SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Wednesday offered its first official confirmation that it had detained a U.S. soldier who bolted into its country last month, releasing a
germany. how much he appreciates this country. he was charged with aiding terrorism after the failed coup of erdogan. ed: ridiculous charges. pete: attest to the fact that this president has been willing to time and time again to throw down for americans held abroad. trish: this is a big win for this administration and for president trump. it s also a win for sanctions. a lot of times people say sanctions don t really work. i would argue they do. this is proof of how we can use economic sanctions. ed: only a few months ago josh holt another american held in venezuela this president got i m hut without paying any ransom. marc thiessen was on fox saying this president has been all over this issue trying to get americans freed. watch. this is the 17th american, by my count, that president trump has freed from foreign captivity. there was the four americans in north korea. american aid worker in egypt. three ucla basketball
right. you noted that suggestion two days ago. wasn t the first time we heard the president. after the second meeting took place between kim jong-un and president xi he saw sort of a change in tone there. i want to make one other point that s important to consider right now. the letter appeared to have blind sided our allies. the president said he spoken to. consider the fact that more than 24 foreign journalists were in north korea at the time. they were tilstill in north kor. they were to witness the alleged dismantling of that nuclear test site. to be clear why the president has been talking about how happy he is to have brought the hostages home there were some americans and foreign reporters in north korea when this took
place. they remain in north korea right now which speaks to how rapidly this came together. this wasn t any consideration of do we want everybody to get out of north korea before we take this action. the president himself referred to the potential for reckless and foolish acts. he talked about how the nuclear capability of u.s. is so much stronger and more powerful than north korea s. he did suggest the potential for a real moment exists right now. there were some foreigners, including americans in north korea at the time he made the very assessment. indeed there were. i think this can get back on track.
they are landing a short time ago en route back to the united states where we expect them to arrive at 2:00 in the morning. secretary pompeo sent out the tweet. i had productive meetings in pyongyang and made progress. i m delighted to bring home three americans, end tweet. julie: incredible news coming in overnight. the president has alluded to the fact and now confirmed that a set date and place meeting between the leader of the free world and kim jong-un, a very first in american history, is set to go. obviously he had been working behind the scenes with kim jong-un, with the north korean dictatorship assuring that there would be talks. part of those talks ahead of those talks the north korean leader releases these three americans, which quite frankly is a shock to see but also a sign, of course, like you mentioned earlier, let s not get ahead of ourselves, but a positive sign of things to come on these talks. bill: on that point, too.