SEOUL, South Korea — A smile flickered across Aijalon Gomes' face as he hugged former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and boarded a plane for Boston today, seven months after his arrest in North Korea.

Carter flew to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, this week on a private mission to secure a pardon for the 31-year-old American.

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 were due back in Boston later today for a reunion with his mother, Carter's spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said in Atlanta.

There was no indication that Kim — who was making a surprise trip to China this week — met with Carter as widely anticipated.

In Washington, the State 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.

Gomes was the fourth American in a year arrested for trespassing in North Korea, a communist nation that fought against the U.S. during the 1950-53 Korean War and does not have diplomatic relations with Washington.

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

Activist Robert Park deliberately crossed into the country from China in December but was expelled some 40 days later after issuing an apology carried by North Korean state media.

Aijalon Gomes, who had been teaching English in South Korea, attended rallies in Seoul in January calling for Park's release. He was arrested in North Korea just two weeks later.

In April, he was sentenced to eight years of hard labor and fined more than $600,000 for sneaking into the country illegally and committing a "hostile act."

There were concerns about Gomes' health. Last month, North Korean media said Gomes attempted suicide, "driven by his strong guilty conscience, disappointment and despair at the U.S. government that has not taken any measure for his freedom."

A U.S. delegation tried unsuccessfully in a secret visit to Pyongyang earlier this month to secure his release, Crowley said last week.

This week's decision to "set free the illegal entrant is a manifestation of (North Korea's) humanitarianism and peace-loving policy," KCNA said.

Today, Gomes looked markedly thin but relieved.