US Journalists Return From North Korea After Bill Clinton Negotiates Release

One of two US journalists freed from a North Korean prison have thanked Bill Clinton and his "super-cool team" for securing their release.

Mr Clinton greets journalists Ling and Lee at an airport in Pyongyang

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained for illegally entering the country in March and faced 12 years' hard labour in the communist state. The TV reporters have now arrived in Burbank, California after flying back from North Korea with the ex-US president.

The journalists were released after Mr Clinton made a surprise trip to the capital Pyongyang to meet reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, who pardoned the pair following negotiations. Ms Ling said she had feared she was being taken to a hard labour camp before the former US leader arrived to see them.

Sky News

What makes this story even more intriguing is the fact that Laura Ling’s sister, Lisa, entered North Korea under false pretenses in June 2006 to film a National Geographic documentary entitled Undercover in North Korea. Posing as a volunteer for Nepalese eye doctor Sanduk Ruit, Lisa Ling used miniature hidden cameras to capture damning images of the secretive regime. The young reporter then included material provided by the Department of Defense and State Department to produce a very harsh portrait of what she called “the most terrifying country on Earth.”

The CIA has utilized a stable of journalists since its post-World War II formation. Ben Bradlee—Washington Post editor and famed Watergate player—served the CIA under Operation Mockingbird in the 1950s during his stay in Paris. In a groundbreaking article for Rolling Stone magazine on October 20, 1977, Carl Bernstein listed the benefits of having CIA journalists at their disposal. They are “accorded unusual access, permitted to trade in areas often off-limits, and spend much of their time cultivating sources in government.”
Are Euna Lee and Laura Ling spies? It’s not certain at this time; but as Brian Stelter of The New York Times wrote on June 8, “The detainment of two Current TV employees has been shrouded in secrecy by the television channel.”

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