Former President Bill Clinton arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit to North Korea, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea’s reclusive government and dined with the North’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il. The private plane, carrying Mr. Clinton and the journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, landed at 5:50 a.m. Pacific Standard Time at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, just outside Los Angeles. The two women stepped off the plane in jeans and sweaters, rushing down the stairs to be reunited with their families, who clustered around them. Ms. Lee, in tears, picked up and embraced her 4-year-old daughter, Hana. Mr. Clinton stepped off the plane a few moments later, embracing Al Gore, the founder of the media company that employs the journalists. “Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea,” Ms. Ling said in brief remarks to reporters, blinking back tears. “We feared that at any moment we could be prisoners in a hard labor camp. Then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting. “We were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton,” she said, recounting the final moments of her ordeal. “We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. And now we stand here home and free.” Mr. Gore then spoke. “President Obama and countless members of his administration have been deeply involved,” in the effort to bring the women home, he said. “To everybody who has played a part in this,” he said, “we are so grateful.” The North Korean government, which in June sentenced the women to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, announced hours before the jet’s departure from North Korea that it had pardoned the women after Mr. Clinton apologized to Mr. Kim for their actions, according to the North Korean state media. Mr. Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said Wednesday that the administration was “extremely excited” that the women would be reunited with their families. But she denied that her husband had apologized. President Obama, who contacted the families of the women on Tuesday evening, said that he, too, was “extraordinarily relieved” at the journalists’ return. “I want to thank President Bill Clinton — I had a chance to talk to him — for the extraordinary humanitarian effort that resulted in the release of the two journalists,” Mr. Obama said outside the White House on Wednesday morning. Mr. Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang was the most visible by an American in nearly a decade. It came at a time when the United States’ relationship with North Korea had become especially chilled, after North Korea’s test of its second nuclear device in May and a series of missile launchings. It ended a harrowing ordeal for the two women, who were stopped on March 17 by soldiers near North Korea’s border with China while researching a report about women and human trafficking. They faced years of imprisonment in the gulag-like confines of a North Korean prison camp. And it catapulted Mr. Clinton back on to the global stage, on behalf of a president who defeated Mrs. Clinton in a bitter primary campaign last year, and who later asked her to be his secretary of state. Mrs. Clinton was deeply involved in the case, too. She proposed sending various people to Pyongyang — including Mr. Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore — to lobby for the release of the women, before Mr. Clinton emerged as the preferred choice of the North Koreans, people briefed on the talks said. About 10 days ago, these people said, Mr. Gore called Mr. Clinton to ask him to undertake the trip. Mr. Clinton agreed, as long as the Obama administration did not object.

Wow … what a happy ending to what could’ve been such an outrageously tragic tale. Thankfully, both Laura Ling and Euna Lee seem to be in relative good health and spirits … considering the months of captivity they spent in North Korea, well, I’m just glad to see them looking so well. The photo of Euna being reunited with her husband and daughter really says it all. I imagine we’ll be hearing much from these two women about their ordeal in the weeks to come … for now, I’m sure they’ll be spending as much time with their families as possible in an attempt to get back to their normal lives — as normal as they can be under the circumstances. President Bill Clinton is a hero in my eyes. This is just such happy news!

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Former President Bill Clinton left North Korea early Wednesday, after securing a pardon for two jailed American journalists from the reclusive North Korean president, Kim Jong-il, Reuters reported. The two journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, were returning to the United States with Mr. Clinton, the news agency reported, after having been held by North Korea since being detained by North Korean soldiers along the Chinese border on March 17. They were on a reporting assignment from Current TV, a San Francisco-based media company co-founded by Al Gore, the former vice president. They were eventually convicted and sentenced to 12 years at hard labor for “committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry.” But they were held near Pyongyang rather than sent to a labor camp after the sentencing, raising hopes that North Korea might be willing to pardon them. The administration, which had initially said the charges were “baseless,” began discussing a possible “amnesty” for the women, signaling a readiness to acknowledge some degree of culpability in return for their freedom. On Tuesday, the Ling and Lee families issued a joint statement on their Web site in which they thanked the Obama administration, President Clinton and “all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal.” They added that they were “counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms.” The pardon added to speculation among analysts in Seoul that North Korea, after months of raising tensions and hostile rhetoric towards Washington, may be ready to return to dialogue with Washington.

