Ex-U.S. Pres. Clinton in N. Korea to seek reporters' release+

PYONGYANG/BEIJING, Aug. 4 Kyodo -
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton made a surprise visit to Pyongyang on
Tuesday to negotiate the release of two U.S. journalists detained in North
Korea, a move that may lead to break the impasse in a standoff over the North's
nuclear ambitions.

It is unclear how long Clinton will stay in Pyongyang, but he is likely to meet
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during the trip, which could mark the start of
bilateral negotiations to address rising tensions in East Asia sparked by the
North's nuclear and missile tests in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.
Upon arrival at Pyongyang's international airport, Clinton was greeted by Yang
Hyong Sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly,
North Korea's parliament, and Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan.
A young girl presented Clinton with flowers.
Clinton flew to Pyongyang on a chartered flight and his party does not include
U.S. government officials, according to South Korea's Chosun Ilbo, quoting an
unidentified diplomatic source.
Clinton, whose wife is U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is the first
former U.S. president to visit North Korea since Jimmy Carter in June 1994.
During that visit, which was meant to help resolve the nuclear crisis at the
time, Carter held talks with the now-deceased Kim Il Sung, then leader and
father of current leader Kim.
Yonhap News Agency quoted North Korean watchers in Seoul and Washington as
saying Clinton is expected to bring home Laura Ling and Euna Lee, whom North
Korea's top court sentenced in June to 12 years of labor for illegally crossing
the border from China and committing a ''grave crime'' against the country.
''I believe it suggests the likelihood that the DPRK has signaled in advance
that he will come back with the two journalists,'' Scott Snyder, director of
the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation in Washington, was
quoted as saying, referring to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the
country's official name.
''To come back without the journalists would constitute a major loss of face
for Clinton,'' Snyder said.
The United States has said that the case of the two U.S. journalists is a
humanitarian issue and should be treated separately from the current standoff
over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
But North Korea appears poised to take advantage of Clinton's visit to launch
bilateral negotiations with the United States, rather than using the six-party
talks on denuclearizing Pyongyang.
Washington and Pyongyang have no diplomatic relations.
Experts said they are not yet sure whether Clinton's visit will lead to a
breakthrough in stalled nuclear negotiations.
''If North Korea is not prepared to negotiate denuclearization and the U.S. is
not prepared to accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state, the relationship
will remain at an impasse,'' Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center
in Honolulu, was quoted by Yonhap as saying.
Hillary Clinton said last month that her government will offer a
''comprehensive package'' of incentives for Pyongyang, including the
normalization of diplomatic ties, if the country takes irreversible steps
towards denuclearization.
Ling and Lee were captured by North Korean guards along the Tumen River border
with China on March 17 while they were working on a story for former U.S. Vice
President Al Gore's Current TV network.
On July 27, North Korea indicated it would seek bilateral dialogue with the
United States, while repeating its refusal to return to the table of the
six-party talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.
North Korea quit the six-party talks in April to protest a U.N. Security
Council statement denouncing its rocket launch, which was widely seen as a
disguised missile test.
In mid-July, a U.N. sanctions committee slapped a new set of sanctions on North
Korea based on Resolution 1874, which the Security Council adopted June 12 in
response to Pyongyang's second nuclear test May 25.
==Kyodo