Word: clintone
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...current mission was quite different. In addition to freedom for Ling and Lee, Clinton no doubt intended to explore ways to arrest the diplomatic downward spiral that's ensued since Obama entered the White House in January. The North has tested its second nuclear bomb (the first test was in October 2006) as well as a long-range missile and has said it has no intention of ever rejoining the so-called six-party talks - the Bush Administration's ultimately futile attempt to get the North to, in effect, re-enact the Agreed Framework of the Clinton era. (See pictures...
...Internally, the North will portray Clinton's visit as a great victory. It will probably say the former President's trip showed that the Dear Leader brought Washington to its knees to beg for the release of the two journalists. In fact, it shows that the diplomatic reset button is about to be hit - yet again - in Pyongyang and in Washington. Clinton almost certainly bore a message that Washington wants to talk again, in some forum. And while the U.S. might not want to "buy the same horse" now, who knows what it might be in the diplomatic market...
Shortly after former President Bill Clinton finished having dinner with Kim Jong Il on Aug. 4 in Pyongyang, North Korean's state-run news agency issued a release saying that the two men had met and that Clinton had brought a message to the North Korean leader from President Barack Obama...
...with that, the questions about the former President's visit to Pyongyang - and about where relations with Kim's North Korea go from here - begin. As expected once he arrived, Clinton departed North Korea Wednesday morning with the two American TV journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, that he had come to spring from detention there. A senior Administration official revealed on Aug. 4 that the North Koreans had, in effect, directly requested that the former President visit Pyongyang. If Clinton did visit, the North Koreans told their two prisoners, they would be granted "amnesty" and freed. (See pictures...
...release removes one obvious thorn between Washington and Pyongyang, whose relations in the past six months have sunk to a level "that's as bad as I've ever seen them," as Clinton's former ambassador to the U.N., Bill Richardson, said on Tuesday. Now the question of the moment is, Will the former President's visit reverse that deteriorating dynamic? Clinton met with Kim for 3½ hours on Tuesday evening. Even if the former President didn't - as the White House insisted - bring a specific message to Kim from Obama, it's safe to assume...