N.Korea 'Forced American to Read Confession'

Octogenarian Korean War veteran Merrill Newman, who was freed after 42 days' detention in North Korea on Saturday, says he was forced to read an apology that had been written for him.

Asked by the Santa Cruz Sentinel on Sunday about the video clip that showed him reading the apology, he said, "Obviously, that's not my English."

The [North] Korean Central News Agency released the clip on Nov. 30. It showed Newman apologizing for "offensive actions" during the Korean War, but the English was unnatural and contained a lot of grammatical errors.

Newman was arrested at Pyongyang airport on Oct. 26 while waiting for his plane to take off after a 10-day visit to the country.