Jubilation as freed US reporters arrive home

TWO American journalists freed by North Korea returned home to the United States yesterday for a jubilant, emotional reunion with family members and friends they hadn’t seen in nearly five months.

The jet carrying Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV, and former president Bill Clinton arrived at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport at dawn. Clinton met with communist leader Kim Jong II on Tuesday to secure the women’s release.

Lee emerged from the jetliner first and was greeted by husband Michael Saldage and four-year-old daughter Hanna. She hugged the girl and picked her up before all three embraced.