Bill Clinton picks up two Asian chicks

[FBM]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has issued a special pardon to two detained US journalists.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee had been found guilty of entering illegally in March.

The news came hours after former US President Bill Clinton made an unannounced visit to Pyongyang on what was described as a private mission.

Mr Clinton has now flown out of North Korea with the two journalists on a plane bound for Los Angeles, his spokesman says.

Mr Clinton is the highest-profile American to visit since ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000.

"Kim Jong-il issued an order... granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labour," the official North Korean News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement.

The women's pardon and release was a sign of North Korea's "humanitarian and peace-loving policy", KCNA said.

Families 'overjoyed'

The families of the two journalists said they were "overjoyed" by the news.

In a statement posted on a website, they thanked Mr Clinton and also former Vice-President Al Gore for their efforts to get the women released.

Washington had made no announcement of Mr Clinton's trip prior to his arrival on Tuesday, but later stressed it was a private visit.

However, media reports in Washington suggest the White House approved the mission and it had been secretly planned for weeks, our correspondent says.


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State media said Bill Clinton and Kim Jong-il had wide-ranging talks

Mr Clinton had landed in Pyongyang in an unmarked plane and was greeted at the airport by North Korean officials.

KCNA said that Mr Clinton met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, although the White House denied its report that Mr Clinton had conveyed a message from US President Barack Obama.


US JOURNALISTS PARDONED
17 March: Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling seized by North Korean border guards while reporting for California-based Current TV
8 June: Sentenced to 12 years in jail for "hostile acts" and illegal entry into North Korea
16 June: North Korea says journalists have "admitted and accepted" their guilt
10 July: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeals for an amnesty for the two
4 August: Former US President Bill Clinton arrives in Pyongyang and North Korea later announces the journalists will be pardoned


Will visit change Pyongyang?
Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, had been found guilty of entering North Korea illegally across the Chinese border in March and were sentenced to 12 years' hard labour.

They were arrested by North Korean guards while filming a video about refugees for California-based internet broadcaster Current TV.

The White House has pressed for their release, and Mr Clinton's wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asked last month that they be granted amnesty.

Analysts say that Kim Jong-il is eager to improve relations with Washington as he prepares to name a successor.

President Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke a year ago and also has chronic diabetes and heart disease. Analysts say his third son is being lined up to succeed him.

Nuclear tension

Mr Clinton's visit came at a time of heightened tension between Washington and Pyongyang on North Korea's nuclear programme.

North Korea dropped out of six-party talks after the UN censured along-range missile test in April. The parties include Russia, China, Japan, the US and both Koreas.

An underground nuclear test and further missile tests followed, provoking new UN Security Council sanctions.

[maiforpeace]

Well I'm glad Bill was successful getting these women pardoned, his wife sure wasn't.

[FBM]

This news is just confirmation of what we've been saying for a long time: KJI just wants recognition. He'd give up his nukes and open up more if other leaders would just treat him as an equal (even just as a bargaining tool). But the show of respect has to come first. Thus, the problem is politics. Foreign leaders don't want to be seen with the guy because of what it'd do to their political careers. They can't run the risk of being perceived as condoning how KJI has been running (read: ruining) the DPRK up to now.

If Obama, in particular, would consent to a State visit to NK, the world would be out of this mess in less than a year.

[AshtonBlack]

I suspect you're correct FBM. However, which leader, would allow themselves to be open to the charge of "acknowledging" KJI's regime? Personally, I think, for the good of the people of NK and potentially the whole region, someone should step up. (Apart from Gordon Brown, KJI, probably thinks he's just a tin pot dictator.)

[FBM]

I suspect you're correct FBM. However, which leader, would allow themselves to be open to the charge of "acknowledging" KJI's regime? Personally, I think, for the good of the people of NK and potentially the whole region, someone should step up. (Apart from Gordon Brown, KJI, probably thinks he's just a tin pot dictator.)

Probably. That's why I think it's up to Obama. (The Japanese can't keep a prime minister for more than a few months at a time, anyway, and the SK prez is an ultra-conservative dickwad.) The US, thanks to good ol' Dubya, started this Axis of Evil BS, and is not free of guilt for escalating the situation. Clinton was making pretty good progress on NK for a while, but he couldn't get the Republican Congress to fulfil his promise on the heavy oil-for nukes trade-off. Naturally, the DPRK eventually backed off the deal when they didn't get the oil, only to be further demonized by the US conservatives for it (even though it was their fault).

I don't blame KJI for not trusting us, actually. (I blame him for being a tyrannical douchbag, but that's another issue.) He's in a one-party, one-leader system. He probably expects a country's leader to be able to make a decision and have it followed. Instead, we make promises that have to be ratified in Congress, and when that doesn't happen (due to petty partisanship and holier-than-thou posturing), it looks like we've reneged on our promise.