Bill Clinton’s Triumphant Visit to North Korea

It was one of the best kept secrets in the annals of international diplomacy. Ex-president of the United States, Bill Clinton, traveled yesterday on a surprise mission to North Korea, the most isolated nation on Earth, with the objective of liberating the two North American journalists incarcerated on March 17. The trip was clandestine, the result was triumphant.

After several hours of a face to face between Clinton and leader Kim Jong-il, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, 32 and 36 years old, condemned to 12 years of forced labor for committing “hostile acts” against the North Korean nation, were granted a “special pardon” by the communist regime. This is the same regime that ex-president George W. Bush included in his “axis of evil” along with Iraq and Iran.

The result, without a doubt, will bring enormous relief to the families of both women, but what is really intriguing is the fact that Clinton’s mission should have included a much more ample agenda. Coordinated in absolute secrecy, the trip contains all of the features of having been a diplomatic wager of great scale. North Korea has the capacity and the sufficient paranoia to provoke Barack Obama to an international crisis of unimaginable proportions. Pyongyang, it is known, has tested nuclear devices and long-range missiles. Japan is in the crosshairs. South Korea, without a doubt. Alaska and Hawaii nearly.

That is why no one was fooled when the news got out that Clinton was landing in the peninsula in an unidentified, unregistered plane to negotiate the liberation of the two women, and the spokesmen of the department of state shrugged their shoulders and claimed that the ex-head of state had traveled for personal reasons. “It was a private mission,” was the first thing they said, only later to have to disavow what the North Korean media officials were already announcing: that Clinton had “courteously” given Kim Jong-il a personal message on behalf of Obama.

According to the official North Korean news agency (KCNA), the democratic ex-head of state had told Kim exactly what he wanted to hear. “My country offers you the most sincere apologies for the hostile acts committed by the two journalists after illegally entering your country.”

“He did not want to put the success of the mission in danger,” a representative of the department of state indicated hours later.

The last time that a high-ranking United States official met with Kim was in 2000. The encounter yesterday did not occur without long, torturous and agonizing negotiations between both parties. When Clinton landed, there was an entire reception committee waiting for him with the vice-chancellor and ex-nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, first in line, and a girl with an immense bouquet of flowers. Several hours later, North Korean television was broadcasting images that showed Clinton at a negotiations table with the “Dear Leader.”

That fact that he was received in that manner meant good news for Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were arrested for crossing the North Korean border from the Chinese side while completing a report on women from that country who were trying to escape from state prison. But, can anyone imagine that the two men sat face to face at the table, posing for photos for the occasion, yet not taking some time to discuss other pending issues?

What’s more, such opportunities to penetrate the intimacy of a regime so opaque, with all of the speculations that exist around Kim and his state of health, do not come by very often. Since last year, when it was suspected that he had a grave heart attack, there has been discussion about the eventual succession of the 67-year-old leader of the interior of the regime. In general, a good majority of the Occident assume that his successor will be his 26-year-old son, Jong-un, who was educated in Switzerland and the only one of his three sons engaged in politics. Nevertheless, it is something that has not altogether been confirmed. It is difficult to imagine that Clinton and Kim discussed the topic of the succession directly, but thinking that the topic was not touched upon is also difficult to imagine.

The United States, in effect, was looking for the liberation of the two journalists. But furthermore was looking to bind North Korea in a plan of disarmament and de-nuclearization that lowers regional tensions, detains the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and returns to the six-party talks.

Hillary Clinton, in her turn, could be found flying yesterday for a tour in Africa when it was confirmed by the journalists that surrounded her that her husband was landing in the not-so-friendly Korean peninsula. But if Clinton’s been complaining for weeks that she has a very low profile, why offer this stellar mission to her husband?

Not so long ago, diverse international relations analysts were asking if appointing Hillary Clinton secretary of state would bring more problems than benefits, precisely, to her husband and his activity as international lobbyist for their own foundation. Is there a chance that old Bill is going to ask for money from characters seen as “unpresentable” in the eyes of the North American public?

Now it turns out that there’s a different scene and that not she, but rather he is becoming a stellar ambassador of good luck who assures the priorities of the Obama administration.

For the relatives of the two women, the results are already out in plain sight. But what effects will this meeting have on lowering the accumulated tensions between Washington and Pyongyang (and Seoul)? It may be something that takes months to unveil itself.

The White House insists that it treated the subject of the liberation completely separately from the rest of the problematic North Korean agenda. But the sole fact that a North American envoy, after so much time, was received by the “Dear Leader” could be the prologue of a new stage of dialogue that will eventually be topped with the reestablishment of the six-party talks with Japan, South Korea, China and Russia. Thanks to the two women, the two countries may be able to encounter doors for a possible rapprochement.

“This is a trip that could have a great compensation,” assured Mike Chinoy, analyst for Korean affairs. “It could be the initial kick that breaks the cycle of tensions and mutual recriminations between the United States and North Korea,” he added.

The ex-president, after attending a dinner he was invited to by Kim himself, left North Korea yesterday. Laura Ling and Euna Lee also boarded the plane with Bill. The destination is home: Los Angeles.

[Editor’s note: some quotes may be worded based on translated material].