Pastor Dewey Note: Thanks for this story Rick! We stand in prayer for Mr. Newman and family. When is the President of the United States going to take action against these communist countries taking our people! Apparently the President and his team have forgotten what the word COMMUNIST means, or have they?
Please continue to pray for Merrill Newman and his family while he is still being detained in North Korea without explanation.
Jeff and Lee Newman, son and wife, of 85-year-old Merrill Newman of Palo Alto, California who is being held captive in North Korea called for his release Monday, saying they need him back at the head of the table for Thanksgiving. Merrill was pulled off a plane in Pyongyang, North Korea about a month ago and has been detained ever since. “We need to have Merrill back at the head of the table for the holidays. And we ask – respectfully – for them to release him and let him come home,” Lee said. Asked what she would like to tell her husband, Lee said simply, “We’re missing you, and we want you home.”
Washington does not have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, and it has been working through Sweden who is the U.S. protecting power in North Korea to obtain information about the American. “We’ve had talks with the State Department, regular conversations since the detention. I think they’ve been working very hard to secure the release, to establish sufficient communications to get some feedback. But at this point, we don’t think there’s been any official feedback,” Newman’s son Jeff said. “The Swedish consulate, which would be the first touch point, hasn’t had any contact with him and that’s what we need to know – if nothing else to just establish his well-being and the fact that he’s getting his medication.” The family says Newman suffers from a heart condition and only had medication for the trip. They have sent packages of medication but do not know whether he has received them.
Newman, a Korean War veteran and retired financial consultant, was last seen aboard a flight from Pyongyang to Beijing. Just minutes before the plane was to depart, he was removed by North Korean authorities.
Newman is one of two Americans citizens being held in North Korea. Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012 and sentenced in May to 15 years of hard labor after he was found guilty of “hostile acts” and attempts to topple the government.
North Korea has not officially said why it is holding Newman. Among the possibilities is his military service since he served as an Army infantry officer during the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. An armistice signed in 1953 ended the three-year war but the two sides technically remain at war. It is also a possible miss-identification where North Korean authorities mistook him for another Merrill Newman who was awarded the Silver Star for valor in combat in the war.
News of the detention came as talks were under way between the United States and China about reviving negotiations to dismantle Pyongyang’s nuclear program. The timing raises questions about whether North Korea plans to use Newman as a bargaining chip in the negotiations, a move the West has previously accused it of using to try to gain concessions from negotiations.
To see our initial report on Merrill Newman, click here: https://fggam.org/north-korea-detains-85-year-old-united-states-veteran/
