There were complex negotiations behind the scenes over the fate of the journalists, reports EWEN MCASKILLin Washington
RELATIONS BETWEEN North Korea and the US were more acrimonious than usual last month, at least in public, against the background of the nuclear weapons row.
But behind the scenes the two countries were engaged in a more civilised conversation over the fate of the two American journalists held in North Korea. Back-channel negotiations were under way in what was referred to as the “New York connection”, between the North Korean and US missions at the United Nations headquarters, and through the journalists’ families and the White House.
Bill Clinton’s name first came up in May when a former South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, suggested he would be the perfect envoy to fly to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of the journalists. Clinton, who had invested time during his presidency in trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, regards North Korea as unfinished business and would have welcomed the chance. But at the time nothing came of it. Then his name came up again in the middle of last month.
The White House, the state department and Clinton’s former vice-president, Al Gore, who helped found the company that employed the two journalists, had been discussing who might go as an envoy. Clinton’s wife Hillary, the US secretary of state, who has been heavily involved in trying to secure the release of the journalists, initially considered sending Gore. Other names in the frame included governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson, who has extensive diplomatic experience and has helped get Americans released before, and chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee, John Kerry. But the North Korean leadership did not regard any of them as prestigious enough. Through the two journalists and their families, they passed on the message that they wanted Bill Clinton. In the middle of last month the families passed the message to Gore, who contacted the White House.
Barack Obama did not speak directly to Clinton before he left and discussions between Clinton and the White House were conducted by the national security adviser, Gen James Jones.
The one proviso the White House insisted on was that Clinton should not go unless the North Koreans guaranteed that he would be allowed to take the journalists back with him. It did not want a scenario in which he returned empty-handed.