Jeffrey Edward Fowle (born 1958) is an American citizen who was arrested during a vacation in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

in May 2014 for leaving a Bible in a club in the northern port city of

Chongjin Chŏngjin (; ) is the capital of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province (함경북도) and the country's third largest city. It is sometimes called the ''City of Iron''. History Prehistory According to archaeological findings near the lower ...

Personal life

Fowle is from

Miamisburg Miamisburg ( ) is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio. The population was 20,181 at the time of the 2010 census. A suburb of Dayton. It is part of the Dayton metropolitan area. Miamisburg is known for its large industry (mainly for its nuclear ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, and worked in the

Moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

, Ohio municipal street department. His wife, Tatyana, was born in Russia, and they have three children.

Arrest

In May 2014, while on a guided tour of North Korea, Fowle deliberately left a Korean-English bible in the restroom of the Chongjin Sailor's Club. Religious proselytism is a crime in North Korea. The bible was discovered by a staff member and handed in to local authorities. Fowle was arrested at

Pyongyang International Airport Pyongyang International Airport () , also known as the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, is the main airport serving Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. It is located in the city's Sunan District. and the only two foreign countries se ...

as his tour group was preparing to leave the country. At the time, Fowle was one of three U.S. citizens detained in North Korea, the others being Kenneth Bae and

Matthew Todd Miller Matthew Todd Miller (born August 26, 1989) is an American citizen who was detained in North Korea (DPRK). He had travelled to North Korea intending to get arrested. He was sentenced to six years of hard labor on September 14, 2014, for committin ...

. They were individually granted interviews with two U.S. news outlets,

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

and

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

, pleading for assistance from the U.S. government.

Release

On October 21, 2014, Fowle was released and flown out of North Korea on a U.S. government jet.

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

facilitated Fowle's release in its capacity as the United States'

protecting power A protecting power is a country that represents another sovereign state in a country where it lacks its own diplomatic representation. It is common for protecting powers to be appointed when two countries break off diplomatic relations with e ...

in North Korea, as the United States and North Korea did not have formal

diplomatic relations Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowle, Jeffrey Edward 2014 in North Korea American people imprisoned abroad Date of birth missing (living people) People from Miamisburg, Ohio Place of birth missing (living people) American people imprisoned in North Korea Living people Christianity in North Korea 1958 births