NORTH KOREA has freed one of three Americans detained in the country, and in a surprise move allowed a Pentagon plane to land in Pyongyang to fly him home.

    Jeffrey Fowle, who was arrested earlier this year and is in apparent good health, “has been allowed to depart the DPRK,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said late Tuesday, adding the 56-year-old was already on his way home.

    U.S. officials said Pyongyang had given Washington a timeframe within which to transport Fowle out of the country, and the Pentagon had decided to send in a plane to bring him home, even though Washington does not have diplomatic ties with North Korea, also known as the DPRK.

    “We certainly welcome the decision from the DPRK to release him,” said Earnest, while State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf thanked Swedish diplomats for their efforts to secure his freedom.

    Fowle had been checked by doctors and “appears to be in good health,” Harf told reporters, adding the plane had flown from Pyongyang to Guam and he would head next to the mainland U.S.

    She would not reveal how Fowle’s release was brokered, amid ongoing efforts to free the two other Americans still held, Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae, who are both now serving time in hard labor camps.

    (SD-Agencies)