Bill Clinton Heads for North Korea, Yonhap Reports (Update1)

Bill Clinton Heads for North Korea, Yonhap Reports (Update1)
By Heejin Koo

Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Former President Bill Clinton headed to North Korea to seek the release of two U.S. journalists who are serving a 12-year sentence in the communist nation, Yonhap News reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

Andy Laine, a spokesman for the State Department in Washington, said on a conference call with reporters that he had “no information on those reports.” Aaron Tarver, a U.S. embassy spokesman in Seoul, said he hadn’t heard about a trip. The White House approved the mission, Politico reported.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling were sentenced to “reform through labor” in June for charges including an illegal border crossing from China. The two women were detained in March while reporting for San Francisco-based Current TV, co-founded by Clinton’s former vice president, Al Gore.

The sentencing coincided with increased tension on the Korean peninsula. North Korea tested a nuclear weapon and more than a dozen missiles this year, prompting new United Nations sanctions against the regime.

Clinton had “likely arrived” in Pyongyang, Yonhap reported at 11:23 a.m. local time. North Korea had asked in unofficial contacts through its UN mission that Clinton or a high-ranking Obama administration official visit for such negotiations, the largest South Korean news agency said.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Jung Taek told Bloomberg News by telephone the ministry had no comment on the reports. Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong Joo also declined to comment.

Hostages

North Korea has previously held talks over detained U.S. civilians. Evan C. Hunziker, a 26-year-old American, was held in 1996 after he swam across a river into the country from China. He was released after three months when Bill Richardson, now the governor of New Mexico, negotiated his release in Pyongyang. Hunziker committed suicide later that year.

Clinton, husband of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, reached an agreement with Kim Jong Il in 1994 during his presidency to freeze the communist nation’s nuclear activities. He sent Madeleine Albright, then secretary of state, to Pyongyang to meet Kim in 2000, the highest ranking U.S. government official to visit.

That agreement fell through in 2002, after North Korea admitted it had secretly restarted the nuclear program. It kicked out international inspectors and conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

Bill Clinton visited Seoul in May to promote cleaner energy use at major cities through the New York-based Clinton Climate Initiative.

Last Updated: August 3, 2009 22:49 EDT