Pyongyang, August 05: Former US president Bill Clinton today met the reclusive North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, and passed on a message from Barack Obama, according to the state’s official news agency. The meeting came as Clinton arrived on a surprise mission to seek the release of two imprisoned American journalists.
The visit follows a steady mounting of tension between Washington and Pyongyang over the stalled aid-for-disarmament talks and North Korea’s nuclear test and missile launches.
Radio Pyongyang and the Korean Central Broadcasting Station said Kim had hosted a dinner for Clinton at the state guesthouse. At the event, the two men exchanged “a broad range of opinion”, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
Clinton, who flew in on a private jet, was greeted by North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator and vice-foreign minister, Kim Kye-gwan, and a high-ranking parliamentary official.
The White House described his visit as a “solely private” attempt to negotiate the freedom of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said the Obama’s administration would make no comment while Clinton was on the ground, adding: “We do not want to jeopardise the success of his mission.”
The US journalists were detained while on a reporting trip for California-based Current TV – co-founded by Al Gore, Clinton’s former vice-president. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labour for entering the country illegally and engaging in “hostile acts”.
—Agencies