2 Americans held captive in North Korea arrive home

Americans Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller were back on U.S. soil Sunday after being released by North Korea.

The pair, who arrived late Saturday night at a Washington state military base, were greeted with hugs from friends and family waiting on the tarmac.

"Thank you for all for supporting me, lifting me up and not forgetting me," Bae, 46, said at a brief news conference.

On Sunday, his sister said his only request for his first meal home was no Korean food.

"He said, 'I don't want Korean food, that's all I've been eating for the last two years,'" Terri Chung said outside her Seattle church. "We had a late night eating pizza."

Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary called the time he spent in captivity "amazing," saying he "learned a lot, grew a lot, lost a lot of weight." During his remarks, he thanked the North Korean government for agreeing to his release.

Bae, from Lynnwood, Wash., was arrested two years ago this month while leading a tour group, and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the state.

When asked how he was feeling Saturday, Bae said, "I'm recovering." His family has said he struggles with diabetes, an enlarged heart, liver problems and back pain. He had been moved to a hospital last summer because of poor health.

"My brother is home. All of our hopes and prayers for this moment have finally come true. We are so thankful," Chung said.

She said Bae was in better shape than his family expected. She said he had spent about six weeks in a North Korean hospital before he returned. "That helped. As you know, he had gone back and forth between the labor camp and hospital," she said.

Miller, 24, from Bakersfield, Calif., who had been detained for seven months, was serving a six-year prison term on charges of espionage after he allegedly ripped his tourist visa at Pyongyang's airport in April and demanded asylum. Miller and his family did not address the media Saturday.

Bae and Miller flew from North Korea with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who traveled to the reclusive country as a presidential envoy to help secure their release.

In separate statements Saturday, President Obama and the State Department thanked Clapper for his efforts.

"It's a wonderful day for them and their families," Obama said at the White House Saturday following a press conference on his nominee for attorney general. "Obviously we are very grateful for their safe return and I appreciate director Clapper doing a great job on what was obviously a challenging mission."

Bae and Miller were the last Americans held by North Korea following the release last month of Jeffrey Fowle, 56, who called their return home "an answer to a prayer." Fowle had been held for six months before his Oct. 21 release after he left a Bible in a nightclub.

The highly unexpected release, without any publicly admitted concessions, may signal a renewed attempt by Pyongyang to engage in dialogue with the U.S., and suggests North Korean authorities are switching tactics.

"We'll likely never be told the content of the dialogue that goes on in Pyongyang, either, unless North Korea reveals it in a fit of pique at a later date," Christopher Green, manager of international affairs at Daily NK, told NK News on Saturday. "But at the end of the day James Clapper is a very serious man, and his presence cannot be overlooked."

Contributing: William M. Welch, Calum MacLeod in Beijing; The Associated Press