Clinton’s Visit to Pyongyang May Be a Turning Point

Published in China Qingnianbao
(China) on 5 August 2009
by Dong Wei (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Dan Stein. Edited by Alex Zhao.
On the morning of August 4, former U.S. President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang to negotiate the release of two imprisoned American female journalists. Analysts have pointed out that because of this breakthrough meeting between the two sides, Clinton would be able to bring the journalists with him back to America. However, the point of the trip was not just securing the release of the journalists, but also of finding a way to move forward on North Korea’s nuclear program.

On March 17, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for the Californian television station CurrentTV, were detained by North Korean authorities on suspicion of illegally entering the country. Soon afterwards, the reporters were found guilty of being hostile towards North Korea and illegally crossing the Chinese-North Korean border. They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

North Korea was trying to get Clinton to come

Because the United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, Sweden had acted as an intermediary to negotiate the journalists’ release. When these efforts proved ineffective, Washington thought about sending either former Vice President Al Gore or New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as a special envoy to negotiate in Pyongyang. Gore is a former vice president of the United States, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the founder of CurrentTV, which is the company the two reporters worked for. Richardson had gone on official visits to Pyongyang in the 1990’s. Both men were very good candidates to lead the mission.

However, according to a South Korean media report, North Korea had hinted through diplomatic channels that it hoped to meet with either U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or her husband, former President Bill Clinton. While Bill Clinton was in office, American relations with North Korea were pretty good. Clinton had once actively promoted normalizing relations between the two countries. After much consideration, the Obama administration finally decided to let former President Clinton go to Pyongyang.

According to media reports from the United States, Clinton took an unmarked plane and arrived at the Pyongyang International Airport on August 4 at 11 am local time. He was met by the People’s Committee Vice Chairman Yang Hyong-sop and Foreign Ministry Vice Chairman Kim Kye-gwan. A young girl wearing a red ribbon offered flowers to Clinton. The former president was smiling at the airport and seemed relaxed, but was unwilling to answer reporters’ questions. It is worth noting that neither North Korea nor America publicly announced the official purpose of Mr. Clinton’s visit or his itinerary while in North Korea.

Clinton could take the reporters directly back to America

After the two reporters were arrested, the Obama administration demanded that North Korea let them go for humanitarian reasons. However, North Korea might have perceived letting them go as an obstruction of justice. With the two sides deadlocked, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to retract her previous harsh comments about North Korea and asked North Korean authorities to grant amnesty to the reporters. Although the wording was different, the goal was still to try to get North Korea to release the reporters. However, the latter method would obviously give the North Korean government more face. Now, President Clinton has personally come to Pyongyang to plead for the release of the two women. North Korea could use this opportunity to improve the standings of Obama and the Clintons while trying to ease the tense state of U.S.-North Korean relations.

On July 20, Hillary Clinton told the U.S. media that she was very optimistic about the reporters' release and suggested that a secret meeting with North Korea could take place. On August 4, American political analyst Michael Chinoy said in an interview that he suspected “it was made pretty clear in advance that Bill Clinton would be able to return with these two women, otherwise it would be a terrible loss of face for him."

How to develop U.S.-North Korean relations is the key to the talks

Chinoy believes that the true focal point of this trip is actually the development of U.S.-North Korean relations, saying of the talks that “the bigger, broader and more important question is what else could be on the agenda. Will Clinton be carrying a letter from Barack Obama for the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il? Will he meet Kim Jong-il?"

Before this, North Korea had said that it would continue to boycott the six party talks on its nuclear program. However, Pyongyang is now hinting that it is very much interested in renewing direct talks with the United States. The U.S., though, is insisting that it will only engage with North Korea under the framework of the six party talks. On July 22, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that if Pyongyang agrees to shut down its nuclear program, America will implement economic aid and a Korean peninsula peace plan and ultimately work to normalize U.S.-North Korean relations.

Korean scholars believe that Clinton’s visit to Pyongyang may become a turning point in U.S.-North Korean relations and that negotiations between the two countries have entered a new phase.


克林顿访平壤可能成为朝美关系发展转折点

http://www.sina.com.cn 2009年08月05日03:49 中国青年报

  董玮

  美国前总统比尔•克林顿当天上午抵达平壤,为之前被朝鲜逮捕的两名美国女记者获释进行斡旋。有分析人士指出,由于双方之前的接触取得突破,克林 顿有可能直接将两名女记者带回美国。但这次平壤之行最关键的倒不是记者问题,而是因朝鲜发展核项目而日趋紧张的两国关系如何向前发展。

  美国加利福尼亚州CurrentTV电视台的两名女记者(32岁的凌志美和36岁的李丽娜)今年3月17日因涉嫌非法入境被朝鲜当局扣留,随后朝鲜以“敌视朝鲜民族罪”和“非法入境罪”判处两人劳动改造12年。

