Kim Jong-il meets Bill Clinton, receives Obama's message: state media

By Lee Chi-dong, Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had an "exhaustive
conversation" Tuesday with visiting former U.S. President Bill Clinton and
received a verbal message from the U.S. president, the North's state media said.

Clinton arrived in North Korea earlier in the day in a trip apparently aimed at
winning the release of two detained American journalists.
"Bill Clinton courteously conveyed a verbal message of U.S. President Barack
Obama to Kim Jong-il," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. "Kim
Jong-il expressed thanks for this," it said.
The White House, however, denied sending a message through Clinton. "That's not
true," its spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
The KCNA said, "He (Kim) welcomed Clinton's visit to the DPRK (North Korea) and
had an exhaustive conversation with him."
The report did not say what was discussed in the conversation, attended by the
North's Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju and Workers' Party Department Director Kim
Yang-gon.
"There was a wide-ranging exchange of views on the matters of common concern,"
the KCNA report said.
The National Defense Commission, which oversees the country's military and is
chaired by Kim Jong-il, later hosted a dinner for Clinton and his entourage at
the state guest house, according to the report.
Clinton's surprise visit raised hopes for a breakthrough in the long-stalled
denuclearization talks, but the White House narrowed down the former president's
role, characterizing his trip as solely private and focused on freeing the
detained journalists.
"While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on
the ground, we will have no comment," Gibbs said. "We do not want to jeopardize
the success of former President Clinton's mission."
Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters from the San Francisco-based media group
Current TV -- co-founded by Al Gore, who was Clinton's vice president -- were
arrested on March 17 on the North Korea-China border while reporting on refugees
fleeing the impoverished North. They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by
the North on charges of illegal entry and "hostile acts."
Sources in Seoul said Clinton went into Pyongyang assured of their release, the
two sides having effectively completed necessary talks through Pyongyang's
diplomatic mission to the U.N., known as "the New York channel."
The visit coincides with growing signs of a power succession process in
Pyongyang, with Kim Jong-il widely believed to have picked his third and youngest
son, Jong-un, as his heir. Kim reportedly suffered a stroke last year and is
growing frail, giving urgency to the need to keep his regime stable through means
that include better relations with Washington.
The U.S. reportedly planned to send Gore as a special envoy, but the North
rejected the offer, apparently in hopes that Washington would send a top-level
government official authorized to discuss pending political issues.
The Obama administration, however, has maintained that it will not link the
journalists' detention, a humanitarian issue, with the nuclear agenda. Clinton
was apparently a compromise choice, saving face for both sides.
Clinton is accompanied by civilians from his foundation, not U.S. government
officials, according to sources here.
Shortly after his retirement in 2001, the former president established the
"William J. Clinton Foundation," with the stated mission of strengthening
people's capacity to meet the challenges of global interdependence.
The North withdrew from the six-party talks after firing a long-range rocket in
April and conducting a second nuclear test the following month. In response to
those provocations, the international community imposed stiff sanctions on North
Korea through U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874.
Clinton, while president, had engaged in extensive negotiations with Pyongyang.
During his presidency in 1994, one of his predecessors, Jimmy Carter, traveled to
Pyongyang and negotiated a temporary resolution to the North Korean nuclear
crisis. Months later, North Korea and the U.S. signed the Geneva Agreed
Framework that froze Pyongyang's nuclear activities until the accord unraveled in
late 2002 over Pyongyang's alleged clandestine arms program. The two sides
exchanged high-level visits, with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and North
Korea's Vice Marshal Jo Myong-rok traveling to each other's capitals and
discussing reconciliatory measures.
Clinton had planned to visit Pyongyang himself during his final months in office,
but abandoned the plan to take part in a peace initiative in the Middle East.
His talks in Pyongyang may also have a positive impact on Seoul's efforts to
secure the release of a detained South Korean worker and on the future of
inter-Korean ties, which have become strained over the past year.
The North has held the 42-year-old South Korean man incommunicado since late
March, accusing him of criticizing the communist nation's political system and
attempting to persuade a North Korean woman to defect. His whereabouts are
unknown to Seoul officials.
Pyongyang is also holding four crew members of a South Korean fishing boat that
strayed into North Korean waters last week.
lcd@yna.co.kr
hkim@yna.co.kr
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