The release of Merrill Newman was a sane gesture on North Korea's part and came as a relief to me, as Newman and I are contemporaries and I have traveled to North Korea "informally" five times.

Newman's balanced statement two days after his return home sheds clear light on concerns in Pyongyang. Newman stated, "For the North Korean regime, the Korean War isn't over, and even innocent remarks about the war can cause big problems if you are a foreigner. ... I should have been more sensitive to that."

I take this as a cautionary statement for any other Americans interested in visiting Korean War battlefields in the North.