US veteran says North Korea treated him well but casts doubt on confession

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/merrill-newman-north-korea-tconfession-

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A day after arriving home to California, the 85-year-old US veteran detained for weeks by North Korea said on Sunday he had been well-fed and kept comfortable in a hotel room, not a jail cell.

Merrill Newman spoke briefly to the Santa Cruz Sentinel outside his vacation home near the beach in Santa Cruz, a coastal community south of San Francisco.

He was detained in late October at the end of a 10-day trip to North Korea, six decades after he oversaw a group of South Korean wartime guerrillas during the 1950-53 war.

Newman told the newspaper "that's not my English" when asked about the video North Korean state media released last month showing him reading an awkwardly-worded alleged confession apologising for, among other things, killing North Koreans during the war.

Analysts questioned whether the statement was coerced. Newman has not discussed the circumstances of the alleged apology, but it was riddled with stilted English and grammatical errors, such as "I want not punish me."

The former South Korean guerrillas who had worked with Newman and fought behind enemy lines during the war disputed some of the details of the statement.

Asked on Sunday whether he planned any more international travel, Newman said his wife was now in charge of his passport. He cut short the impromptu interview after a few questions.

The veteran's family did not respond to an email from the Associated Press requesting an interview. His son, Jeff Newman, said the family planned to talk about Newman's experience in greater detail after he had recuperated.

Newman arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Beijing shortly before 9am on Saturday and was greeted by his wife, son and friends.

He thanked the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang and the US embassy in Beijing for helping secure his release.

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