Two US journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were freed from prison in North Korea and flew home to Los Angeles with former US President Bill Clinton late 4 August. The two women were jailed in March for illegally entering the country. They were released on orders from Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s leader, to show the country’s “humanitarian and peace-loving policy” after Clinton went to North Korea on an unannounced visit 3 August. The families told US media they were “overjoyed.” North Korean sources said Clinton and Kim had wide-ranging talks and that Clinton brought a personal message from US President Barack Obama. The White House denied this and repeated that Clinton’s visit was purely a personal one. Nevertheless, the chartered plane carrying them home landed at a military base in Japan with no comment from the military about how long they would be there. BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal
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News story, GenevaLunch, 5 August 2009.
Filed under: Politics, World news
Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Euna Lee, illegal entry, Laura Ling, Los Angeles, North Korea, Pyongyang, White House
August 5th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I think it was very stupid and irresponsible of them to go to North Korea. They only caused obstacles to progress in the US and North Korea negotiations. Ling and Lee should make a public apology to US. The same thing is happening to the Americans that crossed to Iran. Why do Americans take risky irresponsible and harmful actions that have no affect except to disrupt and slow down negotiations for a better understanding between these countries.