Word: visitations
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Bill Clinton's 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...
...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...
...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...
...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 in northeast China. Their plane touched down early Wednesday morning in Los Angeles, where Lee and Ling are sure...
...Alexy II, an infrequent visitor to Kiev, openly supported the Moscow-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych in his 2004 presidential race against Yushchenko. "Kirill is developing a new approach to Russian-Ukrainian spiritual unity," says Andrei Zolotov, an expert on the Russian Orthodox Church who followed the patriarch on his visit. "He's saying that he's the patriarch not just of Russia but of Rus. He's trying to position himself as a supranational leader beyond state boundaries...