Today’s highlights:
1) The two US journalists who were held in North Korea for 141 days arrived in the US and reunited with their families
and 2) Secretary of State Clinton reiterated the call for North Korea to return to the negotiating table and stated that the release of the two US journalists is a totally separate from the nuclear issue
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Journalists Arrive in U.S. Following Imprisonment (Bloomberg)
Accompanied by former President Bill Clinton, two U.S. journalists who had been imprisoned in North Korea since March arrived today in California for a tearful reunion with their families.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling met family members in a hangar at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California. Addressing a crowd of journalists and well-wishers, Ling said the moment that she saw Clinton, “We knew that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end.”
In Washington, President Barack Obama thanked Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore for their roles in winning the release of the two women.
“We are obviously extraordinarily relieved,” Obama told reporters. “The reunion that we’ve all seen on television is a source of happiness, not only for the families, but for the entire country.”
In a written statement, Clinton said he was glad to have helped. “When their families, Vice President Gore and the White House asked that I undertake this humanitarian mission, I agreed. I share a deep sense of relief with Laura and Euna and their families that they are safely home,” Clinton said.
Ling and Lee were detained while reporting for San Francisco-based Current TV, co-founded by Gore.
Family members at the airport included Ling’s husband, Iain Clayton; her parents, Mary and Doug Ling; her sister, Lisa Ling; Lee’s husband Michael Saldate; and Lee’s daughter, Hana Saldate.
Companies Help
The journalists returned from North Korea on a plane owned by longtime Clinton friend and supporter Steve Bing, according to Federal Aviation Administration records and Sallie Olmsted, a spokeswoman for Bing’s Shangri-La Industries. Bing’s company also owns the hangar used for the press conference, Olmstead said. Los Angeles-based Shangri-La Industries is involved in real estate development and film production.
Among those that Ling thanked in her remarks were Dow Chemical Co. and its chief executive officer, Andrew Liveris. Dow provided a plane “that was used in different parts of the mission in recent days,” the company said in a statement. “We were honored to contribute to President Clinton’s humanitarian mission to obtain their release,” Dow said in the statement.
The release of Lee and Ling followed a meeting between Clinton and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The two men “had an exhaustive conversation” and a “wide-ranging exchange of views on the matters of common concern,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said without giving details.
Rising Tension
The journalists had been sentenced in June to 12 years of “reform through labor” for charges including illegally crossing the border from China.
The imprisonment coincided with increased tension with the U.S. as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed through United Nations sanctions against North Korea after the regime detonated a nuclear device in May. The secretary of state has been gathering allies for her attempts to isolate North Korea, winning over China’s support for the UN sanctions.
North Korea fired more than a dozen missiles this year in defiance of international pressure. North Korea in April said it would never return to six-party talks. Last week, Pyongyang said it may be open to negotiations outside that forum.
Bill Clinton was met at Pyongyang airport yesterday by Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s chief negotiator at talks to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear capability, the Korean Central News Agency said.
Request for Clinton
The two freed reporters requested through their families in mid-July that Clinton be sent to gain their release, an Obama administration official said. Communication with representatives of the North Korean government was needed to “manage the logistics,” Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the NBC News “Today” show this morning.
“When the message came to us from the young women themselves to their families, to former Vice President Gore, and then to the administration, that sending my husband would be the best way to ensure their release, of course we took that very seriously, discussed it,” she said.
Clinton said her husband’s trip was separate from the Obama administration’s policy on North Korea.
Private Mission
“I want to be sure people don’t confuse what Bill did, which was a private humanitarian mission to bring these young women home, with our policy, which continues to be one that gives choices to North Korea,” Hillary Clinton said. “They can continue on the path they are on, or perhaps they will now be willing to start talking to us within the context of the six- party talks about the international desire to see them denuclearized.”
Bill Clinton talked with the reporters’ families and Gore before the trip and received two face-to-face briefings from administration officials before departing, the most recent one last week at Clinton’s home in Washington, the administration official said.
The administration told the North Korean government that Clinton’s visit would be a private, humanitarian mission unconnected to other issues between the two countries. Clinton met with Kim Jong Il for about an hour and 15 minutes yesterday, and then had dinner with him for just over two hours, the official said.
The Swedish ambassador was able to transmit mail and medicine to the reporters, and the State Department was in daily contact with the families.
Obama and Clinton spoke for a “few minutes” right before Obama’s press briefing this morning, spokesman Robert Gibbs said this morning.
“The president thanked him for a great job,” Gibbs said, adding that the two men plan “to get together soon.” No meeting has been scheduled, he said. Gibbs said Clinton didn’t brief Obama on Clinton’s talks with Kim Jong Il. A national- security official will sit down with Clinton soon to receive a full briefing, Gibbs said.
