WASHINGTON — The Obama administration let North Korean leader Kim Jong Il save face by releasing two jailed Americans to former President Bill Clinton. The payoff — maybe not right away — is likely to be renewed dialogue with Pyongyang about its nuclear weapons program.
After meeting with Clinton, who made an unannounced visit to the North Korean capital Tuesday, Kim pardoned and freed the young journalists who allegedly crossed into the country from China in March.
Clinton left today with Laura Ling and Euna Lee, both from California, and they were flying to Los Angeles, his spokesman Matt McKenna said, less than 24 hours after Clinton landed in the North Korean capital on a private, humanitarian trip to secure their release.
North Korea accused Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, both of former Vice President Al Gore’s Current TV media venture, of sneaking into the country illegally.
They were arrested as they reported about the trafficking of women. It’s unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China, but recent statements suggested they admitted to deliberately crossing into the country.
The two were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and engaging in “hostile acts.”
North Korean media characterized the women’s release as proof of “humanitarian and peace-loving policy.”
The release “could provide an opportunity to move forward on the nuclear issue, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” said Victor Cha, former Asia chief at the National Security Council. “The history with the North Koreans, as they have just done the past few months, is to put themselves out on a ledge. And they always need help getting off that ledge.”
North Korean behavior — ever enigmatic — has included in recent months the withdrawal from nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the U.S. The regime also launched a long-range rocket, conducted a second nuclear test, test-fired a barrage of ballistic missiles, and restarted its atomic program in defiance of international criticism and the U.N. Security Council.
President Barack Obama, while pushing heavy sanctions against the North for its recent nose-thumbing of the international community, also has been low-key as he pursues a resumption of talks with the Stalinist regime.
That’s been difficult because the North is widely believed to be embroiled in a succession struggle after Kim reportedly suffered a stroke and began setting up a 27-year-old son to take power. Its saber-rattling was widely believed to indicate that its military wanted to show strength as a successor is chosen.
The White House has taken pains since Clinton’s arrival in Pyongyang to play the mission as a private one designed only to win the release of Ling and Lee. Daniel Sneider, associate director of research at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, said the journalists’ release followed weeks of quiet negotiations between the State Department and the North Korean mission to the U.N.
Clinton “didn’t go to negotiate this, he went to reap the fruits of the negotiation,” Sneider said.
The Obama administration said late Tuesday that the pair’s families and Gore asked Clinton to travel to Pyongyang to seek their release.
Pardoning Ling and Lee satisfied North Korea’s need to continue maintaining that the two women had committed a crime, while dispatching the former president as emissary served the Obama administration’s desire not to expend diplomatic capital winning their freedom, Sneider said.
“Nobody wanted this to be a distraction from the more substantially difficult issues we have with North Korea,” he said. “There was a desire by the administration to resolve this quietly, and from the very beginning they didn’t allow it to become a huge public issue.”
As a former leader, Clinton was a good choice to represent the United States in the delicate deliberations, according to Sneider. He had the cachet to get an audience with Kim but could claim to be acting as a private citizen.
North Korean media said Clinton had carried a message of apology from Obama and that the former president and Kim held wide-ranging talks, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said those claims were not true.
Still, the diplomatic minuet was a success, more so if Obama indeed cracked open the door to resume dialogue with North Korea, whose nuclear program stands to destabilize Asia and compromise Obama’s promise to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons.
Just don’t hold your breath.
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