Bill Clinton in North Korea: Flowers & High Hopes for two journalists Aug 2009

I'm very happy because I hope Bill Clinton can negotiate the release of the two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Love Shelley

On Tuesday morning, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs released a statement calling former President Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea a "solely private mission," saying, "While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment. We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton's mission."

The statement came following news last night that Bill Clinton had arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea, to negotiate the release of two American journalists recently sentenced to 12 years of "hard labor" after being convicted of "committing hostilities against Korea and illegal entry." 

The New York Times reports that the former president flew yesterday to North Korea in an unmarked jet and was greeted on the Pyongyang tarmac by both a young Korean girl, bearing a bouquet of white flowers, as well as North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan. The presence of the negotiator raised hopes that Clinton would also be able to open a dialogue about the North's escalating nuclear program. In May, the government conducted its second nuclear test and then launched several ballistic missiles. The journalists' capture was seen as a part of an overall campaign to force the West into engagement.

The Korean Herald reports that although the two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, worked for Al Gore's Current TV network, the North Koreans rejected Gore as a possible envoy. It also reports that although North Korea has refused to participate in the "six-party talks" designed to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, the North indicted in July that it wanted to deal directly with the United States in talks and that Ban Ki Moon, the secretary general of the U.N. and a South Korean diplomat, urged bilateral talks.

Sec. of State Hillary Clinton has worked to secure amnesty and the release of Ling and Lee, but she has not commented on her husband's mission. She is currently traveling in Africa