North Korea

Clinton leaves after release of journalists

Article published on the 2009-08-05 Latest update 2009-08-05 10:17 TU

Former US President Bill Clinton leaves Pyongyang on a chartered plane after his surprise visit to North Korea on 5 August, 2009
(Photo: REUTERS/Xinhua/Zhang Binyang)

Former US president Bill Clinton flew home on Wednesday after successfully negotiating the release of two American journalists held in North Korea.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour in June after reporting on North Korean refugees but they were pardoned by the country’s leader Kim Jong-Il following Clinton’s surprise visit.

Kim agreed to release the reporters after Clinton "expressed words of sincere apology" for their "hostile acts", according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KNCA).

In spite of tensions between the two countries over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, Clinton received a positive and well-publicised reception on Tuesday.

While in Pyongyang, he held a meeting with Kim and also had a two-hour dinner which, according to the KCNA, “proceeded in a cordial atmosphere”.

The agency said Clinton’s meetings "reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement" of issues dividing the United States and North Korea.

It also said the visit would contribute to “deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the US and building the bilateral confidence."

A senior US official said the freed journalists were in “very good health” despite being in detention for almost five months, according to AFP.

Their families thanked Clinton and his former Vice-President Al Gore, who founded Current TV, the internet broadcaster that they were working for.

"The families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee are overjoyed by the news of their pardon," they said in a statement.

"We especially want to thank president Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and vice-president Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home.”

However, correspondent Christian Oliver said there are plenty of questions left unanswered as to why the two women were arrested near North Korea’s border with China.

“It’s very easy just to say it’s an accident and they wandered across the river trying to do a bit of filming,” he told RFI. “There are, however, lots of people who have asked very legitimate questions. This is an area where a lot of human trafficking goes on. Did the North Koreans set this up as a bit of a trap – an ambush to get themselves some bargaining chips?

He also said there was the “very contentious question” regarding a relation of one of the pair.

“One of the reporter’s sisters made an undercover documentary in North Korea a while back that really infuriated the regime in Pyongyang,” Oliver said.  “So there’s actually some personal bad blood that could be being worked out there.”