N. Korea frees US man

Atlanta – Former President Jimmy Carter was expected to arrive in the United States yesterday with a United States citizen who was imprisoned in North Korea after entering the isolated communist nation illegally in January, the Carter Centre said here.North Korea sentenced the American, Aijalon Mahli Gomes, to eight years of hard labour and a fine of about US$600 000 (BDS$1.2 million) for illegally crossing its border with China and for an unspecified “hostile act”.“At the request of President Carter, and for humanitarian purposes, Gomes was granted amnesty by the chairman of the National Defence Commission, Kim Jong-Il,” the Carter Centre said in a statement. “It is expected that Mr Gomes will be returned to Boston, Massachusetts, early Friday afternoon, to be reunited with his mother and other members of his family.”The Gomes family planned to issue a statement about the release yesterday, said spokeswoman Thaleia Schlesinger.The United States State Department welcomed the development.“We . . . are relieved that he will soon be safely reunited with his family,” said department spokesman P.J. Crowley.“We appreciate former President Carter’s humanitarian effort and welcome North Korea’s decision to grant Mr Gomes special amnesty . . . .“The US and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations and as the case of Mr Gomes illustrates, travel to North Korea is not routine or risk-free,” Crowley added.Two American journalists – Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had crossed the border into North Korea in March 2009 and were arrested and sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour – were released in August 2009 after an intervention by former United States President Bill Clinton.Carter arrived in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang on Wednesday on a humanitarian mission to negotiate the release of Gomes, believed to be a Christian activist. His visit was a private mission, and was not endorsed by the Barack Obama administration.Carter was greeted by Kim Gye Gwan, North Korea’s chief negotiator at the six-party nuclear talks, and he also met the country’s titular head of state, Kim Jong Nam, according to state-run media in North Korea.“Jimmy Carter made an apology to Kim Yong Nam for American Gomes’ illegal entry into [North Korea] and gave him the assurance that such a case will never happen again,” the Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. (CNN)