But today, their story has a happy ending. Former President Bill Clinton has managed to convince North Korean President Kim Jong Il to pardon both reporters, only hours after arriving in North Korea during a surprise visit to the country. According to Reuters, Clinton is the highest-level US representative to visit the country in nearly ten years.
The families of the imprisoned women have issued the following statement on their official website:
The families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee are overjoyed by the news of their pardon. We are so grateful to our government: President Obama, Secretary Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their dedication to and hard work on behalf of American citizens.
We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home. We must also thank all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal, it has meant the world to us. We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms.
Clinton is great
(both)
The Al Gore connection didn’t hurt. Lucky the girls were working for Current and not a less known station.
All I can think of is the family guy episode, where Lois AND Peter sleep with him… “Wow, you are good”
President Bill Clinton: Thank you for resolving this situation. Job well done.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee:
1.) I am glad you are back safe.
2.) What the **** were you doing sneaking into North Korea. You took a gamble and risked your safety and ended up compromising the diplomatic efforts of the United States, Japan, and the ROK with one of the most dangerous and evil regimes in the world. Shame on you.
Steffen, couldn’t have said it better myself, though I think crediting Bill for “resolving the situation” is probably overstated. I thank him for his participation, but it’s hard to say how credit he deserves for resolution.
Are all reporters guilty of spying in that they are always trying to dig up more information. This happens all the time.
We should maintain good faith with the North Koreans and exchange these real journalists with self-promoter she devil Sarah Lacy, who loves to post from exotic locations.
What say you, Boobie?
Seems only fair N Korea pay Bill Clinton back for letting them build nuclear reactors while he turned a blind eye.
-1
No blind eyes here MK.
Sure, North Korea’s attitude feels like a threat.
Also, I wonder why the US maintains thousands of nuclear weapons? http://nuclearw...s/Allbombs.html
Anyone?
game theory
You’re argument suggests you think if the US can have weapons then why not N Korea? Why not argue that neither country have them instead of both?
US having nuclear weapons has nothing to do with Clinton ignoring N Korea breaking it’s deal with the US. Clinton made a deal with N Korea during his presidency that they blatantly disregarded. Now we are left with a messy problem he failed to fix.
Same goes for Clinton and Iraq. If he would have just dealt with it during his presidency instead of being afraid to rock the boat Bush wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to screw everyone with his poorly executed war.
@ Michael – What a sore loser you are. Clinton helps bring these girls home, all you can do is parrot some stupid right-wing BS. Get a life, dude.
P.S. Learn to spell “your”. Totally gives away how big an idiot you are.
difference between it’s and its:
It’s is an abbreviation of “it is”. Its is a possesive pronoun, something like his or her.
If you say “North Korea breaks it’s deal” it means “North Korea breaks it is deal” which doesn’t make sense.
Same applies to you’re (= you are) and your (possesive pronoun, your mother, your garden).
Hope that helps.
The content of your message wasn’t too good either.
There is something badass about Mr. Clinton. Can we elect him again?
actually, yes. no law against that.
john, that pesky 22nd amendment thing kind of stops him
Can we change it? Bloomberg may be able to help us!
Thank God NO, we can’t
eric, people like you made me leave america
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!
I was in North Korea a month ago:
http://adrianby...clear-standoff/
Its interesting people feel Bill Clinton negotiated the release. He just brought star power and attention in return for giving up the 2 reporters. This brings a lot of credibility for the North Korean government to their people.
Hopefully there will be some diffusion of tension as a result
sure. that make sense. The nation that kidnaps Americans and other foreigners, engages in counterfeit and terrorism and is proliferating nuclear and ballistic technology-will now have lower tensions with the U.S.
Let’s just ignore all of the above and eat some Kimchi…Dumbass.
We’ll see if I’m right in the next few months.
News Alert…
Yes, the United States DOES and ALWAYS HAS negotiated with terrorists. This is actually a good thing. We **WANT** to talk out our problems rather than resorting to war.
