Why is Julian Assange flying to the remote Pacific island of Saipan?

Julian Assange is on his way to a courtroom on the Pacific island of Saipan where he is expected to plead guilty to a single criminal charge in a plea deal that will lead to his release and return home to Australia after a 14-year legal journey. Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, is a U.S. commonwealth near Guam, hosting a U.S. district court. Assange's plea involves a single count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, with a sentence of time served.