WASHINGTON (Agencies)
Former president Bill Clinton flew out of North Korea Wednesday with two U.S. journalists sentenced to long jail terms after securing a pardon for them from leader Kim Jong-Il, Clinton's spokesman said.
"President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are en route to Los Angeles where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families," said spokesman Matt McKenna.
TV journalists Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, were arrested in March while reporting near North Korea's border with China. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labour for illegal entry and "hostile acts."
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"Humanitarian mission" " President Clinton had made clear that this was a purely private humanitarian mission " U.S. official Clinton's trip to the hardline communist state follows months of high tensions over the North's nuclear and missile programs. It was the highest-profile visit by an American to Pyongyang for nearly a decade.
The North laid on a warm welcome -- an apparent indication it wants better relations with Washington, which is pushing for strict enforcement of U.N. sanctions aimed at halting the North's atomic and missile activities.
Pyongyang said Clinton at his meeting Tuesday with Kim delivered a special message from Obama. The White House denied this.
The White House was put in a delicate political spot as it attempted to negotiate the reporters' freedom while also ramping up pressure on the North through tougher sanctions on its weapons activities.
A senior U.S. administration official said, without providing specifics, that Clinton did talk to North Korea's leadership about the "positive things that could flow" from freeing the two women who had been held by Pyongyang since March.
"President Clinton had made clear that this was a purely private humanitarian mission," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters. |
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"Provacative behavior" North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il North Korea had requested Clinton's visit and the Obama administration granted its approval only after Pyongyang agreed in advance that the journalists would be freed and there would be no linkage to the nuclear issue, the official said.
Analysts warned that Washington faced a risky task of trying to convince the impoverished state to give up dreams of becoming a nuclear weapons power without being seen to reward it for repeated military provocations or ignoring the demands of others in the region.
The U.S. official said Washington would keep up its efforts to enforce international sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear defiance.
"The North Koreans have two paths," the official said.
He warned that continued "provocative behavior" would lead to further international isolation of Pyongyang but said it also had the choice of returning to suspended six-party talks on its nuclear disarmament.
North Korea last year quit five years of on-and-off negotiations with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea and has since suggested it will only talk with Washington. |