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North Korea Asked for Bill Clinton (Wall Street Journal)
The road to freedom for two American journalists held captive by North Korea came into view last month when Pyongyang made a special request of the Obama administration: Send Bill Clinton.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, held by Pyongyang since March, told their parents by telephone last month that the former president was the best person to broker their release.
The message, said a person briefed on the matter, was passed on to the administration, which assumed it represented the will of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
"Pyongyang clearly injected their position through the girls," said a person who has talked to the women's families about the phone call.
That unusual outreach paid off early Wednesday in North Korea, during a surprise visit by Mr. Clinton, with the announcement that Mr. Kim would release Ms. Lee and Ms. Ling.
U.S. officials and aides to Mr. Clinton declined to discuss their preparations for his trip to Pyongyang. A number of former U.S. diplomats said they believed much of the meeting's logistics was nailed down through the so-called New York channel at North Korea's United Nations mission. It is one of the rare avenues through which current and former American diplomats can communicate with North Korean officials and gauge the political winds in Pyongyang.
Mr. Clinton's involvement could smooth over a public spat in recent weeks between his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and North Korea's leadership. He also did a favor for his former vice president, Al Gore: The detained journalists were arrested while working on a report for Current TV LLC, a San Francisco-based cable and Web network co-founded by Mr. Gore.
In the phone call, the reporters also suggested another former U.S. leader, Jimmy Carter, could broker their release.
Current and former U.S. officials said Tuesday they believed Kim Jong Il was seeking to turn back the clock and resurrect a relationship with Mr. Clinton that came close to formally ending the Korean War in late 2000.
Former U.S. officials said Mr. Clinton was seriously contemplating a trip to Pyongyang during his final weeks in office to explore agreements to end North Korea's missile program and get Washington and Pyongyang off the war footing they had held ever since an armistice ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. A formal peace accord was never signed and the U.S. has maintained tens of thousands of troops on South Korean soil.
Mr. Clinton's trip would have followed the October 2000 visit to the White House by North Korea's then second-highest military officer, Vice Marshall Jo Myong Rok. The North Korean commander and the Clinton administration signed a memorandum of understanding calling for the official end of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula.
Former U.S. and South Korean officials said Kim Jong Il's government viewed the agreement as a precursor to a formal peace accord that could have been signed during a Clinton visit to Pyongyang in late 2000 or early 2001. The president ultimately used his final weeks in office to try to secure an Arab-Israeli peace agreement.
One year later, his successor, George W. Bush, had changed the tone of relations, describing North Korea as part of an "axis of evil."
"This is North Korea looking for a new start," said a former U.S. official. "Pyongyang is seeking to sweep away the debris of the past eight years and return to January 2001."
Evans Revere, president of the Korea Society, was among the former U.S. officials who held discussions with North Korean diplomats through the New York channel in recent weeks. Mr. Revere says he stressed to the North Koreans the importance of resolving the issue of the two journalists in order to resume a dialogue with Washington, though he stressed Mr. Clinton wasn't identified in his discussions. He said North Korean diplomats had been casting around a list of possible envoys.
"I came away believing the North Koreans understood they needed to remove this obstacle," said Mr. Revere. "The Clinton visit could be the easy part when compared to the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons."
Senior Obama administration officials said Tuesday that Mr. Clinton's mission was purely humanitarian.
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Hillary Clinton reiterates call for North Korea talks (Reuters)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday North Korea's release of two American journalists was separate from nuclear non-proliferation talks and reiterated a U.S. appeal for it to return to negotiations.
At a news conference in Nairobi with Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula, she denied that her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, had apologized during a visit to Pyongyang that secured the release of the two women.
"That's not true. That did not occur," she said.
The journalists work for Current TV, an American TV outlet co-founded by Bill Clinton's vice president, Al Gore. They were arrested for illegally entering North Korea from China.
They were each sentenced to 12 years' hard labor in June.
"We have always considered that a totally separate issue from our efforts to re-engage the North Koreans and have them return to the six-party talks and work for a commitment for the full, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Clinton said.
Analysts say Washington faces a tricky task trying to convince North Korea to give up ambitions of becoming a nuclear weapons power without being seen to reward it for repeated military acts or ignoring regional demands.
"The future of our relationships with the North Koreans is really up to them. They have a choice," Clinton said.
Pyongyang could either pursue a path filled with provocative actions, or decide to return to the negotiating table, she said.
"We have always said that there would be a chance to discuss bilateral matters with the North Koreans within that regional context. That is still the offer today, so it is up to them."
Clinton had earlier said she was "very happy and relieved" that the two journalists were flying back to California with the former president to be reunited with their families.
"I spoke to my husband on the airplane and everything went well. We are extremely excited," she said. "It's just a good day to be able to see this happen.”
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