US President Donald Trump greeted three Americans released by North Korea at an air base near Washington early on Thursday, underscoring a much needed diplomatic win and a stepping stone to a historic summit with Kim Jong Un.
Trump and first lady Melania made the short helicopter ride from the White House to Joint Base Andrews to personally welcome Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul back to the United States, after their release from North Korea on Wednesday.
The president and his wife strode up the steps into the blue and white plane to greet them privately before coming out before TV cameras in the middle of the night.
Trump praised Kim for freeing the Americans ahead of the planned summit between the two leaders.
One of the former prisoners waved his arms from atop the steps, and another while down on the tarmac.
"It was understood that we would be able to get these three terrific people during the meeting and bring them home after the meeting," Mr Trump said. "He was nice in letting them go before the meeting. Frankly, we didn't think this was going to happen. And it did."
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Remarking on the sudden shift in US relations with North Korea and the upcoming summit, Mr Trump said: "We're starting off on a new footing... he released the folks early. It's a big thing. Very important to me.
"And I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful and if anybody would have said that five years ago, 10 years ago - even a year ago - you would have said that's not possible."
He added: "A lot of very good things have happened."
The North Korean regime granted the three men "amnesty," a US official said, removing a major point of friction between Washington and Pyongyang and a potential obstacle to talks between the Cold War foes.
The men flew home with the new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Two of the men, agricultural expert Kim Hak-song and former professor Tony Kim, were arrested in 2017, while Kim Dong-chul, a South Korea-born American businessman and pastor in his 60s, was sentenced to 10 years' hard labour in 2016.
The White House said all three men were able to walk unassisted onto a US Air Force plane that carried them and the Secretary of State out of North Korea.
A second plane, with more robust medical equipment, accompanied them.
"All indications are at this point that their health is as good as could be given that they've been held," Pompeo told reporters traveling with him.
The trio later released a statement of thanks conveyed via the State Department.
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India cancels school-leaving examinations
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
The UN General Assembly President in quotes:
YEMEN: “The developments we have seen are promising. We really hope that the parties are going to respect the agreed ceasefire. I think that the sense of really having the political will to have a peace process is vital. There is a little bit of hope and the role that the UN has played is very important.”
PALESTINE: “There is no easy fix. We need to find the political will and comply with the resolutions that we have agreed upon.”
OMAN: “It is a very important country in our system. They have a very important role to play in terms of the balance and peace process of that particular part of the world, in that their position is neutral. That is why it is very important to have a dialogue with the Omani authorities.”
REFORM OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL: “This is complicated and it requires time. It is dependent on the effort that members want to put into the process. It is a process that has been going on for 25 years. That process is slow but the issue is huge. I really hope we will see some progress during my tenure.”
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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