Time to Get Tough With N. Korea

Regime shuts out diplomats, refuses dialog with Washington

(NEWSER) - While media and diplomatic pressure on Iran seems to have won the release of Roxana Saberi, two other reporters held captive in North Korea for nearly two months are receiving far less attention, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plight of Euna Lee and Laura Ling has been overshadowed by the North's missile launch, and diplomats aren't making progress with a regime that has grown increasingly intransigent. More»

And Clinton freed them with pure charm

(NEWSER) - Laura Ling and Euna Lee didn't go quietly when the North Koreans arrested them. In an interview with Larry King on CNN , Ling reveals that the men who arrested them beat them into submission. Though she admits they had crossed, briefly, into North Korean territory, she says they were actually arrested on the Chinese side of the border. “They wanted to get us back to North Korea and do whatever they could to get us back. So they hit me.” More»

(NEWSER) - Longtime Bill Clinton aide John Podesta, who accompanied the former president on his recent rescue mission to North Korea, says leader Kim Jong-Il was "fully engaged" during the visit, Reuters reports. “I would basically say that the discussions were pretty straightforward and he was fully engaged,” Podesta told reporters, though he declined to elaborate on Kim, who is thought to have suffered a stroke and may have pancreatic cancer. More»

(NEWSER) - The two US journalists pardoned today by North Korea are on their way back to the US with Bill Clinton, reports MSNBC. Euna Lee and Laura Ling are on Clinton's plane and heading to Los Angeles to be reunited with their families, a Clinton spokesman says. The two, due to land in the morning, had been detained since March on charges of spying. More»

(NEWSER) - Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea is generating all kinds of debate. A sampling:

• John Bolton on Fox: The hawkish former UN ambassador calls the trip a "classic case of rewarding bad behavior. ... Obviously, all of us want to get them out, but we want it done in a way that doesn't increase the risks" to other Americans "seized by despotic regimes."
• Jack Cafferty, CNN: Given the recent Hillary bashing from the North, this is "very, very strange. ... But the women, their families and the rest of us will take it. Way to go, President Clinton."