U.S. journalists held in N. Korea on way home

Two American journalists who were serving a sentence of 12 years of hard labour in North Korea left early Wednesday for the United States with Bill Clinton, the former president's spokesman says.

"President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are en route to Los Angeles, where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families," Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said in a statement.

Earlier Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il issued a "special pardon" for Ling and Lee and ordered their release, according to media reports quoting the country's state-run news agency.

The decision comes after Clinton met with the reclusive Kim in the capital, Pyongyang, on Tuesday as part of an unannounced mission to secure the release of Ling and Lee.

Analysts have suggested that North Korea's sentencing of the journalists is aimed at getting concessions from the United States relating to UN sanctions on the North for its nuclear test in May.

Ling and Lee, reporters for former U.S. vice-president Al Gore's California-based Current TV, were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March for entering the country illegally. They were charged with engaging in hostile acts against North Korea.

'New phase of negotiations'

Several analysts are suggesting that discussions regarding the release of the journalists will be a segue into other talks surrounding the North's nuclear program.

"There is the possibility of a dramatic turnaround by North Korea that could lead to a new phase of negotiations," Yun Duk-min, an official at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, South Korea, told Reuters.

Since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, Pyongyang has expressed interest in one-on-one negotiations with Washington. The latest provocations were seen in part as a way to draw a concerned U.S. into bilateral talks.

Washington says it is willing to hold such talks with the North, but only within the framework of international disarmament negotiations in place since 2003. Those talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States. North Korea has said it will never return to the six-nation disarmament process.

Families requested Clinton trip: official

The Obama administration refused to officially comment on Clinton's trip, saying it was a "solely private mission."

But a senior administration official said Tuesday that the families of the two reporters had asked Clinton to travel to Pyongyang to seek the women's release.

The families were joined in the request by former vice-president Al Gore, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He added that nothing beyond the scope of the release was discussed and rejected a report by the North Korean news agency which said that Clinton had delivered an apology about the incident to Kim.

Analysts have said that Kim, 67, is eager to smooth over relations with Washington as he prepares to name a successor.

"When you're dealing with Kim Jong-il in North Korea, his word has been —may still be — law," said Jim Walsh, a nuclear proliferation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "And so it is actually possible to sit down and have a significant conversation that could change the current trajectory of U.S.-North Korean relations."

During a nuclear standoff with North Korean in 1994, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter went to Pyongyang and met with leader Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong-il's father. That visit, during Clinton's presidency, led to a breakthrough accord months later.

The last high-ranking U.S. official to meet with Kim Jong-il was Madeleine Albright, Clinton's secretary of state, who visited Pyongyang in 2000 at a time of warming relations. Ties turned frosty when George W. Bush took office in the White House in 2001.