Donald Trump confirms US detainees in North Korea are released and on their way back to America

Donald Trump has revealed that three American detainees in North Korea are on their way back to the US after being released by Kim Jong-un.

News of the three men’s release had been expected for several days but the President made the announcement on Twitter after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Pyongyang for talks.

Trump tweeted: ‘I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the three wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health.’

In another Tweet, Trump said Mr Pompeo and the detainees will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2am on Thursday (7am BST).

He said: ‘I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!’

The prisoners, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, were accused of anti-state activities by North Korea.

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The family of Tony Kim say welcomed the release, expressing their thanks for Trump for ‘engaging directly with North Korea’.

Mr Pompeo, the former CIA Director, was in Pyongyang to discuss arrangements for a meeting between the President and Kim Jong-un.

Trump added that there had been a ‘good meeting’ with the North Korean leader, confining that a date and time for the summit had been set.

Mr Pompeo said earlier that senior official Kim Yong Chol had been a great partner in working to make the summit a success.

He said: ‘For decades, we have been adversaries. Now we are hopeful that we can work together to resolve this conflict.’

Mr Kim said the summit was ‘not a result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside’, but the will of the Korean people.

However, Trump has previously said that his pressure tactics brought North Korea to the negotiating table.

Mr Pompeo, who first travelled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting Secretary of State to visit the reclusive nation with which the US is still technically at war.

The first was Madeleine Albright, who went in 2000 as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-president Bill Clinton and Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong Il.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests.

But momentum for diplomacy built this year as North and South Korea have moved to ease tensions, including with their own leaders’ summit late last month.

In March, Mr Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks from Mr Kim after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss ‘denuclearisation’.

According to South Korea, Mr Kim says he is willing to give up his nuclear missiles if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and pledges not to attack the North.