If terrorists would really talk out problems, would they really be terrorists? sheesh
Fake people in fake caves don’t have problems. It’s not a war on terror, but a war of terror.
Terrorism could be defined as violence with a political objective, usually because those seeking the political objective don’t believe it is achieveable by other means.
The IRA were active in Northern Ireland and London for decades, killing hundreds of people, before Tony Blair was elected in the UK and actively engaged with their leadership. His predecessors had favoured aggressive retoric and even, for a time, internment, of its members.
Today the “war” is over, and many of those players continue to pursue their objective (a United Ireland) but pursue it from within a governement which they are now a part of.
That right Adam.
The news stories about muslims blowing up people and shooting them are all made up. Better tell that to the people of: Denmark, England, Scotland, Spain, Indonesia, Algeria, Kenya, Morocco, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, India, etc…frigging etc.
Great to see the useful idiots are in the house.
mm . . . kimchi . . .
Ahhhhhhhhh.
Adrien, those are such nice photos you brought back from North Korea. Thank you for sharing those with us, now I feel so warm and fuzzy inside with an urge to cuddle a teddy bear.
Forget about the torture prisons, mass starvation, medical experiments on prisoners, and public executions of political dissidents.
http://en.wikip..._in_North_Korea
I recommend you look up the meaning of “useful idiot”.
Why are they thanking Obama? It was Clinton who went, not him.
There is no way that it is Clinton who some how ‘made a deal’ ‘on the spot’ . It was a done deal ‘by Obama admin’ before he went there.
Wrong
He’s actually right.
Michael is angry about how great Obama handled the pirate situation.
errr, yay?
“Bill Clinton has managed to convince North Korean President Kim Jong Il to pardon both reporters, only hours after arriving in North Korea during a surprise visit to the country.”
Jason, Who are you kidding? The released was planned as a public relations stunt for both North Korea and Clinton.
Right, you think Bill Clinton really needs to go to North Korea to get PR. He went because that would secure their release. That DPRK wanted the pictures are obvious, Clinton wanted the prisoners freed and had probably no desire of getting his picture taken with Kim Jong-il.
Your have GOT to be kidding me. The whole trip was about PR for BOTH sides.
The DPRK gets a photo and press for it’s state run media, and Bill is now known and the guy who saved to women from the DPRK.
Remember, he IS a politician after all.
If you believe otherwise I have some swamp land in Florida for sale.
As opposed to standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier in flight suit proclaiming “Mission Accomplished”?
Hostages were released here without a single gunshot being fired. Why is that so hard to appreciate?
Well said, Phreddy. These haters amaze me!
So just because I’m not giving credit to Bill for the release you think I’m a Bush fan?
Think again.
It has NOTHING to do with hate and everything to do with people believing the false P.R.
OK maybe not Clinton, but the North Korean president would do ANYTHING to be noticed (as is usual of dictators). For NK, it was a just another well-prepared PR stunt.
PR stunts generate no results.
Two women are free tonight because of this.
unless they were never ‘captured’, then it makes it a PR stunt.
And http://current.com/ is ignoring this because of what?
And http://www.current.com is ignoring this story for what again. Do they not read the news?
Ermmm you really think this wasn’t all preordained, and ole Billy went over there for a photo-op? C’mon.
Bill Clinton really is the man. Here’s a video of CNN breaking the news:
http://bit.ly/OAMP4
I think Techcrunch should really apologize for stating
“Last March, two reporters for Current TV were caught and detained by the North Korean military after illegally crossing into the country from China as they reported on fleeing refugees”.
In all probability they did nothing wrong and were kidnapped by a nation that has a history of kidnapping foreigners. To repeat the North Koreans position makes Techrcunch useful idiots for these tyrants.
For a moment I thought I am at NYTimes and not TC
Well thank god you realized that before subscribing to the Sunday paper and doing a crossword puzzle!
You wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for twitter
Definitely a photo op and a show of support for the regime. One day they hate North Korea and the next day they are wining and dining.
If you cant beat’em join them!
And now two American women who were held hostage in a commie prison are free without our having to resort to special forces or brinksmanship. I’m sure they’re not complaining about how their release was secured.
Maybe you should stick to giving away apps and not commenting on topics you clearly know nothing about.
The real point is nobody knows anything and shouldn’t pretend to know what they are talking about. You think the sheeple are told anything of importance?
Bread and circuses…
“Highest level US representative”?
Call me stupid, but does Clinton even have any official position in the government or an NGO?
Or shorter version: WTF?
He’s easily the highest level non-official person who could represent our country abroad. Why else do you think he was picked?
- North Korea gets to look humanitarian.
- Clinton gets a Nobel Peace Prize.
- Neither nation has to admit defeat on the matter.
Thank God it is not McCain or Cheney otherwise it would have been “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb” N.Korea.
Call me when the rest of North Korea is free.
Are you serious? Ask obama what part of our soul he gave away for n. korea’s little gift
Sue, probably your bitter side of your soul
Mike – I guess that is impossible. I think she doesn’t have one!
I second Sue on this. If you believe this deal was as represented to the public you would not be considered politically savvy, question is what did we give in return. Attacking her personally only diminishes the value of your argument.
great article…
If you work P.R. for old Bill then yes, it IS a great article.
If you want the facts then it’s not even close to being accurate.
Oh really? What “facts” do you have?
He lives in a place where facts don’t matter. Minimizing Barack and Clinton is the only thing that matters.
And you live in a place where “It must be true, it’s on the Internet!”
What does this have to do with our current President? Nowhere have I said anything about President Obama.
This is about stupid people believing the P.R. machine, nothing more. It has NOTHING to do with any political party. Unfortunately some people are too blind to see beyond Blue and Red.
Nice to see you are on a first name basis with President Obama.
Did he bring his Cigar? Mmm that tastes goooood.
I don’t think so. But I do hear he dropped off a dress at the dry cleaners while he was there.
i bet it wasn’t hard to convince Bill Clinton to go rescue these two young woman… ; )
I agree with Michael Khalili above. The Clinton administration is solely responsible for the ballistic missile capability of N Korea by turning a blind eye and providing weapon and guidance technology to the Chinese who will sell it to anyone for the right price. . This book will make your skin crawl. The book gives detailed accounts of incidents that were kept out of the media.
http://bit.ly/pzIU8
But if it was kept out of the media then it can’t possibly be true! Hearsay! The media is where I get all of my opinions. I dare not think for myself.
if you ripped the entire story from reuters, you ought to say so at the top.
or did you fly to north korea and speak to the protagonists yoursefl?
Its very simple ideology
Democrats believe in diplomacy whereas Republicans believe the answer is in the chamber of the gun.
Could you imagine sending Bush or Cheney over the N. Korea. Jesus!
Actually, wish we would have tried that first so they could be imprisoned for being incompetent morons.
Thumbs up for Clinton. He walks into a country and walks out with his goal in less than a lunch break, and, also likes to get his knob polished in the Oval office. What more can someone ask for.
Bill Clinton is the man!
I’m sorry but I believe if you break the law you should get whatever is customary in that country that being said
if they were in North Korea when they should not have been they should be punished by North Korea with my full blessing; because they are just plain f**king stupid for doing so you choose to go there so you should be on your own regardless of anything.
if North Korea is in the wrong the country should be punished
Really? Would you do 12 years hard labor ( God knows what that means in N Korea) in one of their camps? Really, you would come out regretting what you said their, in all likelihood. I have visions of Mancow coming up off the bench saying This is unequevicably torture”. And to the guy who blames Clinton for sending us to Iraq, um are you the that was hanging out in the back area of the school with your whiskey when the rest of us were in class? It sure looked harmless enough then……
If they truly crossed the border into the country when they should not have they deserve everything they get. That would be breaking a law and therefore they should be trialed however it is done there
Doesn’t matter if its torture or not if your somewhere you definitely not supposed to be because being there is against the law and you get caught well its your own damn fault because you should have not be a damn jackass for going over there.
