Americans detained in Pyongyang call for help

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Americans detained in Pyongyang call for help

PYONGYANG — Two American tourists charged with “anti-state’’ crimes in North Korea said Friday they expect to be tried soon and pleaded for help from the U.S. government to secure their release from what they say could be long prison terms.

In their first appearance since being detained more than three months ago, Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle told a local AP
Television News crew that they were in good health and were being treated well.

They also said they were allowed to take daily walks. The brief meeting was conducted under the condition that the specific location not be disclosed.

Fowle said he fears his situation will get much worse once he goes on trial.

“The horizon for me is pretty dark,” he said. “I don’t know what the worst-case scenario would be, but I need help to extricate myself from this situation. I ask the government for help in that regard.”

It was not clear whether they were speaking on their own initiative, or if their comments were coerced. The TV crew was permitted to ask them questions.

North Korea says the two committed hostile acts that violated their status as tourists. It has announced that authorities are preparing to bring them before a court, but has not yet specified what they did that was considered hostile or illegal, or what kind of punishment they might face. The date of the trial has not been announced.

Fowle arrived in North Korea on April 29. He is suspected of leaving a Bible in a nightclub in the northern port city of Chongjin, but a spokesman for Fowle’s family said the 56-year-old, from Miamisburg, Ohio, was not on a mission for his church. Fowle works in the city streets department. He has a wife and three children, ages 9, 10, and 12.

“The window is closing on that process. It will be coming relatively soon, maybe within a month,’’ Fowle said of his trial. “I’m anxious to get home, I’m sure all of us are.’’

Fowle also produced a letter he said he had written summarizing his experience in North Korea. The attorney for Fowle’s family said Friday his wife hadn’t seen the video.

Less is known about Miller, or about what specific crime he allegedly committed.

North Korea’s state-run media have said the 24-year-old entered the country April 10 with a tourist visa, but tore it up at the airport and shouted that he wanted to seek asylum.

“I expect soon I will be going to trial for my crime and be sent to prison,” Miller said. “I have been requesting help from the American government, but have received no reply.”

Neighbor Carol Stewart said Miller first traveled to South Korea about four years ago to visit a brother stationed there with the U.S. Air Force.

He found work teaching English and learned Korean, Stewart said in an interview.

AP
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