Bill Clinton heads to North Korea in bid to free journalists

2009 aug 04

From the Los Angeles Times
Bill Clinton heads to North Korea in bid to free journalists
A South Korea newspaper reports the former president hopes to win the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry.
By Paul Richter and John Glionna

August 4, 2009

Seoul — Former President Clinton was en route to Pyongyang in a bid to negotiate the release of two American TV journalists sentenced to 12 years in prison for illegally entering North Korea, according to a U.S. official who requested anonymity and would not discuss details of the mission.

Earlier, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper cited a diplomatic source in reporting that Clinton was on his way to the North Korean capital on a chartered plane.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, on assignment for San Francisco-based Current TV, were taken into custody by North Korean officials in March near the border with China while reporting on refugees fleeing the secretive North. They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

Scott Snyder, a North Korea expert for the nonprofit Asia Foundation, said Clinton's standing as a world statesman carried weight with Pyongyang.

"The North Koreans have a lot of nostalgia for the end of the Clinton administration," he said.

He said Clinton was rumored to have considered visiting Pyongyang before he left office.

"The question is going to be how could he go to Pyongyang without some assurance that they would be released," Snyder said. "For someone at his level to go without a prior assurance of some kind would be to risk a huge loss of face."

Jang Cheol-hyeon, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Strategy and a former official at North Korea's Unification Front Department, said Clinton's visit was the best chance the U.S. has to win the reporters' release.

"He can surely bring the two journalists back home," he said.

However, it remained unclear on Tuesday what U.S. officials would have to give up to win the release of the two reporters.

Washington has said that it wants to prevent the effort from being linked to the larger dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. But the outcome of that effort has been anything but certain, experts said.