[Key Updates] Breaking News: Bill Clinton Delivers! Two Jailed American Journalists Ordered Released from North Korea!
By Bronwyn's Harbor on August 4, 2009 at 3:43 PM in Current Affairs
SEE the KEY UPDATES BELOW THE FOLD — from both the New York Times and ABC News — including a new photo as well as a report that the two women may leave North Korea “within hours.” Included in the ABC News report are the North Koreans’ demands, who asked Bill Clinton to go to North Korea, and more.
Since this is such an unlikely headline at The Drudge Report, I decided that I had to take a screenshot (reduced in size to fit our writing area):
Here’s background via MSNBC’s story, “Report: N. Korea to free 2 U.S. journalists: Announcement of pardon comes after Bill Clinton meets with Kim Jong Il“:
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has pardoned two jailed American journalists and ordered their release following an unannounced meeting with former President Bill Clinton, media reports said Tuesday.
Clinton met earlier Tuesday with Kim after arriving in Pyongyang on a surprise visit, holding “exhaustive” talks that covered a wide range of topics, state-run media said.
Clinton traveled to communist North Korea on a mission to try to secure the release of Americans Euna Lee, 36, and Laura Ling, 32, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s Current TV media venture who were arrested along the Chinese-North Korean border in March and sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and engaging in “hostile acts.”
KEY UPDATES via “Bill Clinton Brings Star Power to North Korea Negotiation,” at The New York Times blog The Lede and ABC News’s story, “North Korea Pardons Jailed Journalists After Bill Clinton’s Visit“:
CAPTION: A photograph released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-il posing with former President Bill Clinton and his delegation in Pyongyang on Tuesday.
Update | 3:44 p.m. ABC News reports that Euna Lee and Laura Ling may leave North Korea within hours. According to ABC, an unnamed source in the U.S. government, “who has knowledge of the Clinton team’s mission, was hopeful that the two will leave North Korea tonight for the United States, possibly even on the same plane as Clinton.”
Update | 3:13 p.m. According to Reuters, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency reports that Kim Jong-il, the country’s leader, has granted two American journalists a “special pardon,” on Tuesday, which releases them from detention. The pardoning of Euna Lee and Laura Ling was announced following Mr. Kim’s meeting with former President Bill Clinton in Pyongyang. Reuters reports that KCNA issued the following statement:
Kim Jong-il issued an order of the chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission on granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labor in accordance with Article 103 of the Socialist Constitution and releasing them.
The Associated Press also reported the announcement by North Korean media.
Update | 1:54 p.m. Martha Raddatz and Joohee Cho of ABC News report that Mr. Clinton met with Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two detained American journalists, in North Korea on Tuesday, according to “a government source” who described the meeting as “very emotional.” ABC reports:
The source, who has knowledge of the Clinton team’s mission, was hopeful that the two will be back home in the United States tomorrow, and that Clinton will depart tonight from North Korea.
Read all of the updates at the NYT blog post: “Bill Clinton Brings Star Power to North Korea Negotiation.”
FROM ABC NEWS’s story, “North Korea Pardons Jailed Journalists After Bill Clinton’s Visit“:
[...]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, en route to Africa on a state trip, would not comment until her husband’s mission was complete, a senior U.S. official told reporters.
Arriving at Pyongyang in a specially chartered, unmarked jet, Clinton was greeted warmly by a young girl bearing flowers and top North Korean officials, including chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kyegwan.
Sources told ABC News that Clinton’s trip, while a surprise to some, was planned weeks ago and that it was former Vice President Al Gore who asked Clinton to go. Clinton was accompanied by his former Chief of Staff, John Podesta, who officials said was also involved in the planning.
A senior U.S. official told ABC News that “while mission is in progress, we will have no comment. Our interest is the safe return of the journalists.”
Clinton’s trip fulfills one of North Korea’s two demands — a visit from a high-profile emissary. As former president and husband of the current secretary of state, there could be few people of higher profile, and Gore founded Current TV, where the two journalists worked.
North Korea’s second demand — an apology — was fulfilled by Hillary Clinton just a few weeks ago.
“The young women themselves have, apparently, admitted that they probably did trespass, so they are deeply regretful and we are very sorry it’s happened,” the former first lady said in an interview with ABC News last month. “Our most important goal is to make sure they get home safe.”
Hillary Clinton’s words were a clear departure from the administration’s early rhetoric, and she also acknowledged that the State Department changed its approach in trying to free the two journalists. In June, she told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that the charges against Lee and Ling were “absolutely without merit or foundation.”
One thing about Clinton’s trip is clear: He would not have gone to North Korea unless he was certain he would be coming back with the two journalists.
EARLIER POSTED INFO:
Here is another photograph:
And here’s an earlier video from the Today Show on President Clinton’s trip to North Korea:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Ani also wrote a post at the same time, so I’m adding a report that she found that gives you a lot more detail on what transpired during Clinton’s trip to North Korea:
From MSNBC:
Clinton’s meeting with Kim would be the notoriously reclusive North Korean leader’s first with a prominent Western figure since Kim reportedly suffered a stroke a year ago, sparking questions about the future of the nation he controls with absolute authority.
Though Clinton was in North Korea on a private basis, his visit was treated by North Korea as a high-profile visit, with senior officials — including Kim Kye Gwan, the vice foreign minister who serves as the country’s chief nuclear negotiator — meeting him on the tarmac.
Footage from the APTN television news agency showed the arriving Clinton exchanging warm handshakes with the 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.
“This is a very potentially rewarding trip. Not only is it likely to resolve the case of the two American journalists detained in North Korea for many months, but it could be a very significant opening and breaking this downward cycle of tension and recrimination between the U.S. and North Korea,” Mike Chinoy, author of “Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis,” said in Beijing.
All our thanks to President Clinton. I guess SoS Clinton had a good idea to send her husbnand rather than Al Gore, or Bill Richardson, who wanted to go.
Great news! Well done.
I also borrowed Ani‘s great headline.
by Ronald Scott
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