Pence Says One Detainee ‘Hadn’t Seen Daylight’

The Administrations is not Ignoring the North's Adbysmal Human Rights Record

WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence is revealing new details about the conditions of the three Americans freed by North Korea, saying one was evidently kept fr om the daylight.

Pence tells ABC News that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him that, during a refueling stop in Anchorage, “one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn’t seen daylight in a very long time.”

Pence also told CBS he spoke Wednesday with the family of Otto Warmbier, an American detainee who died last year shortly after his release from North Korean captivity.

Pence said: “I simply let them know that while we received this news with joy, that Otto was on all our hearts and the family was in our prayers.”

He adds: “We got Otto home the last year, but it wasn’t soon enough.”

The Vice President says North Korea has been dealing with the U.S. “in good faith” as President Donald Trump prepares for a historic sit-down with Kim Jong Un.

Speaking to NBC News, Pence says: “In this moment, the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith.”

Pence says that despite Trump’s recent praise for Kim, the administration is not ignoring the North’s abysmal human rights record.

He says, “We have no illusions about that.”

But Pence says the U.S. believes “North Korea has taken steps that indicate this may be an opportunity for a breakthrough” on the Korean Peninsula.