North Korea releases US war vet detained since October

North Korea freed an 85-year-old U.S. veteran of the Korean War Saturday after detention that lasted more than a month. Merrill Newman's release ended the saga in which he attempted to visit the North as a tourist six decades after he oversaw a group of South Korean wartime guerrillas still loathed by Pyongyang.

The decision by North Korea to release Newman, who had been detained since late October, came after he apologized for his alleged crimes, which included charges of "hostile acts" and accusations that he killed innocent people during the Korean War. North Korea also cited Newman's age and an undisclosed medical condition as factors in his release. 

"I am very glad to be on my way home," a smiling Newman told reporters after arriving at the airport in Beijing, China from the North Korean capital Pyongyang. "And I appreciate the tolerance the (North Korean) government has given to me to be on my way."

"I feel good," Newman said, adding with a laugh that the first thing he planned to do was "go home and see my wife."

Newman flew to China from North Korea in the morning. Hours later he left on a United Airlines flight to San Francisco to be reunited with his family, sources at Beijing airport told Reuters. Newman lives in a retirement community in Palo Alto, Calif. 

Newman's release came hours before Vice President Joe Biden, who was on a state visit to South Korea, visited the demilitarized zone which has split the Korean peninsula since the 1950-1953 Korean War. Biden, however, said he had no direct role in securing his release, but did speak to Newman by telephone.

"I offered him a ride home on Air Force Two, but as he pointed out, there's a direct flight to San Francisco, so I don't blame him, I'd be on that flight too," Biden told reporters.

Last month, Newman read from an awkwardly worded, alleged confession in which he apologized for, among other things, killing North Koreans during the war. They were his first words since being taken off a plane by North Korean authorities on Oct. 26 while he was getting ready to leave the country after a 10-day tour. 

Analysts questioned whether the statement was coerced, and former South Korean guerrillas who had worked with Newman and fought behind enemy lines during the war disputed some of the details.

The televised statement read by Newman also said he was attempting to meet surviving guerrilla fighters he had trained during the conflict so he could reconnect them with their wartime colleagues living in South Korea and that he had criticized the North during his recent trip.

Members of the former South Korean guerrilla group said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that Newman was their adviser. Some have expressed surprise that Newman would take the risk of visiting North Korea given his association with their group, which is still remembered with keen hatred in the North. Others were amazed Pyongyang still considered Newman a threat.

"Why did North Korea make such a big fuss?" Park Chan-wu, a former guerrilla who worked with Newman during the war, said. "It's been 60 years since he worked as our adviser."

Newman's political value had "expired" for North Korea, said Chang Yong Seok, a senior researcher at Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies. So Newman's written apology and the TV broadcast were enough for Pyongyang to show outsiders that it has maintained its dignity — something the proud country views as paramount, said Chang.

Newman's detention highlights the extreme sensitivity with which Pyongyang views the 1950-53 war, which ended without a formal peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula sill technically in a state of war. The conflict is a regular focus of North Korean propaganda and media, which accuse Pyongyang's wartime enemies Washington and Seoul of carrying on the fighting by continuing to push for the North's overthrow.

"The release is vintage North Korea," Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Hawaii, told the AP. "They always try to capture the attention away from something that might make (South Korea) look good and get the spotlight on them instead. Normally they do this by doing something negative. At least in this instance, it was a positive gesture."

Meanwhile, U.S. officials also urged urged Pyongyang to free another U.S. citizen, Kenneth Bae, a 45-year-old tour operator and Christian missionary, who was arrested a year ago and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on charges of seeking to topple the government.

"It's a positive thing they have done," Biden said of Newman's release, "but they have Mr. Bae who has no reason being held in the North and should be released immediately and we are going to continue to demand his release as well."

Bae's family, who live in the Seattle area, released a statement welcoming Newman's release.

"We have been praying for him and are very happy that his family will have him at the head of their table for the holidays," the Bae family said. "We believe that our Kenneth should also come home soon."

Al Jazeera and wire services