WEST CARROLLTON, Ohio -- An American arrested and held for nearly six months in North Korea for leaving a Bible at a nightclub returned home to Ohio yesterday to tears of joy and hugs from his wife and surprised children.

A plane carrying Jeffrey Fowle landed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, where he was reunited with his family. Moments after Fowle, carrying two bags, stepped off a plane at the base just after 6:30 a.m., his three children and wife ran from a nearby airplane hangar and shared hugs.

Base Col. John Devillier said Fowle had a tearful reunion, and that Fowle seemed thrilled to be back in the United States. Devillier said Fowle's family hadn't told the children why they were brought to the base and that it was a surprise for them to see their father walk off the plane.

"The reaction from his children was priceless," he said.

Standing beside Fowle, his wife and their children outside the family's home in rural southwest Ohio later yesterday, family attorney Timothy Tepe said Fowle had been treated well by the North Korean government and needed time to adjust to life at home.

The news of Fowle's return came about six months after he was taken into custody. Fowle said in interviews that he left a Bible at a nightclub. Christian evangelism is considered a crime in North Korea.

He had been awaiting trial -- the only one of three Americans held by Pyongyang who had not been convicted of charges. The others were each sentenced to years in North Korean prisons after court trials that lasted no more than 90 minutes. The three Americans entered North Korea separately.

Tepe said the Fowle family is mindful that two others are still detained by North Korea and they understand their families' disappointment.

Fowle was flown out of North Korea on a U.S. military jet that was spotted at Pyongyang's international airport Tuesday. There was no immediate explanation for the release of Fowle, who was whisked to the U.S. territory of Guam before heading back to Ohio.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Tuesday that Fowle was seen by doctors and appeared to be in good medical health. She declined to give more details about his release except to thank the government of Sweden, which has an embassy in Pyongyang, for its "tireless efforts." Harf would not say whether any American officials had intervened directly with the North Koreans.

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