Washington, August 05: It was one of the best kept secrets in the annals of international diplomacy: clandestine, triumphant and potentially momentous.
The former US president Bill Clinton yesterday travelled to North Korea, the most insular nation on Earth, on a surprise mission to seek the release of two US journalists who were imprisoned in March for straying into North Korea while on assignment in China.
Within hours of a face-to-face meeting with its ruler Kim Jong-il, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, sentenced in June to 12 years hard labour for engaging in “hostile acts”, had been granted a special pardon.
–Agencies