Washington — North Korea released three American detainees and handed them over to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, clearing a major obstacle to an unprecedented summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump said the three men, who were freed after Pompeo met Kim, were on the way home from Pyongyang on the chief US diplomat’s plane. The president planned to greet them when they landed at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on Thursday morning. The release appeared to signal an effort by Kim to set a more positive tone for the summit and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut Pyongyang’s nuclear bomb test site. While Kim is giving up the last of his remaining American prisoners who North Korea has often used in the past as bargaining chips with the US, it could also be aimed at getting Trump to make concessions of his own in his bid to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arsenal. “I am pleased to inform yo...
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