North Korea releases imprisoned Americans Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller

Final­ly, some good news for a change!

The Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion announced today that it has secured the release of Ken­neth Bae and Matthew Miller, two Amer­i­cans who were being held by North Korea. Both are on their way home to the Unit­ed States on a U.S. air­craft with Nation­al Intel­li­gence Direc­tor James Clap­per, who secret­ly flew to North Korea to res­cue them from the clutch­es of the regime.

Asked to com­ment on the release of Bae and Miller fol­low­ing an event intro­duc­ing his nom­i­nee for Attor­ney Gen­er­al, Loret­ta Lynch, Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma said, “Well, I think it’s a won­der­ful day for them and their fam­i­lies.  And obvi­ous­ly, we’re very grate­ful for their safe return. And I appre­ci­ate Direc­tor Clap­per doing a great job on what was obvi­ous­ly a chal­leng­ing mission.”

Of the two men, Bae had been held the longest, hav­ing been impris­oned just over two years ago, in Novem­ber of 2012. He was arrest­ed while lead­ing a tour group in North Korea, and lat­er “con­vict­ed” of attempt­ing to over­throw the regime.

Bae’s sis­ter, who has plead­ed with both North Korea and the U.S. gov­ern­ment to help her broth­er, released a state­ment express­ing her great relief.

The day we’ve been pray­ing for has final­ly arrived! Ear­ly this morn­ing, my fam­i­ly heard news from the US State Depart­ment that my broth­er was on a plane from DPRK (North Korea) with fel­low detainee Matthew Todd Miller. They had left North Kore­an air­space, bound for America.

Words can­not ade­quate­ly express our relief and grat­i­tude that Ken­neth is final­ly com­ing home! We have been wait­ing for and pray­ing for this day for two years. This ordeal has been excru­ci­at­ing for the fam­i­ly, but we are filled with joy right now.

I am thrilled to imag­ine hug­ging my broth­er soon. He will not have to spend anoth­er day at a labor camp. He can now recov­er from this impris­on­ment and look for­ward to his wife, kids and rest of his life. Our Thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tion this year will be one we will nev­er forget.

We sin­cere­ly thank the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment for all the hard work and ded­i­ca­tion to secur­ing my broth­er’s release, as well as the release of Matthew Todd Miller. We are also grate­ful to the DPRK gov­ern­ment for allow­ing them to come home. We must also thank the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang for their tire­less efforts to advo­cate for Ken­neth dur­ing his pro­longed imprisonment.

We are grate­ful to every­one who has sup­port­ed my broth­er’s cause, includ­ing reporters and edi­tors who cared enough to see this through. We are thank­ful for peo­ple here in Seat­tle and across the world who have con­tin­ued to advo­cate and pray for Kenneth.

We believe that God is with peo­ple who endure hard­ship, and that He nev­er leaves them. It is with great joy and with thank­ful­ness to God to see Ken­neth released. Our fam­i­ly could not have been sus­tained with­out the knowl­edge that Ken­neth was in God’s care, when it seemed we were help­less to do anything.

U.S. Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell hailed Bae’s release.

“It is over­due but much appre­ci­at­ed good news to hear of North Kore­a’s release of Wash­ing­ton res­i­dent Ken­neth Bae. Puget Sound and Lyn­nwood, Wash­ing­ton, can­not wait to wel­come him home,” she said in a press release.

“I want to thank the State Depart­ment, Direc­tor of Nation­al Intel­li­gence James Clap­per and the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion for secur­ing the release of Mr. Bae.

“Ken­neth Bae’s fam­i­ly remained resolved and focused for the last two years, con­stant­ly advo­cat­ing for his release. His sis­ter, Ter­ri, and son, Jonathan, made numer­ous trips to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., and oth­er loca­tions advo­cat­ing for Ken­neth.  They were stead­fast. For all those involved, we give our heart­felt thanks for end­ing what could have been more than a decade of fur­ther detain­ment of Ken­neth Bae. It will be good to have Ken­neth on Amer­i­can soil.”

U.S. Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray agreed.

“I am so thrilled that Ken­neth Bae has final­ly been released from North Korea along with Matthew Todd Miller. It has been a long two years for Kenneth’s fam­i­ly, but they nev­er stopped fight­ing for him, and they nev­er lost faith that this day would come. Kenneth’s fam­i­ly has spent the last two years doing every­thing they could to has­ten this moment and see their broth­er, son, father, and hus­band once again.”

“Kenneth’s sis­ter Ter­ri, in par­tic­u­lar, has made it her per­son­al mis­sion to bring her broth­er back and her pow­er­ful voice and hard work tru­ly helped make this day pos­si­ble. This is a great day for Kenneth’s fam­i­ly, friends, and all of us in Wash­ing­ton who have worked, hoped, and prayed for Kenneth’s return over the last two years.”

This region has been in need of some­thing to cel­e­brate, and the release of Ken­neth Bae and Matthew Miller is unques­tion­ably a joy­ous occa­sion. Thanks­giv­ing will indeed be all the more won­der­ful this year because these Amer­i­cans will be back home in the Unit­ed States with their families.

Wel­come home, Ken­neth and Matthew!