President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was bringing home three Americans who had been imprisoned in North Korea for "hostile acts."
The North Korean regime accused all three of anti-state activities. The three Korean-Americans, who are now released:
Tony Kim
Kim was teaching at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, funded by evangelical Christians from the U.S. and China. After a few months in North Korea, he was detained last year at Pyongyang airport while trying to leave the country and was accused of "hostile acts." His wife is presumably still in North Korea.
Kim Dong Chul
Kim, from Fairfax, Virginia, lived in a special economic zone in Rason, North Korea, where he ran a trading and hotel services company. He was arrested in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years hard labor in 2016 for spying and other charges.
Korean-American Kim Dong Chul enters a courtroom in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 29, 2016. KCNA via Reuters/File Photo
Kim Hak Song
Kim is a South Korean born in China and became a U.S. citizen in the 2000s after studying in California. He was doing agricultural development work at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology and living in Pyongyang. He was accused of "hostile acts" in 2017.
President Trump tweeted that he would be meeting the trio when they arrive at Andrews Air Force Base with Pompeo at 2 a.m. ET Thursday. "Very exciting!" he added.