Kenneth Bae, right, stands next to his sister Terri Chung, left, as he talks to reporters after being held in North Korea since 2012, on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. Bae, a U.S. missionary, was arrested in November 2012 in the northeastern city of Rason. Photographer: Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
Kenneth Bae, one of two Americans freed by North Korea after a secret U.S. mission, arrived home in better-than-expected health, asked for pizza and spent the night telling stories, his sister said.
Bae, a U.S. missionary, had been in deteriorating condition while serving a 15-year sentence to a labor camp for what the North Koreans called plans to overthrow the regime. His captors moved him to a hospital for about six weeks before he learned he was going home, his sister, Terri Chung, told television cameras outside her Seattle-area church.
“They told him there might be something, but I don’t think he knew until they told him to pack his bag and get on the plane,” she said, noting the family is “still really fuzzy” on how he realized the ordeal was ending. “We are just glad to have him home.”
Bae and Matthew Miller, who had been sentenced to years of hard labor for committing “hostile” acts, traveled to the U.S. accompanied by American intelligence chief James Clapper, who negotiated the men’s freedom in a one-day trip to North Korea, the first by a senior U.S. official in about two years. Chung said Bae’s family got a 2 a.m. phone call on Nov. 8 after hints earlier in the week that something might happen. He landed about 19 hours later.
“We just kind of held onto that and tried not to get our hopes up too much,” she said. As Bae and his family got home late that night, everyone realized they hadn’t eaten and began discussing which Korean restaurant might be open.
Bae said, “‘That’s all I’ve been eating for the last two years,” his sister recalled. “He said, ‘I want a burger or pizza or something.’ So we saw that Papa John’s was open around the corner.”
As Bae arrived yesterday by car at his mother’s house, he wore a blue jacket, smiled and appeared to walk easily. A companion said he wouldn’t answer questions.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Scheer in Seattle at dscheer@bloomberg.net; Britton Staniar in Seattle at bstaniar1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at peichenbaum@bloomberg.net Mike Millard, David Scheer
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