[inofindy]

Bill Clinton plays has charm and wits on Kim for the release of the two ladies.


South Korea – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il issued a "special pardon" freeing two jailed American journalists after talks with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, North Korea's official news agency announced Wednesday.

Clinton, who arrived in North Korea Tuesday on an unannounced visit, met with the reclusive and ailing Kim for talks described by Pyongyang as "exhaustive." It was Kim's first meeting with a prominent Western figure since his reported stroke nearly a year ago.

The release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were arrested March 17 near the China-North Korea border, was a sign of North Korea's "humanitarian and peace-loving policy," the Korean Central News Agency reported.

State media said Clinton apologized on behalf of the women and relayed President Barack Obama's gratitude. The report said the visit would "contribute to deepening the understanding" between North Korea and the U.S.

U.S. officials said there was no indication that Clinton's private plane has departed Pyongyang, despite a report by KCNA that it had left. The U.S. officials, who described the sensitive schedule on condition of anonymity, said Clinton's mission was expected to wrap up in the early morning in Pyongyang — early evening EDT — and that he hoped to bring the two journalists with him.

While the White House emphasized the private nature of Clinton's trip, his landmark visit to Pyongyang to free the Americans was a coup that came at a time of heightened tensions over North Korea's nuclear program.

The meeting also appeared aimed at dispelling persistent questions about the health of the authoritarian North Korean leader, who was said to be suffering from chronic diabetes and heart disease before the reported stroke.

Kim smiled broadly for a photo standing next to a towering Clinton. He was markedly thinner than a year ago, with his graying hair cropped short. The once-pudgy 67-year-old, who for decades had a noticeable pot belly, wore a khaki jumpsuit and appeared frail and diminutive in a group shot seated next to a robust Clinton.

North Korea accused Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, both of former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV media venture, of sneaking into the country illegally in March and engaging in unspecified "hostile acts." The nation's top court sentenced them in June to 12 years of hard labor.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged North Korea last month to grant them amnesty, saying they were remorseful and their families were anguished by their detention.

The journalists' release followed weeks of quiet negotiations between the State Department and the North Korean mission to the United Nations, said Daniel Sneider, associate director of research at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

Clinton "didn't go to negotiate this, he went to reap the fruits of the negotiation," Sneider said.

Pardoning Ling and Lee and having Clinton serving as their emissary served both North Korea's need to continue maintaining that the two women had committed a crime and the Obama administration's desire not to expend diplomatic capital winning their freedom, Sneider said.

"Nobody wanted this to be a distraction from the more substantially difficult issues we have with North Korea," he said. "There was a desire by the administration to resolve this quietly and from the very beginning they didn't allow it to become a huge public issue."

The families of Ling and Lee said they were "overjoyed" by the pardon.

"We are so grateful to our government: President Obama, Secretary Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their dedication to and hard work on behalf of American citizens," the families said in a statement. "We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home.

"We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms," the statement said.

Lee, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, is the mother of a 4-year-old. Ling, a California native, is the younger sister of Lisa Ling, a correspondent for CNN as well as "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "National Geographic Explorer."

They were arrested as they reported about the trafficking of women. It's unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China but recent statements suggested they admitted to deliberately crossing into the country.

The Committee to Protect Journalists also welcomed their release.

North Korean state media said Clinton and Kim held wide-ranging talks, adding that Clinton "courteously" conveyed a verbal message from Obama.

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denied Clinton went with a message from Obama. "That's not true," he told reporters.

"While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment" until the mission is complete, Gibbs said in a statement. "We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton's mission."

Clinton was accompanied by John Podesta, his one-time White House chief of staff, who also is an informal adviser to Obama.

Clinton was accorded honors typically reserved for heads of state. Senior officials, led by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, who also serves as the regime's chief nuclear negotiator, met his private unmarked plane as it arrived Tuesday morning.

Video from the APTN television news agency showed Clinton exchanging warm handshakes with officials and accepting a bouquet of flowers from a schoolgirl.

Kim later hosted a banquet for Clinton at the state guesthouse, Radio Pyongyang and the Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported. The VIPs and Kim posed for a group shot in front of the same garish mural depicting a stormy seaside landscape that Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, posed for during her historic visit to Pyongyang in 2000.

Clinton is relatively well-regarded in North Korea, mostly for a less-bellicose attitude toward the country during his administration.

Just last month, North Korea's Foreign Ministry had harsh words for his wife, describing her as "a funny lady" who sometimes "looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."

In the past, envoys have been dispatched to Pyongyang to secure the release of Americans. In the 1990s, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a congressman at the time, went twice on similar missions: in 1994 to arrange the freedom of a U.S. pilot whose helicopter strayed into North Korean airspace and again two years later to fetch an American detained for three months on spying charges.

Richardson, Clinton and Gore, Clinton's vice president, had all been named as possible envoys to bring back Lee and Ling. However, the decision to send Clinton was kept quiet, revealed only when he turned up Tuesday in Pyongyang.

The trip was reminiscent of one 15 years ago by former President Jimmy Carter when Clinton was in office, also at a time of tensions over North Korea's nuclear program.

Carter's visit — he met with Kim Jong Il's father, the late Kim Il Sung — helped thaw the deep freeze in relations with the Korean War foe and paved the way for discussions on nuclear disarmament. Clinton later sent Albright to Pyongyang for talks with Kim in a high point in the often rocky relations with North Korea.