  朝鲜“点名”要克林顿出马

  由于美国和朝鲜没有建立外交关系,此前都由瑞典出面代表美国就释放女记者进行斡旋,但并没有取得明显的效果。华盛顿曾提出让前副总统戈尔或新墨 西哥州州长理查森以特使身份去平壤斡旋。戈尔是美国前副总统和诺贝尔和平奖获得者,还是被扣押女记者所在电视台的创始人;理查森则在上世纪90年代两度访 问平壤,两人都是理想人选。

  但韩国媒体报道称,朝鲜日前通过外交渠道暗示更希望看到国务卿希拉里或其丈夫克林顿来谈判。克林顿执政时期和朝鲜的关系还不错,他本人也曾积极推动两国关系正常化。奥巴马政府经过考虑最后拍板让前总统克林顿出马。

  据美国媒体报道,克林顿乘坐一架没有标识的喷气式飞机在当地时间4日上午11时左右抵达平壤顺安国际机场,朝鲜最高人民会议常任委员会副委员长 杨亨燮和外务省副相金桂冠前往迎接,现场还有一名戴红领巾的小女孩向克林顿献花。克林顿在机场面带微笑,看上去还比较轻松,但他不愿回答记者的提问。值得 注意的是,朝美双方都没有公布克林顿这次访问的目的和在平壤的具体行程。

  据悉,这是克林顿首次访问朝鲜,他也成为继1994年卡特访问平壤后又一位踏上这片土地的美国前总统。2000年在第二个任期结束前,克林顿曾 考虑访问朝鲜说服其放弃发展核武器,但最终没能成行。不过,他的国务卿奥尔布赖特那年早些时候曾到平壤打前站,并见到了朝鲜最高领导人金正日。

  克林顿可能直接将记者带回

  在两名女记者遭逮捕后,奥巴马政府起初要求朝鲜基于人道主义将她们释放,但这有可能让朝鲜觉得其司法遭到干涉。就在双方僵持不下时,美国国务卿 希拉里改口请求朝鲜当局采取特赦方式。两种措辞虽然都是要平壤放人,但显然后者让朝鲜更有面子。眼下,前总统克林顿又亲自到平壤说情,朝鲜很可能顺水推舟 给奥巴马和克林顿夫妇面子,同时也缓和目前非常紧张的朝美关系。

  美国国务卿希拉里7月20日回答媒体提问时表示,两名女记者“非常有希望获释”,暗示朝美秘密接触取得了某种实质性成果。美国政治分析家迈克• 奇诺伊8月4日在接受美国有线电视新闻网采访时称,他怀疑在克林顿启程前,平壤和华盛顿很可能已经就释放两名女记者达成最后的共识,“她们将与克林顿一起 回国,否则这对他来说是个极大的政治损失”。

  朝美关系如何发展是会谈关键

  奇诺伊还认为,克林顿此行真正的焦点是美朝关系如何发展。“除了释放记者外,最关键的其实是他们还会谈些什么?奥巴马是否托克林顿给金正日带去密信?还有克林顿能否见到金正日?”

  朝鲜此前表示将继续抵制旨在实现半岛无核化的六方会谈,但暗示对朝美直接对话有强烈兴趣,美国则坚持“在六方会谈框架内进行对话”。国务卿希拉 里7月22日表示,如果平壤同意进行彻底和不可逆转的去核化,美国将实施涉及经济能源援助和半岛和平机制等内容的“一揽子方案”推进朝美关系正常化。

  有韩国学者认为,克林顿这次访问平壤可能成为朝美关系发展的转折点,两国的谈判可能进入新的阶段。
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

Hot this week

Germany: Big Tech Wants a Say in EU Law: More Might for the Mighty

India: Trump’s Tariffs Have Hit South Korea and Japan: India Has Been Wise in Charting a Cautious Path

Nepal: The Battle against American Establishment

India: Peace Nobel for Trump: It’s Too Long a Stretch

Mauritius: The US-Israel-Iran Triangle: from Obliteration to Mediation

Topics

India: Peace Nobel for Trump: It’s Too Long a Stretch

Ecuador: Monsters in Florida

Austria: It’s High Time Europe Lost Patience with Elon Musk

Singapore: The US May Win Some Trade Battles in Southeast Asia but Lose the War

Ethiopia: “Trump Guitars” Made in China: Strumming a Tariff Tune

Egypt: The B-2 Gamble: How Israel Is Rewriting Middle East Power Politics

China: 3 Insights from ‘Trade War Truce’ between US and China

United Kingdom: We’re Becoming Inured to Trump’s Outbursts – But When He Goes Quiet, We Need To Be Worried

Related Articles

Indonesia: US-China: Tariff, Tension, and Truce

China: US Chip Restrictions Backfiring

Thailand: US-China Trade Truce Didn’t Solve Rare Earths Riddle

Taiwan: Taiwan Issue Will Be Harder To Bypass during Future US-China Negotiations

Hong Kong: Amid US Democracy’s Moral Unraveling, Hong Kong’s Role in the Soft Power Struggle