A smile flickered across Aijalon Gomes’ face as he hugged former US president Jimmy Carter and boarded a plane for Boston yesterday, seven months after his arrest in North Korea.
Carter flew to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, this week on a private mission to secure a pardon for the 31-year-old American.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il granted Carter’s request to “leniently forgive” Gomes, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, and Carter and Gomes were due back in Boston later yesterday for a reunion with his mother, Carter’s spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said in Atlanta, Georgia.
There was no indication that Kim — who was making a surprise trip to China this week — met with Carter as widely anticipated.
In Washington, the State Department welcomed the news of Gomes’ release.
We “are relieved that he will soon be safely reunited with his family,” spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
Gomes was the fourth American in a year arrested for illegally crossing the border into North Korea.
Journalists Laura Ling (凌志美), a Taiwanese American, and Euna Lee were arrested in March and released only after former US president Bill Clinton made a similar trip to Pyongyang to plead for their freedom.
Activist Robert Park deliberately crossed into the country from China in December last year, but was expelled some 40 days later after issuing an apology carried by North Korean state media.
Aijalon Gomes, who had been teaching English in South Korea, attended rallies in Seoul in January calling for Park’s release. He was arrested in North Korea just two weeks later.
In April, he was sentenced to eight years hard labor and fined 70 million won (US$600,000) for sneaking into the country illegally and committing a “hostile act.”
There were concerns about Gomes’ health. Last month, North Korean media said Gomes attempted suicide “driven by his strong guilty conscience, disappointment and despair at the US government, that has not taken any measure for his freedom.”
A US delegation tried unsuccessfully in a secret visit to Pyongyang earlier this month to secure his release.
This week’s decision to “set free the illegal entrant is a manifestation of [North Korea’s] humanitarianism and peace-loving policy,” KCNA said.
On Friday, Gomes looked markedly thin, but relieved. He was dressed in a striped polo shirt and slacks in footage from the tarmac aired by broadcaster APTN in Pyongyang.
Footage showed a young girl giving Carter a snappy salute and a bouquet. Carter returned the salute, gave her a hug and kiss, and paused to pose with her for a photo. Top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan and senior diplomat Ri Gun shook Carter’s hand and then waved as the plane took off in a drizzling rain.
The Carter Center, the Atlanta-based organization founded by Carter and his wife, Roslynn, and US officials have emphasized that the former president’s trip was a private humanitarian mission.
KCNA said Carter met with North Korea’s No. 2 official, Kim Yong-nam, who relayed Pyongyang’s interest in resuming the six-nation disarmament talks and reiterated the regime’s commitment to denuclearization.
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