Word: lings
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...months that American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling have been held captive in North Korea, there has been one constant amid the rumors swirling around the case: the North Koreans wanted a high-powered emissary to come from the U.S. to try to win the release of the prisoners - and, no doubt, listen to whatever else it was that Pyongyang had to say about the dismal state of relations between the two countries. For a while, speculation centered on former Vice President Al Gore, who in 2004 co-founded Current TV, the network the two journalists work...
...lighting visit to Pyongyang - he landed Tuesday morning, Aug. 4, in the North Korean capital after flying in overnight from Anchorage - has done the trick. Shortly after he was photographed with North Korea's dynastic leader Kim Jong Il, wire services reported that Pyongyang had pardoned Lee and Ling, a necessary step in their release. And just before 7:30 p.m. eastern time, Clinton's spokesman sent out this statement: "President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are en route to Los Angeles where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families...
...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...
...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...
...Ling passed that on to their families in the occasional phone calls they were permitted from the guesthouse where they were held, and former Vice President Al Gore - who co-founded the network that the two women were on assignment for - called his former boss to suggest the trip. Once assured that the North Koreans meant what they said, the White House signed off on the idea. The visit ended the journalist's 4½ month nightmare after being arrested March 17 and held in North Korea as punishment for allegedly crossing the border while filming a report on refugees...