurate databases and engaging in expensive "boondoggles" in Europe, the study concludes.
In North Korea, the JPAC was snookered into digging up remains between 1996 and 2000 that the North Koreans apparently had taken out of storage and planted in former American fighting positions, the report said.
Washington paid the North Koreans hundreds of thousands of dollars to "support" these excavations.
The failings cited by the report reflect one aspect of a broader challenge to achieving a uniquely American mission — accounting for the estimated 73,661 service members still listed as missing from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
read more here
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
President Clinton's trip success, journalists released
U.S. journalists' families welcome N. Korea pardon
North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said today. News of the pardons came hours after former President Bill Clinton met with the North Korean leader to discuss the case of reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Clinton has now left the country, KCNA reports. developing story
North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said today. News of the pardons came hours after former President Bill Clinton met with the North Korean leader to discuss the case of reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Clinton has now left the country, KCNA reports. developing story
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