I Look to You

As I lay me down,
heaven hear me now.
I'm lost without a cause
after giving it my all.

Winter storms have come
and darkened my sun.
After all that I've been through
Who on earth can I turn to?

[Refrain]
I look to you.
I look to you.
After all my strength is gone,
in you I can be strong

I look to you.
I look to you.
And when melodies are gone,
in you I hear a song.

I look to you.
About to lose my breathe,
there's no more fighting left,
Sinking to rise no more,
searching for that open door.

And every road that I've taken
lead to my regret.
And I don't know if I'm going to make it.
Nothing to do but lift my head

[Refrain]
I look to you.
I look to you.
After all my strength is gone,
in you I can be strong

I look to you.
I look to you.
And when melodies are gone,
in you I hear a song.

I look to you.
My levees are broken
My walls have come
tumbling down on me

The rain is falling.
Defeat is calling.
I need you to set me free.

Take me far away from the battle.
I need you.
Shine on me.

[Refrain]
I look to you.
I look to you.
After all my strength is gone,
in you I can be strong

I look to you.
I look to you.
And when melodies are gone,
in you I hear a song.

I look to you.

How are we recovering the history of Mt. Nam (남산)?

Mt. Nam is situated right in the heart of the city of Seoul, providing a rare place to breathe in this hustle and bustle of the city life. It has survived and been releatively intact from the city's almost "invasive" city plannings. Under the Korea's authoritarian regimes, the mountain was notorious because it was where the KCIA building was embeded. Now, Seoul faces a chance to reclaim its name, not by destroying and erasing a chapter of its history by removing a building once used as Korea's secret agencies but by building a place to promote sustainable peace and human rights instead.

주간동아 2009-08-19
“남산의 아픈 역사도 후대에 남겨주자”

“대한민국의 근현대사와 남산의 운명은 한 몸으로 얽혀 있다. 역사의 명멸들이 현재와 대화하면서 오늘과 내일을 창조할 수 있는 지혜의 땅이다.”
대표적인 진보 역사학자인 성공회대 교양학부 한홍구 교수가 최근 남산의 역사적, 상징적 의미를 강조하고 나섰다.
8월3일 기자와 만난 한 교수는 “‘남산 르네상스 마스터플랜’(이하 남산플랜)에선 남산에 대한 의미를 찾기 어렵다”고 말했다. 오히려 남산플랜이 남산이 가지는 현대사의 역사적 기억을 훼손할 수 있다고 걱정했다.
서울시가 지난 3월 발표한 남산플랜은 남산의 △접근성 개선 △생태 및 산자락 복원 △역사 복원 △경관 개선 △운영 프로그램 확충 등을 통해 시민에게 남산을 일상 속의 공간으로 되돌려준다는 게 핵심이다.
한 교수가 가장 먼저 문제제기한 부분은 경관 개선. 남산플랜의 경관 개선안에는 자연경관과 생태 가치를 극대화하기 위해 남산 내 구(舊) 중앙정보부 소속 건물들을 철거한다는 계획이 포함돼 있는데, 바로 이 대목이 역사 복원을 언급한 플랜의 취지와 부합하지 않는다는 것이다.
서울시의 계획대로라면 구 중앙정보부 남산 본관(현 서울유스호스텔)과 취조 건물로 사용된 현 서울시청 남산 별관, 그리고 민주화투쟁 인사들에게 악명 높았던 중앙정보부 6국이 있던 현 서울시균형발전본부 건물 등 4곳이 2011년부터 단계적으로 철거된다.
한 교수는 “긍정적, 부정적 이미지를 떠나 중앙정보부 건물은 우리 역사의 중요한 흔적이 남아 있는 곳”이라며 “이런 곳을 무조건 없애버린다면 역사 복원이라는 남산플랜의 전체 취지가 반감될 수밖에 없다”고 말했다. 한 교수는 중앙정보부 건물의 보존과 함께 조선통감 관저의 복원도 필요하다고 주장했다. 조선통감 관저는 서울 중구 예장동 서울유스호스텔 진입로의 들머리에 있던 건물로, 1910년 8월 일본 통감 데라우치와 조선 총리대신 이완용이 한일병합 조약을 맺었던 ‘경술국치’의 장소다.
“무조건 헐어 없애면 역사 상실”
한 교수는 “한일합방 무렵 ‘왜성대’라고 불리기도 한 이곳을 중심으로 필동, 회현동 등에 일본인이 집단으로 거주했다”며 “치욕의 역사를 복원해 후대에게 ‘우리 민족의 고난이 시작된 장소가 이곳’이라는 사실을 알리는 일은 매우 큰 의미를 지닌다”고 전했다.
한 교수는 앞서 언급한 두 역사적 장소의 복원과 보존 사업에 대국민 참여를 유도하는 캠페인을 벌일 계획이다. 조선통감 관저의 경우 ‘역사 신탁(History Trust)’이라는 사업명으로 경술국치 100년이 되는 내년 8월29일에 복원하는 것이 목표다. 중앙정보부 건물 4곳과 관련해서는 근대역사 유적 지정 및 아시아인권 평화박물관 건립을 추진할 예정이다.
한 교수는 “개인의 정치 성향에 따라 과거사에 대한 해석이 엇갈릴 수 있지만 ‘과거사를 온전히 보존해 미래를 든든히 다지자’는 점에 대해선 이견이 없을 것으로 보인다”며 “이번 기회가 우리 사회에서 양극으로 갈라진 대립적 모습들이 하나로 뭉치는 계기가 됐으면 하는 바람”이라고 밝혔다.
유재영 기자 elegant@donga.com

