WASHINGTON/SEOUL // The United States has called on North Korea to release an elderly US military veteran held in custody since October and who is accused of killing civilians during the Korean War 60 years ago.
Merrill E Newman, 85, a former special forces officer, is in good health, his family said after getting an update on his condition from Swedish diplomats who had visited him in the North Korean capital over the weekend.
“He has received the medications that we sent him and medical personnel are checking on his health several times a day. Merrill reports that he is being well treated and that the food is good,” the family said.
Sweden’s North Korean embassy gives consular help to the United States, which has no mission there.
The family, based in California, called on North Korea to release Mr Newman, who has a heart rhythm disorder, as an act of compassion, taking into account his health and his age.
“All of us want this ordeal to end and for the 85-year-old head of our extended family to be with us once more.”
Swedish embassy officials were granted access on Saturday to visit Newman, the US State Department said, the first access by Western officials to him since his arrest.
Mr Newman was detained at the end of a trip to communist North Korea. The country has no diplomatic relations with the United States which fought alongside South Korea in the 1950-53 war.
“Given Mr Newman’s advanced age and health conditions, we urge the DPRK to release Mr Newman so he may return home and reunite with his family,” a State Department official said.
On Saturday, North Korea showcased Mr Newman as a criminal, showing a video of him making a full confession and apology as if the battles of the Korean War were still raging.
The state KCNA news agency said Mr Newman had been a mastermind of clandestine operations and confessed to being “guilty of a long list of indelible crimes against DPRK government and Korean people”.
* Reuters