U.S. journalists on way home from N. Korea
NAIROBI, Kenya — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said today she isn't counting on a breakthrough in relations with North Korea now that the communist nation has freed two American journalists.
The two journalists were flying home today with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who traveled to North Korea to seek their release after receiving word that his visit would help bring their release. Hillary Clinton said her husband's trip was a humanitarian mission, separate from persistent tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program.
Still, she held out hope of a thaw in relations with North Korea.
"Perhaps they will now be willing to start talking to us within the context of the six-party talks about the international desire to see them denuclearize," she said this morning on NBC's "Today" show.
Hillary Clinton said her husband agreed to serve as a special envoy to Pyongyang after the North Koreans sent word through the two detained journalists and their families that his visit "would be the best way to assure their release."
Earlier, she told reporters the two journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, were "extremely excited" to be on their way back to the United States.
The ex-president left North Korea aboard a charter jetliner with Ling and Lee late Tuesday. They were flying directly to Los Angeles so the women could be reunited with their families.
Hillary Clinton said she was "very happy and relieved" the women were on their way home.
"It was just a good day to be able to see this happen," she said.
The Obama administration said Tuesday the families of the two reporters had asked the former president to go to Pyongyang. A senior administration official said the families were joined in the request by former Vice President Al Gore.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of events leading up to Clinton's trip, said the former president's mission did not include any discussions about issues beyond the release of Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, both journalists with Gore's Current TV media venture.
"We are very relieved about that, but now we have to go back to the ongoing efforts to try and convince the North Koreans to start things that the world wants to see them participate in," Hillary Clinton said.
She also rejected an official report by the North Korean news agency that said Bill Clinton had delivered an apology about the incident to the country's ailing leader, Kim Jong Il.
"That is not true," Hillary Clinton said. "That did not occur."
The journalists were arrested after they allegedly crossed into the country from China earlier this year. They had been sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor.
They were captured while on assignment to collect material for a report about trafficking of North Korean women into China.