Tensions have been high since a nuclear test by the North on May 25 and the subsequent American-led effort to impose international sanctions against the North. Administration officials sought to temper suggestions that Mr. Clinton would engage in sweeping discussions with Mr. Kim about North Korea’s nuclear program. His brief, one official said, was strictly limited to the imprisoned journalists … Mr. Clinton flew into Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in an unmarked jet early Tuesday morning local time, Central TV, a North Korean station, reported. The White House confirmed the visit on Tuesday, but said it was a private mission. “While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment,” Mr. Gibbs said in a statement. “We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton’s mission.” It was widely assumed that Mr. Clinton would not have undertaken the mission without specific assurances that Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee would be released … Television footage from Pyongyang showed Mr. Clinton being greeted at the airport by North Korean officials including the chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan and Yang Hyong-sop, the vice parliamentary speaker. The footage showed him smiling and bowing as a young girl presented him with flowers. Photographs released by North Korea showed Mr. Clinton sitting next to a thin, though not sickly looking, Mr. Kim. The Obama administration had been considering for weeks whether to send a special envoy to North Korea. The visit by Mr. Clinton, even if officially a private effort, was clearly undertaken with the blessings of the White House, and marked his first diplomatic mission abroad on behalf of the administration. Mr. Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has been deeply involved in the journalists’ case.

This is amazing news!! To be honest, all North Korea ever wants is to be taken seriously by the governments of the world and like a spoiled child, they act out in order to get the attention they so desperately want. Having a former President of the United States of America visit their country and ask for the release of these journalists was prolly enough for Jong-il to get what he wanted, cuz clearly that is all it took to orchestrate their pardons. It’s terrible that Laura and Euna had to be used as pawns in this way but perhaps this is the first step for new diplomatic ground between the US and North Korea. At this point, that is up in the air … all that matters right now is that Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families very shortly. Happy, happy news!!

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North Korea convicted two American journalists and sentenced them Monday to 12 years of hard labor for crossing into its territory, intensifying the reclusive nation’s confrontation with the United States. The Obama administration said it would pursue ”all possible channels” to win the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV media venture. There are fears Pyongyang is using the women as bargaining chips as the U.N. debates a new resolution to punish the country for its defiant May 25 atomic test and as North Korea seeks to draw Washington into direct negotiations. Washington’s former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson called the sentencing part of ”a high-stakes poker game” being played by North Korea. He said on NBC’s Today show that he thinks negotiations for their ”humanitarian release” can begin now that the legal process has been completed. Other South Korean analysts also said they expect the two to be freed following negotiations. The journalists were found guilty of committing a ”grave crime” against North Korea and of illegally entering the country, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said. North Korean guards arrested Ling and Lee near the China-North Korean border on March 17. The two were reporting about the trafficking of North Korean women at the time of their arrest, and it’s unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China. A cameraman and their local guide escaped. The Central Court in Pyongyang sentenced each to 12 years of ”reform through labor” in a North Korean prison after a five-day trial, KCNA said in a terse, two-line report that provided no further details. A Korean-language version said they were convicted of ”hostility toward the Korean people.” The ruling — nearly three months after their arrest on March 17 — comes amid soaring tensions fueled by North Korea’s nuclear test last month and signs it is preparing for a long-range missile test. On Monday, North Korea warned fishing boats to stay away from the east coast, Japan’s coast guard said, raising concerns more missile tests are being planned … Verdicts issued by North Korea’s highest court are final and cannot be appealed, said Choi Eun-suk, a North Korean law expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at South Korea’s Kyungnam University. He said North Korea’s penal code calls for transferring them to prison within 10 days. The United States, which does not have diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, was ”deeply concerned” about the reported verdict, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington. He said officials would ”engage in all possible channels” to win the reporters’ release. At the White House on Monday, deputy spokesman William Burton said in a statement: ”The president is deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release.”

This sentence is ghastly and is clearly only being used for political gain by North Korea. It is absolutely a terrifying prospect to spend 12 years in any prison, let alone a labor camp in the very clandestine North Korea. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Lee and Ling families. It is my sincere hope that something can be done on the part of our government or perhaps one of the Asian governments (China, Japan) in the area to extricate these journalists. If these women are not retrieved before they are sent to the camps, we may never see or hear from either of the again.

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