South Korea on Wednesday welcomed North Korea's release of a United States citizen, but immediately urged it to free two other American detainees and a South Korean missionary who was arrested on espionage charges, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Jeffrey Fowle, who was detained in April after apparently leaving a Bible in the bathroom of a nightclub in the North, flew out of Pyongyang on a Pentagon plane on Tuesday.
"Our government welcomes Fowle's release," a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said. "We hope other detained figures will be released as soon as possible on humanitarian grounds," the official added, making a particular plea in the case of missionary Kim Jeong Wook.