Mr. Clinton departed from Pyongyang, the capital, around 8:30 a.m. local time, along with the journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, on a private jet bound for Los Angeles, according to a statement from the former president’s office.
The North Korean government, which in June sentenced the women to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, announced hours earlier that it had pardoned the women after Mr. Clinton apologized to Mr. Kim for their actions, according to the North Korean state media.
President Obama contacted the families of the women on Tuesday evening, according to administration officials, but the White House said it would withhold public comment until the former president landed on American soil.
Mr. Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang was the most visible by an American in nearly a decade. It came at a time when the United States’ relationship with North Korea had become especially chilled, after North Korea’s test of its second nuclear device in May and a series of missile launchings.
It ended a harrowing ordeal for the two women, who were stopped on March 17 by soldiers near North Korea’s border with China while researching a report about women and human trafficking. They faced years of imprisonment in the gulaglike confines of a North Korean prison camp.
And it catapulted Mr. Clinton back on to the global stage, on behalf of a president who defeated his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a bitter primary campaign last year, and who later asked her to be his secretary of state.Mrs. Clinton was deeply involved in the case, too. She proposed sending various people to Pyongyang — including Mr. Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore — to lobby for the release of the women, before Mr. Clinton emerged as the preferred choice of the North Koreans, people briefed on the talks said.
About 10 days ago, these people said, Mr. Gore, who co-founded Current TV, the San Francisco-based media company that employs Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee, called Mr. Clinton to ask him to undertake the trip. Mr. Clinton agreed, as long as the Obama administration did not object.
The riveting tableau of a former president, jetting into a diplomatic crisis while his wife was embarking on a tour of Africa in her role as the nation’s chief diplomat, underscored the unique and enduring role of the Clintons, even in the Obama era.
On Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya, Mrs. Clinton said, “I’m very happy and relieved to have these two young women, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, on their way home to their families.”
“I spoke to my husband on the airplane and everything went well; we are extremely excited they will be reunited,” she said, adding, “it was just a good day to be able to see this happen.” She said she would have more to say on the matter later, when the journalists and her husband landed in America.
Mr. Clinton’s trip to Pyongyang came just two weeks after North Korea issued a harsh personal attack on Mrs. Clinton, in response to comments she made comparing its nuclear test and missile launchings to the behavior of an attention-seeking teenager.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry objected to her “vulgar remarks” and called her “a funny lady” who was neither intelligent nor diplomatic. “Sometimes she looks like a primary-school girl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping,” a spokesman said.
The episode evidently did not stop consideration of sending her husband as an envoy. But the initiative was cloaked in secrecy and came after weeks of back-channel talks between the United States and North Korea through its United Nations mission. In addition to Mr. Gore, the White House’s list of potential candidates included Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.
North Korea signaled its desire to have Mr. Clinton act as a special envoy in conversations with Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee, who relayed that message to their families in the middle of July, according to a senior administration official. The message was passed to Mr. Gore, who contacted the White House, which then explored whether such a mission would be successful.
Mr. Obama did not speak directly with Mr. Clinton before the mission. But his national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, contacted the former president to sound him out. The senior official said the administration did “due diligence” with the North Koreans to ensure that if Mr. Clinton went, he would return with the journalists. He also denied that Mr. Clinton apologized as a condition of obtaining the pardons from the government.
As president, Mr. Clinton had sent Mr. Kim a letter of condolence on the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, according to a former official. For Mr. Kim, the former official said, freeing the women was a “reciprocal humanitarian gesture.”
Mr. Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke last year. American officials said they thought his declining health had set off a succession struggle, complicating the Obama administration’s dealings with the North.The families of the American journalists issued a statement saying they were “overjoyed” by news of the pardon and thanked Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton. “We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home,” the statement said.
Current TV said in a statement that it too was “overjoyed” and that the hearts of its employees went out to Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee for “persevering through this horrible experience.”
The Obama administration said Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were in good health.
Administration officials said Mr. Clinton went to North Korea as a private citizen, did not carry a message from Mr. Obama for Mr. Kim and had the authority to negotiate only for the women’s release.
“This was 100 percent about the journalists,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter. “We knew Kim Jong-il would probably seek a meeting with Clinton. But that’s not what this visit was about.”
Still, North Korea, clearly seeing a propaganda opportunity at home and a rare chance for a measure of favorable publicity abroad, welcomed Mr. Clinton with the fanfare of a state visit. It broadcast a group portrait, as well as photos of Mr. Kim gesturing and talking to Mr. Clinton; of the former president accepting flowers from a North Korean girl; and of Mr. Clinton, seated across a negotiating table from Mr. Kim, each flanked by their aides. Among those greeting Mr. Clinton at the airport was Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator.
Among those accompanying Mr. Clinton was David Straub, a former director of the Korea desk at the State Department, who had held talks with the North Koreans through what is known as the “New York connection.”Also on hand was John Podesta, an informal adviser to the Obama administration who served as Mr. Clinton’s chief of staff in the final years of his presidency, when the former president yearned to travel to North Korea to clinch a deal that would have curbed its nuclear program.
