North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned and ordered the release of two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said Wednesday.
The announcement came after former U.S. President Bill Clinton met with top North Korean officials in Pyongyang to appeal for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been arrested while reporting from the border between North Korea and China.
“Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it,” the news agency reported. “Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.
“The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them.”
The report said Clinton then conveyed a message from President Obama “expressing profound thanks for this and reflecting views on ways of improving the relations between the two countries.”
It added, “The measure taken to release the American journalists is a manifestation of the DPRK’s humanitarian and peace-loving policy.
“The DPRK visit of Clinton and his party will contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building the bilateral confidence.”
DPRK is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the nation’s official name.
The two American journalists had been held in the reclusive communist nation since their arrest in March.
Earlier in the day, White House Secretary Robert Gibbs said Clinton was on a “solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans.”
Ling and Lee are reporters for California-based Current TV — a media venture launched by Clinton’s former vice president, Al Gore.
The two were sentenced in June to 12 years in prison on charges of entering the country illegally to conduct a smear campaign. Since the United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, efforts to resolve the issue had been handled through Sweden, which represents U.S. interests in North Korea.
The visit by the former president, whose wife, Hillary Clinton, is now the Obama administration’s secretary of state, came about three weeks after the United States dropped a request that Ling and Lee be released on humanitarian grounds. Instead, the United States was seeking amnesty for the women, Hillary Clinton said.
A plea for amnesty implies forgiveness for some offense, which could have given North Korea the chance to release the women without feeling that its legal system had been slighted, according to analyst Mike Chinoy, an Edgerton senior fellow on Asia at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles.
Prior to the release, Chinoy said, “I suspect that it was made pretty clear in advance that Bill Clinton would be able to return with these two women, otherwise it would be a terrible loss of face for him.”
Clinton’s mission came as the United States and its allies in the region are seeking to push North Korea back into stalled nuclear disarmament talks. North Korea conducted a nuclear bomb test, its second, in May, and has conducted several missile tests since then. The United Nations responded to those tests by tightening and expanding sanctions on the nation.
(Source: CNN)
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12 Responses
There goes another liberal kissing up to a terrorist regime.
Nice pic! Looks like Clinton is taking make-up lessons from Pelosi!!
Could one of the Chusheva Askonim in our community please please please send Mr Clinton to Japan to get out brothers out of jail.
I wounder what Clinton offered them on Obama’s behalf. He sold us out when, as president, he gave them and China technology (for peaceful purposes, lol…what a fool!) They prob did it again.
Also, those poor girls. Which is worse, being in a N. Korean jail or stuck with Clinton on a plane with nowhere to run and hide?
Shame on the commentors here. I don’t care what kind of smoke Clinton had to blow up the North Koreans’ rears; those girls needed to be released. Have you any concept of what a forced labor camp in such a regime entails? If you did, you’d not be so quick to make light of the experience, I’d bet. It’s not as if Clinton gave them anything, or had the power to do anything official. What he did do was secure those girls’ freedom. Would you rather they still be there? Is an ex-president going and talking to them really such a high price to pay?
If those two girls were Jewish, you would all be singing a different tune. For shame.
How about Clinton pulling a stunt like this for Gilad Shalit in Gaza (even though Shalit’s an Israeli Clinton always wanted to solve the mideast problem & something like that would be a good start)
I look forward to the time when we’ll read/hear about marvelous acts of chesed of this magnitude performed by Yiddin instead of the poor press we’ve been getting lately.
no chance for Gilad Shalit to be released,jews, israel are out, only arabs and terrorist get to go free new american policy
This is a good thing for the imprisoned journalists.
To the bellyachers:
Clinton went to secure the release of 2 *American* journalists. Why do you expect him to go and secure the release of an *Israeli* soldier? He is not the ex-PM of Israel, he is a former president of the United States. This smacks of a sense of entitlement that the US should automatically do anything and everything for Israel and its citizens. Wake up, people. America has its own interests that it rightfully looks after. What kind of country is Israel if it can’t do anything for itself?
#5. Of course we’re concerned and pleased that those people were released. That’s not the point.
Obama/Clinton, etc. and their ilk are creatures of patterns. Everything they do is calculating and for a self serving purpose. I for one, never listen to their words, I watch what they do!
Where are they when Jews are being held in Japan, where are they when it comes to justice for Pollard? (no, i’m not condoning Pollards actions, but his sentence was dishonest and categorically unfair.
So, if people are skeptical, there is good reason.
Also, there was a report of Clinton giving N. Korea a message from Obama and it is naive to think that Clinton went on his own and offered nothing and that N. Korea released them out of the goodness of their hearts.
Former Presidents don’t put their prestige on the line without the details being worked out in advance.
#11:
Again, why do either Clinton or Obama have to be the protectorate of *Israeli* citizens held in Japan? What reason do they have to intervene in that case? It doesn’t serve America’s interests really, and so I don’t expect them to intervene at all. It’s easy to ask why they *don’t* do something, but in that case the question is the opposite. Obama and Clinton were elected by US citizens to be the leader of the US, not the universal protector of Israel and Jews.
As for Pollard, where was Bush? He’s done as much as Obama and Clinton have, so it’s only fair to include him. For the moment, I’m more concerned about the release of innocent people than someone who as actually committed a crime, even though his sentence may be too long. It’s a matter of prioritization.p