Bill Clinton gains reporters’ release
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton greets U.S. journalists Laura Ling (in green) and Euna Lee (in red) as they board a chartered plane at an airport in Pyongyang yesterday in this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency. [REUTERS]
An aircraft carrying the three and others was scheduled to land in Los Angeles Wednesday morning, California time.
According to the Japanese broadcaster NHK, the plane carrying Clinton, Euna Lee and Laura Ling took off from the Misawa Air Base shortly after noon. It stopped at the U.S. military air base in Aomori Prefecture for refueling, the broadcaster said.
Clinton arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday on a mission to secure the release of the journalists who were arrested near the Chinese border on March 17 while working on a story about North Korean defectors. The two were subsequently convicted of crimes against the North Korean people and sentenced to 12 years each in a labor camp.
The former American president sat down for dinner with “Dear Leader” Kim Tuesday for discussions on matters of common interest, the North’s state-run media reported. The North’s Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim granted special pardons to the two jailed reporters.
Laura Ling, Euna Lee
A senior U.S. official in Washington denied yesterday that an apology was made by Clinton, according to international newswires. The official told the AFP that the two TV reporters are in “very good health.”
The North’s media outlet said Kim issued an order on granting a special pardon to Lee and Ling, and “Clinton courteously conveyed a verbal message of U.S. President Barack Obama expressing profound thanks for this and reflecting views on ways of improving the relations between the two countries.”
“The DPRK visit of Clinton and his party will contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building bilateral confidence,” the report said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that the two journalists released from North Korea are “extremely excited’’ to be on their way back to America, according to wire reports. Secretary Clinton told reporters in Nairobi that she had spoken with her husband, saying she would talk more about his mission after Ling and Lee were reunited with their families.
In Los Angeles, the families of the journalists issued a statement, saying: “We are so grateful to our government: President Obama, Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their dedication to and hard work on behalf of American citizens. We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home. “We must also thank all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal, it has meant the world to us. We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms,” the statement continued.
Michael Saldate, Lee’s husband, picked up their daughter, Hana, earlier than usual from a kindergarten in a Korean area in Los Angeles on Tuesday following the news about the two reporters’ release, a staffer of the education center told the JoongAng Ilbo’s Los Angeles edition. “Other parents congratulated him. He was overjoyed and told everyone that Hana’s mom will arrive tomorrow.”
“The family had an excruciatingly difficult time, and we are so happy that she is coming back,” Jina Lee, a younger sister of Lee, said in a phone interview with the newspaper. “I still feel very cautious because she hasn’t arrived here yet. She will need time to recover from her mental and physical ordeal.”
By Ser Myo-ja [myoja@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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