Discussions about normalizing ties went dead when George W. Bush took office in 2001 with a hard-line policy on Pyongyang. The Obama administration has expressed a willingness to hold bilateral talks — but only within the framework of the six-nation disarmament talks in place since 2003.

North Korea announced earlier this year it was abandoning the talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the U.S. The regime also launched a long-range rocket, conducted a nuclear test, test-fired a barrage of ballistic missiles and restarted its atomic program in defiance of international criticism and the U.N. Security Council.

Last month, the U.S. Navy tailed a North Korean cargo ship as it sailed south suspected of carrying cargo banned under a U.N. resolution on board until the vessel turned around and returned to port.

Kim inherited leadership of impoverished North Korea upon his father's death in 1994, 20 years after being anointed the heir apparent. Kim has not publicly named his successor but is believed to be grooming his third son, 26-year-old Jong Un, to take over.

[gdjfhdf]

There must be a Monica Kimchisky in North Korea.....cigar not included!

[Sironimoll]

Got to admire this skirt stainer.... it will be a bigger achievement if George W can pull this off....

[Meenepek]

Got to admire this skirt stainer.... it will be a bigger achievement if George W can pull this off....

If George W. Bush went to North Korea, I think that there'd be 3 prisoners instead of 2 for Bill Clinton to worry about.

[Haftdrarp]

If George W. Bush went to North Korea, I think that there'd be 3 prisoners instead of 2 for Bill Clinton to worry about.

What did Billy boy offered KIM? monica? to blow, blow, blow..the house down?

[wasssallx]

4/8/09 Arrived in N.Korea




Misson: To Rescue 2 US reporters








5/8/09 Misson Possible


Home.. sweet home..

[wasssallx]

[Haftdrarp]

How boxes of cuban cigars & bottles of exoensive liquor did Bill offfer to KIM? Did he promised to send him...Hilarious or MONICA?...ha ha ha ha ha

[Meenepek]

How is Laura Ling and Euna Lee going express their gratitude to the valor and chivalry of Bill Clinton? One wonders and the mind boggles...

[hexniks]

Bill Clinton plays has charm and wits on Kim for the release of the two ladies.

can't help but give this man respect.

[moohassinny]

spg
they deserve hard labour

[moohassinny]

funny that bill clinton ex president can save them, not the so call great president obama? what has obama done? did he changed the medical care? did he help the economic or jobs? or save the poor?
he did nothing so far as i can see.

[moohassinny]

the photo give by cnn of euna is i think her best photo. (she look horrible)
laura seem to be better looking one.

and of course, both look shit without makeup on tv, when they board the plane to freedom.

anyway who care if they do hard labour in nk. i am sure NS was worse, 2.5 years + 14 reservist. and FT taking your jobs away.

[jobsfancy]

funny that bill clinton ex president can save them, not the so call great president obama? what has obama done? did he changed the medical care? did he help the economic or jobs? or save the poor? he did nothing so far as i can see.

can't help but give this man respect

No discredit to Bill clinton, but the irony is that his missus recently entangled with Kim's regime calling nk a "bully".

As for Obama, hazard a guess that Bill was the (Democrat) PR emissary. Too much expect Obama bloke to stoop low by peronal intervention. Face thingy is not peculiar to asia. Especially, small price by Bill was to apologise for any trespass

On economic front, wasn't Obama at forefront of economic stimulus initiatives (meaning it could have been worse)? As for the medicare, this will be his big challenge
http://www.time.com/time/politics/ar...913623,00.html

[hexniks]

No discredit to Bill clinton, but the irony is that his missus recently entangled with Kim's regime calling nk a "bully".

more importantly, in what capacity did BC go to North Korea as? i reckoned he is a great Statesman by any gauge

[jobsfancy]

...great Statesman by any gauge

And perhaps BC chin-wagged with Kim on their private shenanigans with opposite gender? Talk about common ground

[abouthotels]

I am very impressed. To think someone who used to be the most powerful man in the world can humble himself so that 2 lesser mortals can be saved. That's the USA for you.

Singapore? Didn't someone say the govt 'will not negotiate with terrorists'? You die your business??

[Meenepek]

Singapore? Didn't someone say the govt 'will not negotiate with terrorists'? You die your business??

What chips can Singapore use to negotiate with terrorists or aggressive foreign governments? SAF and NSmen? If you die abroad not your own business, then NSmen (I think last count more than 350,000 of them) should get very worried. You want to go risky country and die, their business is it?

[Zenunlild]

And perhaps BC chin-wagged with Kim on their private shenanigans with opposite gender? Talk about common ground

If the 2 reporters were Singaporeans, guess how our govt react?

[Pyuvjzwf]

funny that bill clinton ex president can save them, not the so call great president obama? what has obama done? did he changed the medical care? did he help the economic or jobs? or save the poor?
he did nothing so far as i can see.

Obama could not go. It would have been a political game from the start and the USA could have been held to ransom.
Bill Clinton was the ideal person to go, a well-respected former president who was not in a position to negotiate as a country leader, but who was well known and respected world wide. It speaks volume for the man that he went, he had no incentive to go other than to help. It also speaks quite well of Kim that he agreed to the release.
I wonder who among our current or ex leaders would have done the same thing as Bill Clinton.