WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jeffrey Fowle, one of three Americans being held in North Korea, has been released, the State Department said Tuesday.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Fowle was home Tuesday after negotiators left Pyongyang. She said the U.S. is still trying to free Americans Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae.
In this Sept. 1, 2014 file photo, Jeffrey Fowle, an American detained in North Korea, speaks to the Associated Press, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Fowle arrived in the country on April 29. He is suspected of leaving a Bible in a nightclub in the northern port city of Chongjin. Christian evangelism is considered a crime in North Korea. Fowle lives in Miamisburg, Ohio, and has a wife and three children. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)
Associated Press journalists in Pyongyang spotted the U.S. government plane at the capital's international on Tuesday.
Washington has tried for months to send a high-level envoy to North Korea to seek release of the three men.
Analysts say North Korea has previously used detained Americans as leverage in its standoff with the U.S. over its nuclear and missile programs, a charge that Pyongyang denies.
