North Korea Pardons US Journalists
By VOA News
04 August 2009
North Korea has pardoned two U.S. journalists who were jailed in June for illegally entering the country from China.
State-run news agency KCNA announced the pardon after former U.S. President Bill Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Clinton went to North Korea on a mission to negotiate the release of the two women.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling were arrested in March for illegally crossing into North Korea over the Chinese border while reporting a news story. They also were charged with committing hostile acts against the North Korean government.
In June they were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.
The White House said it would not make public comments during Mr. Clinton's visit, which it called a "solely private mission to secure the release of the two Americans."
The two were reporting for San Francisco-based television news outlet Current TV, co-founded by Al Gore, Mr. Clinton's former vice president (and by businessman Joel Hyatt).
Tensions have risen in recent months over Pyongyang's nuclear test in May, and a series of subsequent test-firings of long- and short-range missiles. The nuclear test led to a United Nations resolution imposing a new series of tougher sanctions against the regime.
Mr. Clinton is the highest-profile American to visit North Korea since Madeleine Albright, his former secretary of state, who traveled there in 2000. He also is the second ex-U.S. president to travel to Pyongyang. Jimmy Carter visited in 1994, on a mission that led to a breakthrough accord on North Korea's nuclear program.
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