Gore plea sparked Clinton mercy mission

The US government said today that former vice president Al Gore and the families of two reporters imprisoned in North Korea had asked ex-president Bill Clinton to go to Pyongyang to seek their release.

A senior administration official also said Mr Clinton’s mission did not include any discussions about issues beyond the release of 32-year-old Laura Ling and 36-year-old Euna Lee, reporters with Mr Gore’s Current TV media venture.

The official also rejected a report by the North Korean news agency which said Mr Clinton had delivered an apology about the incident to the country’s ailing leader, Kim Jong Il.

More details of events leading up to Mr Clinton’s mission emerged hours after he brought the freed journalists out of the reclusive communist state, following rare talks with Mr Kim.

The North Korean leader pardoned the women, who were sentenced to hard labour for entering the country illegally.

American citizens Ms Lee and Ms Ling, in short-sleeved shirts and jeans, appeared healthy as they climbed the steps to the plane and shook hands with Mr Clinton before getting into the jet. Mr Clinton waved, put his hand over his heart and then saluted.

North Korean officials waved as the plane took off. Mr Clinton’s spokesman Matt McKenna said the flight was bound for Los Angeles, where the journalists would be reunited with their families.

Their departure was a jubilant conclusion to a more than four-month ordeal for the women arrested near the North Korean-Chinese border in March while on a reporting trip for Current TV.

They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labour for illegal entry and engaging in “hostile acts”.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had urged North Korea last month to grant them amnesty, saying they were remorseful and their families anguished.

North Korean media characterised the women’s release as proof of “humanitarian and peace-loving policy”.

Their families said they were “overjoyed” by the pardon. South Korean-born Ms Lee, 36, is the mother of a four-year-old. Ms Ling, a 32-year-old Californian, is the younger sister of Lisa Ling, a correspondent for CNN as well as The Oprah Winfrey Show and National Geographic Explorer.

Mr Clinton’s landmark trip to Pyongyang also resulted in rare talks with Kim Jong Il that state-run media described as “wide-ranging” and “exhaustive”. The meeting was Mr Kim’s first with a prominent Western figure since reportedly suffering a stroke nearly a year ago.

While the White House emphasised the private nature of Mr Clinton’s trip, his landmark visit to Pyongyang to free the Americans was a coup that came at a time of heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme.

State media had claimed Mr Clinton apologised on behalf of the women and relayed President Barack Obama’s gratitude. The report said the visit would “contribute to deepening the understanding” between North Korea and the US.

The meeting also appeared aimed at dispelling persistent questions about the health of the authoritarian North Korean leader, who was said to be suffering from chronic diabetes and heart disease before the reported stroke.

Mr Kim smiled broadly for a photo standing next to a towering Mr Clinton. He was markedly thinner than a year ago, with his greying hair cropped short. The once-pudgy 67-year-old, who for decades had a noticeable pot belly, wore a khaki jumpsuit and appeared frail and diminutive in a group shot seated next to a robust Mr Clinton.

The journalists’ release followed weeks of quiet negotiations between the US State Department and the North Korean mission to the United Nations, said Daniel Sneider, associate director of research at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Centre.

Mr Clinton “didn’t go to negotiate this, he went to reap the fruits of the negotiation”, Mr Sneider said.

He said pardoning Ms Ling and Ms Lee and having Mr Clinton serving as their emissary served both North Korea’s need to continue maintaining that the two women had committed a crime and the Obama administration’s desire not to expend diplomatic capital winning their freedom.

Speaking out for the first time since their capture, Mr Gore said in a joint statement with Current co-founder Joel Hyatt that everyone at the media outlet was overjoyed by the prospect of their safe return. “Our hearts go out to them and to their families for persevering through this horrible experience,” it said.