Can Clinton Reverse the U.S-North Korea Downward Spiral of Diplomacy?

August 5, 2009 ChaoticFat Uncategorized, 0

Via Time.com Magazine

By Bill Powell Wednesday, Aug. 05, 2009

Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee arrive home to their families at Hangar 25 on August 5, 2009 in Burbank, California after being released by North Korean authorities.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Shortly after former President Bill Clinton finished having dinner with Kim Jong Il on August 4 in Pyongyang, the North Korean state run news agency issued a release saying that the two men had met, and that Clinton had brought a message to the North Korean leader from President Barack Obama.

In a flash, the White House issued its own statement: No, he hadn’t.

And with that, the questions about the former President’s visit to Pyongyang — and about where relations with Kim Jong Il’s North Korea go from here — begin. As expected once he arrived, Clinton departed North Korea Wednesday morning with the two American TV journalists, Euna Lee and Lisa Ling [sic], that he had come to spring from detention there. A senior administration official revealed on August 4 that the North Koreans had, in effect, directly requested that the former President visit Pyongyang. If he did, the North Koreans told their two prisoners, they would be granted “amnesty’” and freed.