By I posted yesterday on how Bill Clinton was reportedly flying to North Korea and today it is reported that he has in fact already arrived in North Korea:
North Korea welcomed former President Bill Clinton to Pyongyang with flowers and hearty handshakes Tuesday as he arrived in the communist nation on a surprise mission to bring home two jailed American journalists.
Clinton landed in the North Korean capital in an unmarked jet. On arrival he shook hands with Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Kwan and the deputy speaker of parliament. Footage from the television news agency APTN showed Clinton bowing and smiling as a young girl presented him with flowers.
The unusually warm exchange between officials from communist North Korea and the ex-leader of a wartime foe comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over the regime’s nuclear program. In recent months, North Korea has abandoned a disarmament pact, launched a long-range rocket, conducted a nuclear test and test-fired a barrage of ballistic missiles in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.
Clinton was making his first trip to North Korea in hopes of securing the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s California-based Current TV media venture who were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March. [Associated Press]
Well I guess the rumors about Kim Kye-Kwan being purged are not true since he was there to meet Clinton at the airport. Why do these news reports continuously quote people like Mike Chinoy that have a track history of being wrong about North Korea?:
“This is a very potentially rewarding trip. Not only is it likely to resolve the case of the two American journalists detained in North Korea for many months, but it could be a very significant opening and breaking this downward cycle of tension and recrimination between the U.S. and North Korea,” Mike Chinoy, author of “Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis,” said in Beijing.
It will be interesting to see how this all turns out, but the US had to have agreed something in return for allowing the release of the journalists if that in fact does happen. Could Agreed Framework 3.0 be on the way?
9:53 am on August 4th, 2009 1
So how’s the weather in North Korea today?
I wonder if there will be any outdoor photo opportunities for Bill Clinton in Pyongyang, like maybe one together with Laura Ling and Euna Lee standing atop the deck of the USS Pueblo? 
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10:08 am on August 4th, 2009 2
Latest quote from Mike Chinoy on CNN’s noon broadcast:
Commenting on how about Bill’s mission to release Laura and Euna from Pyongyang was prepared in advance, Chinoy says: “I don’t think former president Clinton is going to engage in horse trading…”
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10:45 am on August 4th, 2009 3
I would imagine that Bill will be successful, as he has a long time trading relationship with NK. I just wonder what he has brought to exchange? A bigger nuke? A more accurate delivery system? Maybe he can just rely on his past good will. After all, they wouldn’t be where they are today if it weren’t for Bill.
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12:49 pm on August 4th, 2009 4
Yonhap News Agency has a set of 5 photos that appear to have been taken soon after Bill Clinton’s arrival in Pyongyang. Wait until you see the fifth one!
No wonder Kim Jong-il has such a big grin on his face!
http://app.yonhapnews.co.kr/YNA/Basic/ArticleChina/ArticlePhoto/ArticlePhotockMain.aspx
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1:08 pm on August 4th, 2009 5
Keep Clinton away from the nK traffic girls.
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1:20 pm on August 4th, 2009 6
Anyway, this whole thing is disgraceful.
However you look at it, this is a slap in the face of the six-party process. The husband of the Secretary of State doesn’t travel anywhere as a private citizen. Neither does an ex-President.
These two dumb, amateur journalists put themselves in harms way and now several years’ worth of work by our government is being disrupted. Just like those three goofballs who got picked up by the Iranian border patrol the other day, the choices that they made were both stupid and private.
Furthermore, doesn’t Kim, Jongil, remember that Clinton was hours away from putting a Tomahawk missile up Yongbyong’s a** in 1994? It was the closest that we’ve come to war with them in 30 years.
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1:24 pm on August 4th, 2009 7
Update. Journalists have been pardoned and ordered released according to N. Korea media:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_journalists_held
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2:03 pm on August 4th, 2009 8
[...] over at ROK Drop, a slightly more optimistic note is sounded by editor GI Korea: It will be interesting to see how [...]
4:14 pm on August 4th, 2009 9
Does it mean that the “we don´t deal with terrorist” policy is over? or it’s just and exception? Anyway, those two journalist will have a lot to explain when returning to home.
Now putting policy aside, it’s good to see that US can protect it’s citizens. Most countries can’t do it.
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4:53 pm on August 4th, 2009 10
Those two ‘journalist’ will be right back at it. Guaranteed that they didn’t learn a thing except no matter how much you screw up, the US will get you out. Terrible policy.
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5:27 pm on August 4th, 2009 11
Oh … I can see the future of those two journalist: Make money with books, interviews, seminars, magazines ….
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9:18 pm on August 4th, 2009 12
HEADLINE: Bill Clinton picks up two Asian chicks
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9:18 pm on August 4th, 2009 13
HEADLINE: Bill Clinton picks up two Asian chicks
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3:14 am on August 5th, 2009 14
Wonder if ole slick willy going to offer the two reporters a “”cigar”"..
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4:39 am on August 5th, 2009 15
Here we go… Just covering ourselves in glory….
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