That visit never happened — partly because the White House concluded that a deal was not assured — and President George W. Bush put the brakes on direct talks with North Korea, setting the stage for eight years of largely fruitless efforts to stop the North’s nuclear ambitions.
Given Mr. Clinton’s stature and his long interest in the North Korean nuclear issue, experts said it was likely that his discussions in North Korea ranged well beyond obtaining the release of Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee.
“It would be someplace between surprising and shocking if there wasn’t some substantive discussion between the former president, who is deeply knowledgeable about the nuclear issue, and Kim Jong-il,” said Robert L. Gallucci, who negotiated with North Korea in the Clinton administration.
Mr. Clinton has sought to find the right place in the Obama era, eager to play a role without stepping on the toes of the new president or certainly of his secretary of state.
The last time the two spoke, said the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, was in March, when Mr. Obama invited Mr. Clinton to a ceremony in Washington for signing legislation expanding the AmeriCorps program created by Mr. Clinton.
In interviews last spring, Mr. Clinton said that he would be happy to do anything Mr. Obama asked him to do, but that “I try to stay out of their way.”
Mr. Clinton’s mission may be less of an issue for Mr. Obama than for Mrs. Clinton. The same day he landed in North Korea, she arrived in Kenya, kicking off an 11-day journey through Africa — a visit now largely eclipsed by her husband’s travels.（韓國‧首爾）美國前總統克林頓親自出馬赴朝鮮“英雄救美”斡旋成功，今日（週三，8月5日）帶著2名獲朝鮮最高領導人金正日特赦的2名美國女記者，乘搭專機返國。
朝鮮媒體報導，克林頓為2名女記者非法闖入朝鮮“誠懇道歉”，因此，金正日特赦並下令釋放她們，而後克林頓還轉達了美國總統奧巴馬的感謝。
2位重獲自由的女記者凌志美（綠衣者）與李誠恩（紅衣者）雙手拎著行李今日（週三，8月5日）來到平壤一個機場，與美國官員會合，準備乘搭專機，與前來營救她們的前總統克林頓（不在圖內）一同返國。（圖：美聯社）
白宮否認向朝鮮道歉
不過，白宮已否認克林頓曾代表美方向朝鮮道歉。
克林頓在大馬時間週三上午7時許，完成救人任務，一行人乘專機離開平壤，前往美國洛杉磯。
克林頓的妻子、美國現任國務卿希拉里對2位女記者成功獲釋表示歡迎。
目前人在非洲肯雅訪問的希拉里說：“知道2位年輕女記者已登上飛機，準備回家與家人團聚，我當然非常開心，而且也松了一口氣。”
她透露，已經與克林頓通過電話，克林頓告訴她一切進展順利。2位女記者因為很快就到抵達加州，與家人團聚，也感到很興奮。
中朝邊界採訪被扣5個月
據美國一名資深官員表示，2人雖然被朝鮮拘禁接近5個月，但“健康狀況良好”。
32歲的凌志美與36歲的李誠恩是今年3月在中朝邊界進行採訪任務時被朝鮮拘捕。
儘管白宮強調克林頓此行屬私人性質，但朝鮮媒體稱克林頓代表2名記者進行了道歉，並轉達了奧巴馬總統的感激，還形容，克林頓此行“對加深朝美之間的理解和建立信任，作出了貢獻”。
據朝鮮中央通訊社報導，克林頓週二（8月4日）很“尊重地”向金正日轉達了美國總統奧巴馬的口頭信息。金正日對此表示感謝，並表示歡迎克林頓的訪問。
朝鮮國防委員會當晚在百花園迎賓館設宴，款待了克林頓一行人，金正日也在座上。
朝“指名”要克林頓出馬
代妻肩負重任救記者
據報導，朝鮮曾“點名”要美國前總統克林頓赴朝進行談判，才願意釋放2位女記者。
華盛頓消息人士稱，朝鮮官員曾向被捕記者家屬表示，可將2名記者交給克林頓，2人的家屬於是主動與克林頓接洽，希望由他出馬展開營救行動，白宮最終批准由克林頓執行此次“救援任務”。
而事實上，克林頓此次成功救回2位女記者，不但為妻子國務卿希拉理解決了不可能的任務，也實現了當年未完的夢想。
希拉里自出任國務卿以來，一直未能改善美朝關係，朝鮮更曾嘲諷她的言行像“小學生”、“老太太”。因此，由她的夫婿克林頓出馬，一來他是美國前總統，份量十足，任內與朝鮮領導層關係友好；二來克林頓是以私人身份出訪，即使最終無功而還，也不會影響美國政府的威信。
據透露，克林頓原本有機會在總統任內訪問朝鮮，最後因為時機及局勢終未成行。而今在他離任8年後，踏足朝鮮，也算是完成總統任內無法達成的目標。
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