South Korea welcomed the decision to free Joo, and called on North Korea to release three other South Korean people still in detention.
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Liu Yunshan, a member of the Communist Party’s politburo standing committee, and other officials will attend the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the North’s ruling party, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Emerging photos from Joo’s release shows the student exiting a blue building in a jacket and jeans while toting two bags and a backpack. The student was reportedly handed over to South Korean officials at the border Monday afternoon.
Joo reappeared before cameras in a September 25 press conference in Pyongyang at which he read what was seen as a carefully drafted statement praising North Korea and denying worldwide accusations that the Pyongyang regime was responsible for gross human rights violations.
Joo WonovervallenMoon, a 21-year-old student at New York University, will surely be announced and deported from North Korea once charged with unlawful admission.
He told CNN in an interview in May that he had crossed two barbed-wire fences and walked through farmland until he reached a large river.
As with any hacking incident that happens in South Korea, first suspicions will always be taking into account that a North Korean state-sponsored group was at the source of this attack.
The USA and South Korea have accused North Korea of launching disguised tests of its long-range missile technology, which is banned by the United Nations. North Korea’s failure to make any practical preparations for a rocket launch to date may also be a sign that it plans to hold off on the launch and focus for now on encouraging more active inter-Korean relations.
North and South Korea agreed in August to improve ties, after a standoff that threatened to become a armed conflict.
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The Koreas are divided along the world’s most heavily fortified border, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, thus leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war.
