North Korea releases American detainee

North Korea has released American detainee Jeffrey Fowle, who was arrested there nearly six months ago, the State Department said Tuesday. Fowle, 56, of Miamisburg, Ohio, was accused of leaving a Bible at a nightclub in the northern port city of Chongjin, which would have violated the rules of his tourist visa. He had not yet undergone trial, unlike two other Americans still being held in North Korea.

Fowle flew out of North Korea on a U.S. government jet that Associated Press journalists spotted Tuesday at Pyongyang’s international airport. The Swedish government helped negotiate Fowle’s release.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the move a positive decision by North Korea and urged Pyongyang to release the other Americans, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller.

“The U.S. will continue to work actively on them,” he said.

American missionary Kenneth Bae from Lynwood, Wash., is serving a 15-year sentence in a North Korean labor camp. He has been detained since November 2012. Matthew Miller, 24, from Bakersfield, Calif., was convicted Sept. 14 of entering North Korea illegally and sentenced to six years of hard labor. At his 90-minute trial, North Korea’s Supreme Court said Miller admitted he wanted to experience prison life so he could secretly investigate North Korea’s human rights situation.

The U.S. doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with North Korea. In August, Fowle’s wife and three young children appeared in a newscast with their attorney to beg the North Korean government to release him. “The kids miss their dad, that’s the bottom line,” attorney Tim Tepe said. “(Tatyana Fowle) is having to be mom and dad at this point for the past three months. … I hear the desperation in her voice to get Jeff home.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.