A smile flickered across Aijalon Gomes’ face as he hugged former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and boarded a plane for Boston on Friday, seven months following his arrest in North Korea.

Carter flew towards North Korean capital, Pyongyang, this week on the individual mission to secure a pardon to your 31-year-old American, who was detained in January after crossing to the region from China.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il granted Carter’s request to “leniently forgive” Gomes, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, and Carter and Gomes had been due back in Boston later Friday to your reunion with his mother, Carter’s spokeswoman Deanna Congileo stated in Atlanta.

There was no indication that Kim – who was producing a surprise trip to China this week – met with Carter as broadly anticipated.

In Washington, the Nation Department welcomed the news of Gomes’ release. We “are relieved that he will soon be safely reunited with his family,” spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

Aijalon Gomes (pronounced EYE-jah-lahn GOHMS) was the fourth American inside a year arrested for trespassing in North Korea, a communist country that fought against the U.S. during the 1950-53 Korean War and doesn't have diplomatic relations with Washington.

Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested last March and released only after former President Bill Clinton created a similar trip to Pyongyang to plead for their freedom.

It was unclear what prompted Gomes to enter the repressive nation. He might have been emulating fellow Christian Robert Park, who was detained right after he crossed into North Korea in December to highlight its human rights record, said Jo Sung-rae, a South Korean human rights advocate who met with Gomes. Park was expelled some 40 days later right after issuing an apology carried by North Korean land media.