North Korea pardons US journalists

North Korean President Kim Jong Ill has issued pardons for the two US journalists who have been detained in the country.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee (pictured) were arrested on March 17 near the North Korea border.


Both Ling and Lee worked for Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV and were in the country working on a story about human trafficking along the Tumen River border area between China and North Korea.

The North Korean government convicted the pair on June 8 of illegally entering into and committing "grave crimes" against the country.

The pardon and imminent release follows former President Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea on Monday.

The White House has said the Clinton visit was a private trip.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs flatly denied that Clinton carried a message from Obama, telling reporters, "That's not true."

How can it be a private trip
when he is a former president and his wife is the Secretary of State?

One wonders what Obama promised the North Korean leader in exchange for the release of the journalists.

There is no way Kim Jong Ill would have released the girls out of the goodness of his heart.

Link here and here.