A bit of good news for the day:
Former President Bill Clinton has left North Korea with his party, state media reported, after he negotiated for the release of two jailed American journalists.
The official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch that Clinton and others left early Wednesday by plane. The report did not specify whether the two American journalists pardoned by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il were among those who left Pyongyang on the flight.
Kim issued the “special pardon” for the reporters after Clinton made a surprise visit to the communist nation to negotiate their release Tuesday morning. The release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee was a sign of North Korea’s “humanitarian and peaceloving policy,” the Korean Central News Agency reported.
I doubt it was much of a surprise to the NK government – you don’t just drop in on them unexpectedly. Clearly there is some quid pro quo here, but if the payoff for NK releasing the Americans is a mere visit by Bill Clinton, then its a good job. If there’s something else involved, then it might not be such a good thing – in the larger sense; in the specific of getting these two Americans freed, its all good.
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