Bill Clinton, Freed Journalists Head Home From North Korea
Two U.S. journalists released from detention in North Korea are on their way back to the United States, accompanied by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who negotiated their freedom.
A spokesman for Mr. Clinton says the former president, Laura Ling and Euna Lee have left North Korea and are en route to Los Angeles, California.
The announcement came just hours after state-run North Korean media announced a pardon for the two women, who were sentenced in June to 12 years' hard labor for entering the country illegally. Mr. Clinton met Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to negotiate their release.
Journalists Ling and Lee were arrested in March for crossing the Chinese border into North Korea while working on a story. They also were charged with committing hostile acts against the North Korean government.
The families of the two women issued a statement saying they are "overjoyed by the news" of their pardon.
The White House said the Clinton trip was a "solely private mission."
Ling and Lee 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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