Today, North Korean media are reporting that leader Kim Jong Il has pardoned two American journalists and ordered their release during the visit of former U.S. President Bill Clinton. former President Bill Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il for the first day of surprise mission to Pyongyang to free the two American journalists filming a documentary on the Chinese-Korean border. Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s Current TV media venture were arrested along the Chinese-North Korean border in March and sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and engaging in “hostile acts.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs gave little details about Clinton’s trip, only stating that Clinton was on a “solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans.” According to Gibbs, getting into greater detail would “jeopardize the success of former President Clinton’s mission.”
The United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea so efforts to resolve the issue have been handled through Sweden, which represents U.S. interests in the reclusive communist state.