If they broke a law and get off then anyone going across the us/mexican border should also get off right ?
why is this news here? Did clinton twiiter about it or gave iphone in exchange for?
velionch.. this is two American journalists in N Korea’s hard labor camps for being journalists. Personally, I have a soft spot for that, and this is actually good news no matter what its topic is.
Clinton rocks!
This isn’t what I expected to read in a story about “Bill Clinton”, young women, and “happy ending” ….
// sorry, I had to. But kudos for Bubba and delighted to see the ladies are free from that nutcase
Does anyone find it interesting that our very own Sec of State (a role that typically intervenes in situations such as these) was overshadowed by her citizen husband? I think Obama asked knucklehead whose the one person in the world he’d like to meet in person and he picked Bubba. Now that’s some serious star power.
I don’t understand why people are being so negative about this. Yes, Clinton’s administration might be responsible for the ballistic missile capability of N Korea. At least now he’s trying to do something positive. What is wrong with that?
Be positive.. don’t always think negatively.
He probably traded a stained blue dress for their release…
am i the only one who has been waiting for kim jong il son to become leader. geez. i just want to see if he looks just like his dad…because i don’t know how poppa kim got any kind of nookie.
am glad this happened. kim loves the clintons (lol hilary not so much after disparaging the country’s authority, law, and moral) but especially bill. someone needs to steal that letter he wrote all that long ago requesting a meeting with the former POTUS.
i’m not negative about this because those two ladies could have been killed or tortured, had the regime not wanted to use them as leverage the whole time, as well as showing their hand and letting it be known that they wanted something in return. the whole thing is good because i actually follow both those ladies careers and it was greatly disturbing to hear what happened. what doesn’t feel right about this is that although david gergen is right in saying that the americans didn’t give up anything physical for this exchange…or anything at all, i still originally felt and do feel like north korea got exactly what they wanted and more.
i’m very glad that this worked out. thank god and am so glad for the girls and the families. wouldn’t wish being captured by nk on my worst enemy.
Imagine the following: Two North-Koreans get caught sneaking over the US border from Mexico and tell the police they just wanted to do a report on refugees. Government and press would lable them as terrorists, and they would get thrown in some Guanatamo-style prison. No US president would ever pardon such guys, even if Kim Jong Il showed up in Washington.
So North Korea requests that a former U.S. President get his behind over to North Korea in order to kiss theirs? Have the good readers of the NYT forgotten about the nuclear proliferation habit that this country has, or the tough diplomatic line President Obama and Secretary Clinton has rightfully taken against this rogue nation?
Once again, North Korea has gotten what it has been seeking: one on one talks with the U.S. And the notion that President Clinton spoke only about the journalists for several hours is absurd. This was a diplomatic mission, authorized by the Obama Administration, with President Clinton as its envoy representing U.S. national interests. We have in effect rewarded North Korea for its past behavior and have taken a mighty two steps back in our relations with them.
Yeah Big Dawg!!!!! Ignore the small-minded and the bigoted on the board.
You and Hillary got it done, and America is deeply grateful for your diplomatic skills.
Our nation thanks you both.
hahahahaha, oh my God I am laughing so hard on this comment I think I am going to pee my pants. hahahahaha!
North Koreans love affected journalists who insert themselves into their stories.
Sarah, you love to travel. And your committed to helping others.
Pyongyang calls for you!!!
Soo glad to see these women home safely!!!
“Always trust Bill Clinton to come home with two women” – overheard in the interwebs
do you think hillary clinton can trust mr clinton with those asian reporters lol