Freed journalists surprised by North Korea amnesty (Roundup)

Aug 5, 2009, 17:00 GMT

Los Angeles - Two US journalists freed by North Korea after nearly five months in prison arrived back in the United States on Wednesday after a mission by former president Bill Clinton.

Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee 36, landed at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport near Los Angeles, where they described a roller-coaster ride of fear and elation when they were summoned to a meeting from their prison cell earlier Wednesday.

While they had dreaded the meeting could mean their transfer to begin 12 years of hard labour, instead they found Clinton.

'We were shocked but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end, and now we stand here, home and free,' Ling told reporters at the airport in Los Angeles.

Clinton made the unannounced visit to Pyongyang to secure the release of the journalists. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned the women after meeting with Clinton.

Ling and Lee raised their arms in the air, waving as they exited the plane before they were greeted by their joyous families. Covered live on US television, Lee tearfully hugged her husband and 4-year- old daughter.

'The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching time of out entire lives,' a tearful Ling said in a brief statement to reporters. 'We are very grateful that we were granted amnesty by the government of North Korea and we are so happy to be home.'

The United States had worked behind the scenes to persuade the Stalinist state to free the journalists, avoiding public remarks that could have worsened the situation.

But after their release, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of the ex-president, rebutted a report by North Korea's news agency KCNA that Clinton had apologized to Kim 'for the hostile acts' committed by the journalists.

'That is not true, that did not occur,' Rodham-Clinton said during an official visit in Nairobi.

The White House has downplayed the visit as a private humanitarian overture and emphasized that the release has nothing to do with the tense negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme.

US president Barack Obama underlined that Clinton's trip represented an 'extraordinary humanitarian effort.'

'No one should be confused. That was a humanitarian mission,' Rodham-Clinton said in broadcast remarks.

Fighting sobs over the memory of the emotional downs and ups, Ling described how the two journalists were escorted out of their prison cell by North Korean authorities to a 'meeting.'

'We feared at any moment we could be sent to a hard labour camp,' Ling recalled.

'We were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors we saw standing before us president Bill Clinton,' Ling said, turning a tearful smile to Clinton and former vice president Al Gore, who founded Current TV which employed the women.

Clinton did not speak but later issued a statement saying he felt a 'deep sense of relief' that Ling and Lee have been returned to their families.

Ling and Lee were arrested March 17 at the Chinese-North Korean border, where they had been working on a story about women and human trafficking. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labour after North Korea accused them of illegally crossing its border.

Obama briefly addressed reporters to thank Clinton and former vice president Gore for their tireless efforts to free the journalists.

'The reunion that we've all seen on television I think is a source of happiness, not only for the families, but for the entire country,' Obama said.

The events leading up to Clinton's trip to Pyongyang apparently included a message from Laura Ling to her family that the North Koreans would be receptive to a visit by the former president, Iain Clayton, Laura Ling's husband, confirmed to reporters.

'Our last phone conversation with Laura? She said it was her sense and her feeling that a visit from president Clinton would be successful in securing her release and what we did was inform vice president Al Gore and the State Department of the nature of that call,' Clayton said.

That message was conveyed to the White House, according to the New York Times, which reported that Obama's national security adviser, General James L Jones, contacted Clinton about the possibility of the mission.

In Nairobi, Rodham-Clinton made clear that considerable efforts were put into freeing the two women - separate from the six-party talks on the nuclear issue that have hit an impasse after Pyongyang exploded its second nuclear bomb in May.

'We have been working hard on the release of the two journalists, we have always considered that a separate issue from the effort to re-engage the North Koreans and have them to return to six-party talks and work to a commitment for the full, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,' she said in Nairobi.