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Merrill Newman

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Merrill Newman (born c. 1928) is a retired businessman and former United States Army officer most famous for his 2013 arrest in North Korea.

Background

According to Newman's family, he served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and later worked in technology and financial consulting. As of 2013, Newman was living with his wife in Channing House, a Palo Alto retirement community. Family members claimed that, at the time of his arrest, Newman suffered from a heart condition for which he was receiving medication.

2013 arrest

Timeline

In October 2013 Newman left for the DPRK as part of a nine-day trip organized by Juche Travel Services, a travel agency that specializes in trips to North Korea. According to family members, Newman had generally been enjoying his trip and had communicated with them via telephone and postcards.

On October 26, after boarding an Air Koryo airliner in Pyongyang on which he was scheduled to depart the country, Newman was removed by a single, uniformed official. Newman's traveling companion, Bob Hamrdla, reported the arrest to U.S. officials via telephone upon the aircraft's arrival in Beijing later that day. This account of the arrest was relayed to media by Newman's son, Jeffrey, from information provided by Hamrdla, a former Stanford University professor who specialized in the history of East Germany. According to the younger Newman, Hamrdla reported that Merrill Newman had previously engaged in a "difficult" discussion with government tour guides about the Korean War.

On November 20 the San Jose Mercury News first reported on Newman's detention. In response to media inquiries the United States Department of State confirmed that a U.S. citizen had recently been arrested in the DPRK, but refused to specifically discuss the case beyond generally noting they were working with Sweden, the protecting power of the United States, to secure his release. Officials noted that the individual in question (generally accepted to be Newman) had not filed a privacy act waiver, which legally prevented them from providing specifics regarding the case to the press. On November 21, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson confirmed to Reuters that he was "in touch with his North Korean contacts" regarding Newman. At some point by or before November 22, DPRK authorities acknowledged to Swedish consular staff that they were holding Newman.

On November 29 the Korean Central News Agency released a video showing Newman signing a letter of apology and confession for war crimes committed during the Korean War. According to the accompanying report, the video had been recorded the preceding November 9. It went on to state that Newman had "masterminded espionage and subversive activities against the DPRK and in this course he was involved in killings of service personnel of the Korean People's Army and innocent civilians" and that, during his visit, Newman had been found with an "e-book" containing subversive material. The KCNA story also reported that Newman said he had served during the Korean War as a military adviser to the "Kuwol unit of the U.N. Korea 6th Partisan Regiment" and had asked his government tour guides to help him contact surviving members of the Kuwol Partisan Comrades-in-Arms Association. (United Nations Partisan Infantry Korea units were clandestine, special forces groups that operated during the Korean War and whose activities were not publicly acknowledged until 1990.)

By December 1 the Swedish ambassador to the DPRK, Karl-Olof Andersson, had visited Newman for the first time and found him to be in good health. At the same time, the United States National Security Council issued a statement requesting Newman’s release, referring to Newman by name and also calling for the repatriation of Kenneth Bae.

A Reuters report published later that day confirmed, for the first time, the veracity of the earlier KCNA story and the content of Newman’s confession with respect to his membership in the Kuwol regiment of the United Nations Partisan Infantry Korea. That story also revealed that Newman had twice visited South Korea, on both occasions wearing a commemorative ring that identified him as a former partisan. (No mention was made as to whether Newman had worn the same ring during his trip to North Korea.) Details of Newman’s military exploits had even been included in a book published in South Korea and edited by a member of Newman’s former unit, Kim Heyon. Another partisan veteran stated that North Korean intelligence had obtained the complete roster of the Kuwol regiment, on which Newman’s name was included, prior to the 1955 armistice. Together, these facts seemed to indicate that Newman’s background was beyond concealment.

Theories and Analysis

Many experts have observed the arrest of Newman was unusual, noting that detentions of western tourists on officially authorized trips are rare and that most arrests of westerners have been quickly announced by the DPRK government. While North Korean media reported Merrill's arrest was due to past war crimes the DPRK government alleges Newman committed, and subversive activities engaged in by Newman during his trip, several media outlets and Korea watchers have proposed alternate theories.

  • A Reuters report first observed that Newman may have been confused with another Merrill Newman, also a Korean War veteran, who received the Silver Star for a combat action he led in 1952 against Chinese forces.
  • Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, has suggested Newman was arrested to use as a bargaining chip in ongoing international negotiations between North Korea and western governments.
  • Still others have opined the arrest of Newman indicates a loosening grip on government by Kim Jong-un, and was done to shore-up domestic support.
  • However, in a post to 38 North, a blog about DPRK affairs maintained by Johns Hopkins University, Rüdiger Frank commented that "it is very unlikely the North Korean authorities would decide to keep an American tourist on their territory for symbolic reasons, in order to make a political statement of some kind. It is also hard to see how a Western tourist’s detention could be interpreted as evidence that Kim Jong Un is losing his grip on the North Korean government, as some pundits have implied."
  • Following the revelations of Newman’s military service with the Kuwol unit, several experts stated that his background as an insurgent fighter was the likely cause of Newman’s arrest, essentially confirming the original explanation issued by the DPRK government. Kim Heyon, the former member of Newman’s Korean War military unit, said that the irregular warfare engaged in by the partisan units had left Newman a permanently marked man in North Korea, which is still technically in a state of war with South Korea and the United States. “They detained him because he served in the Kuwol regiment,” Kim said. “He is just a very bad guy for them.” Dan Sneider, a North Korea specialist at Stanford University remarked that, “it seems that Mr. Newman inadvertently walked into an historical minefield that he wasn't fully aware of.”

References

  1. "Everything we know about Merrill Newman, the 85-year-old American imprisoned in North Korea". Washington Post. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  2. Bob Woodruff (25 November 2013). "Family of Detained American Merrill Newman Worried About His Health in North Korea". ABC. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  3. "Is American man said detained in North Korea a bargaining chip?". CNN. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  4. "Faculty Leaders: Bob Hamrdla". Stanford Alumni Association. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  5. "The wife of Merrill Newman, detained Korean war veteran, pleads for his release". San Jose Mercury News. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  6. "85-Year-Old U.S. Veteran Detained in North Korea May Not Be Home for Thanksgiving". TIME. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  7. "Davies: U.S. making "every effort" to release Newman". NKNews. 23 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  8. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/53625517/ns/world_news-asiapacific/#.UpnVncakrX0
  9. Chelsea Carter (23 November 2013). "North Korea Detained American". CNN. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  10. "Merrill Newman: North Korea says detained American has confessed". Guardian. 30 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  11. "Swedish ambassador visits 85-year-old US vet held in North Korea". Christian Science Monitor. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  12. "Unforgotten fighter of Korean war: U.S. pensioner a POW at 85". Reuters. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  13. Colleen Curry (22 November 2013). "Did North Korea Detain the Wrong US Korean War Vet?". ABC News. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  14. "Explained: Why North Korea took grandfather Merrill Newman prisoner". news.com.au. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  15. "Merrill Newman, 85-Year-Old American Veteran, Detained In North Korea, Son Says". Huffington Post. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  16. Rüdiger Frank (25 November 2013). "The Mysterious Case of Merrill Newman". 38 North. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  17. Patrick May (30 November 2013). "New details emerge in baffling case of Palo Alto's Merrill Newman, North Korean 'prisoner of war'". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 3 December 2013.

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