Clinton Kicks North Korea Into Giving Back Jailed Journalists

August 4, 2009 at 4:59 PM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

Thinking about heading to North Korea for the Arirang Mass Games? You better hope that former President Bill Clinton has got your back, just like he has with the two Current TV journalists who were arrested on the North Korean border in March and sentenced to 12 years in a hard labor camp for "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry.�

During Clinton's brief visit, which focused solely on negotiating the freedom of the women—Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36—and not North Korea's recent nuclear tests, he met with good old Kim Jong-il, who wasn't looking all that ill.

Hillary didn't come along for the ride of course, but John Podesta did, Clinton's former Chief of Staff and now an informal Obama advisor. Their brief visit accomplished exactly what they wanted, although the NYT reports that it's not quite clear how soon the jailed reporters will be returned to the United States.

Just a note if you should want to go hiking near Iran or film a documentary near North Korea: register your trips with the US State Department so that they have your contact information in case of emergency; for instance, when we were in South Korea, we got State Dept emails regarding North Korean nuclear test threats. This is stuff that's nice to know for your own safety, as well as for the sake of being generally informed.

[Photo: Reuters/NYT]

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