Clinton visit provides North Korea opening

North Korea’s pardon Tuesday of two American journalists marks former President Bill Clinton’s first major mission for the Obama administration and presents an opportunity to improve relations with a secretive regime that until recently had been escalating tensions with the United States and its allies.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il granted the rare pardon after he met with Mr. Clinton in Pyongyang. The former president left after spending less than 24 hours in North Korea. His spokesman said the reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, left with Mr. Clinton.

President Obama called the two women’s families Tuesday night to “express relief” at their release, a senior administration official said during a conference call with reporters.

Mr. Clinton’s visit was “a reflection of a whole lot of work over a couple of months,” the official said on the condition of anonymity because the visit was private. The effort started when the North Koreans first allowed the journalists to call their families in the spring, he said, and culminated with an indication in mid-July that they would be granted amnesty if Mr. Clinton went to Pyongyang.

• To view an AP interactive timeline of U.S.-North Korean relations, click here.

The official also said the North Koreans understood that a visit would “not be connected to other issues,” such as U.N. sanctions on the North. He added that, before Mr. Clinton left for Pyongyang, the administration “consulted directly with allies,” such as South Korea and Japan, to make sure they “fully understood what the trip was and what it wasn’t.”

The meeting with Mr. Kim lasted an hour and 15 minutes, after which they had a two-hour dinner, the senior official said. The women shook hands with Mr. Clinton before they boarded an airplane and appeared in good physical condition.

Although the White House insisted that Mr. Clinton was on a private humanitarian mission, North Korea treated the visit as official and sent its top nuclear negotiator to greet Mr. Clinton at the airport.

The senior administration official also said, “I’m sure President Clinton gave his views on denuclearization.”

Mr. Clinton was accompanied by two aides - his former chief of staff, John D. Podesta, who headed the Obama transition team last year, and David Straub, a former career diplomat with extensive experience in Korean affairs.

“A former president is not just a private citizen,” said Han Shik Park, director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues at the University of Georgia. Mr. Park, who visited North Korea last month and learned that the two American reporters were being kept at a guest house in Pyongyang instead of a labor camp, said, “There will be informal follow-ups and everything [Mr. Clinton discussed with Mr. Kim] will be dissected in Washington.”

Mr. Kim, who suffered a stroke last year and is said to be preparing his youngest son for succession to power, looked thin and wan in official pictures of the meeting with Mr. Clinton and his entourage.

“Kim Jong-il issued an order of the chairman of the [North Korean] National Defense Commission on granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labor in accordance with Article 103 of the Socialist Constitution and releasing them,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The women were arrested March 17 near the border with China and slapped with 12-year sentences in June. North Korea accused them of illegally entering its territory.

North Korean media said Mr. Clinton delivered a message to Mr. Kim from President Obama. The White House denied this, but diplomats and Asia specialists said the North’s nuclear program was most likely discussed.

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