Bill Clinton to talk nukes, journalists in N Korea

FE Team | Published: August 05, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

In this image taken from a footage shot by APTN, former US President Bill Clinton receives a bouquet of flowers upon his arrival at an airport in Pyongyang, Tuesday. — AP

SEOUL, Aug 4 (AP): Former US President Bill Clinton made an unannounced visit to communist North Korea Tuesday on a trip seen as a mission to win the release of two jailed American reporters and to ease tensions over Pyongyang's recent nuclear defiance.
North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator and a high-ranking parliamentary official met Clinton on the tarmac as he landed in an unmarked jet, footage from broadcaster APTN showed. After exchanging handshakes with the men, Clinton bowed and smiled as a young girl presented him with flowers, a red kerchief tied around her neck.
Washington has been pressing Pyongyang for months to free Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV media venture who were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March.
North Korea accused them of sneaking into the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts," and the nation's top court sentenced them in June to 12 years of hard labour.
The US and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, but officials were believed to be working behind the scenes to negotiate their release.
Clinton, whose administration had relatively good relations with Pyongyang; Gore, his vice president; and New Mexico Gov Bill Richardson, who in the 1990s travelled twice to North Korea to secure the freedom of detained Americans, were named as possible envoys to bring back Lee and Ling.
However, the decision to send Clinton, whose wife is now secretary of state, was kept quiet. In New York, Clinton's spokesman at the Clinton Foundation could not be reached for comment. Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said she could not comment. At the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Tommy Vietor said he had no comment.
The official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Clinton's visit with a brief dispatch but did not say who he would be meeting during his trip.
There was speculation Clinton might see leader Kim Jong Il, who analysts say is eager to smooth relations with Washington as he prepares to name a successor.