FORMER US president Bill Clinton’s successful intervention in North Korea to secure the release of two imprisoned American journalists has raised the prospect of warmer ties with the reclusive state and the possibility of direct nuclear disarmament talks.
The two journalists, Laura Ling (32) and Euna Lee (36), were freed from months of detention in North Korea and returned to the US early yesterday with Mr Clinton, to an airport near Los Angeles aboard a private jet.
Mr Clinton’s wife, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, told reporters in Nairobi she was happy and relieved. She said there was no connection between the effort to free the two journalists and the thorny nuclear issue.
“We have always considered that a totally separate issue from our efforts to re-engage the North Koreans and have them return to the six-party talks and work for a commitment for the full, verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” she said. “The future of our relationships with the North Koreans is really up to them. They have a choice.”
A US official said the former president talked to North Korea’s leadership about the “positive things that could flow” from freeing the two women, who had been held since March.
While the visit succeeded in its purpose, it also highlighted the difficulty of the US position, as Washington must convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and not reward it for consistently breaking international rules.
The visit will be played up for maximum propaganda value in North Korea, where Kim Jong-il faces the knotty task of installing his anointed heir, his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, after the 67-year-old leader suffered a stroke last year.
In the North Korean media, the visit was used to illustrate how the North’s recent nuclear and missile tests, which earned the country the opprobrium of the international community, had proven a great platform for North Korea’s military prowess and earned the attention of the world.
The North Koreans also said Mr Clinton had apologised for the behaviour of the US journalists, and conveyed a message from Mr Obama on ways to improve relations. The White House denied this was the case.
"Regardless of what the US administration says, the Clinton and Kim meeting signals the start of direct bargaining . . . It's a matter of time when US-North bilateral talks begin," South Korea's Chosun Ilbodaily said.
North Korea had requested Mr Clinton’s visit but the former president had only gone on condition that the reporters would definitely be freed and that the pardon for the journalists would not be linked to the nuclear issue.
Ling and Lee, who work for Current TV, a US television outlet co-founded by Mr Clinton’s vice-president Al Gore, were arrested in March for illegally crossing into the North from China and had been reporting on the trafficking of women. They were each sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour in June in a sentence that looked mostly aimed at giving Pyongyang some leverage with Washington.