Trump greets the American prisoners released from DPRK

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02:29

President Donald Trump greeted three US nationals, Kim Dong-chul, Kim Sang-duk (Tony Kim) and Kim Hak-song, at the Andrews Air Force Base early on Thursday.

The trio, who had been detained in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), returned to the US with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump tweeted on Wednesday.

The former detainees issued a statement, released by the State Department, thanking the US government, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for securing their release.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," the joint statement attributed to the three men said.

The three Korean-Americans had been in DPRK custody since April 2016, April 2017, and May 2017 respectively due to espionage or "hostile acts."

Trump and First Lady Melania walked up the stairs to board the plane after it landed at Joint Base Andrews, a military base outside Washington, DC, at around 2:40 a.m. (0640 GMT).

US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with US detainee Tony Kim (C) as US Vice President Mike Pence (back L) and Melania Trump (L) look on, upon arrival after the three detainees were freed by the DPRK, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 10, 2018. /VCG Photo

They emerged a few minutes later with the three former detainees to the cheers of watching military personnel. All three former prisoners smiled. Two lifted their arms above their heads and made "V for victory" signs.

"Special night for these three really great people," Trump said. “The fact that we were able to get them out so soon was really a tribute to a lot of people including a certain process that’s taking place right now.”

Referring to the possibility of reaching a denuclearization deal with the DPRK, Trump said: "We will see if we can do something that people did not think was going to happen for many, many years and a lot of bad things could have happened in between."

"My proudest achievement will be – this is part of it – when we denuclearize that entire peninsula," he said, adding that he really believed that Kim Jong Un wanted to bring his country "into the real world."

US President Donald Trump (top L) and his wife Melania Trump (top R) walk down the stairs with US detainees Tony Kim (2nd from bottom), Kim Dong-chul (bottom) and Kim Hak-song (C) upon their return after they were released by the DPRK, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 10, 2018. /VCG Photo

Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang-duk, who also goes by Tony Kim, were detained separately in the spring of 2017 for unspecified "hostile acts" against the DPRK. Both taught at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

Kim Sang-duk's son Sol Kim said it had been an agonizing year waiting for his father’s release. "Yeah, it's very stressful. I think as time goes, I think it slowly wears you down more, starts to feel heavier … the last few steps for him to be released seems to be going a lot slower than maybe the first year or the whole year."

The DPRK arrested Kim Dong-chul in October 2015 for spying and sentenced him to 10 years of hard labor.

Asked him how he was treated while a prisoner, Kim replied, "We were treated in many different ways. For me, I had to do a lot of labor, but when I got sick, I was also treated by them,” he said.

Before the release of the three, the only American released by the DPRK during Trump’s presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the United States in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later.

Warmbier's death escalated US-DPRK tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyang's stepped-up missile tests.

All three released detainees appear to be in good health. A White House spokeswoman said they would be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in nearby Maryland for further medical evaluation.

The release was praised by the White House as a "gesture of goodwill" and appeared to signal an effort by Kim to set a more favorable mood for the summit. It followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site.

(CGTN's Jim Spellman also contributed to this story.)

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