Korean-Canadian hostage freed

Note to South Korea, see how this works?

TORONTO - A humanitarian aid worker from Edmonton who was detained in North Korea for nearly three months is free.

A spokesman for Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Helena Guergis told The Canadian Press Monday that Je Yell Kim was deported to China on Saturday.

Jeffrey Kroeker said Kim was met at the Chinese border by Canadian consular officials who were working to reunite him with his family.

Kroeker also thanked North Korean authorities for allowing Canadian consular officials to visit Kim on two separate occasions.

Jess Dutton, a counsellor at Canada’s embassy in Seoul, told The Associated Press that Kim has been reunited with his family, but declined to comment on his current location, citing their request for privacy.

Kim, who is in his 50’s, has spent several years working in a poor area of North Korea where foreign aid workers are normally welcome.

Good for Canada to be concerned about the fate of its citizens (probably because there aren’t that many of them). I do not think they even had to threaten anyone.