Former President of South Korea Dae-jung Kim Passed Away

The former president of the Republic of Korea, Dae-jung Kim passed away approximately 10 minutes ago at 1:43pm August 18, 2009 local Seoul time. This marked the second death of former leaders of the nation after the deceased president Moo-hyun Roh.

The former president Kim was creator of the "Sunshine Policy" and well known for a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his human rights advocate works during the Korea's democratization.

South Korean Worker Freed by North

See any resemblance with the release of two American journalists last week?

August 14, 2009

By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Thursday released a South Korean worker it had held for several months on charges of denouncing its political system, signaling what analysts called a desire by the North to ease relations with the South after months of tensions over its nuclear weapons program.
The South Korean worker, Yoo Seong-jin, 44, was handed over to South Korean officials in Kaesong, a North Korean border town where the two Koreas run a joint industrial park. The man crossed the border and was reunited with his family later Thursday.
“I am glad that I have safely returned home,” Mr. Yoo said, thanking the government for helping secure his release. He did not answer questions from a crowd of reporters who waited near the border for his arrival.
Mr. Yoo, a technician for the Hyundai Group, was detained on March 30 by the North Korean authorities, who accused him of denouncing the North Korean government and trying to persuade a North Korean woman working at Kaesong to defect to the South. During his detention, he was not allowed to talk to South Korean officials.
Mr. Yoo’s release removes an obstacle in inter-Korean relations. It came a week after the North freed two American journalists it had held since mid-March on charges of illegal entry and committing hostile acts against the government.
North Korea released the two journalists after former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang, the capital, and met the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il.
Hyun Jung-eun, the head of the Hyundai Group, South Korea’s biggest corporate investor in the North, visited Pyongyang to negotiate Mr. Yoo’s release, and Mr. Yoo was freed during her visit. It remained unclear whether Ms. Hyun had met Mr. Kim during the negotiations.
The North is still holding four South Korean fishermen whose boat was seized two weeks ago after it had strayed into North Korean waters.
Analysts have said that North Korea is using the visits by Mr. Clinton and Ms. Hyun to re-establish contacts with Washington and Seoul in hopes of undermining the impact of United Nations sanctions imposed after its nuclear test on May 25.
By inviting the Hyundai chief to Pyongyang, North Korea signaled its willingness to revive private business exchanges with South Korea, a crucial source of hard currency for the government, said Chun Hyun-joon, an analyst at the government-financed Korea Research Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
“It still is too early to say that this will lead to a resumption of official dialogue between the two sides,” Mr. Chun added.
Even before the nuclear test, inter-Korean relations had been at their lowest in years. President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul vowed not to ship any aid to the North unless it made tangible progress in dismantling its nuclear weapons program. The North responded by curtailing border traffic and suspending Hyundai’s business taking South Korean tourists to Kaesong.
North Korea has alternated between conciliatory steps and moves that raise tension.
Mr. Lee is preparing to address the nation on Saturday, the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. The day has traditionally served as an occasion for South Korean leaders to make overtures toward the North.

Half Reconciliation [NYT Article: After Torture and Betrayal, Reconciliation]

Although, I have remained a sincere reader of his articles for last a few years and personally am fond of him, I feel obliged to comment the articles below missed out a point. Reading it made sound like two friends were the main characteristics of victim-perpetrator's vicious cycle, which was not. Both are victims; let's make that clear first. It would've probably been better if the article clarify who was responsible for the whole situation of the friends couldn't be able to find themselves but passing on the wrongful accusation on each other. From the beginning, everything was wrong; they were friends, and they should've been even closer allies after the incident, having the same enermy, but they were blinded to see the truth.
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August 11, 2009

By CHOE SANG-HUN
GAEYADO, SOUTH KOREA — When the twice-a-day ferry pulls into this island of 900 people, village dogs trot out to the pier to watch the passengers come ashore. Seagulls wheel overhead as weathered fishermen mend nets on the beach. Women in sunbonnets spread anchovies out to dry.
Gaeyado today presents an idyllic scene.
But decades ago, the arrival of ferries was anticipated with dread. Often they brought the counterintelligence detectives, agents in successive South Korean military governments’ drives to root out Communists and their sympathizers.
The extent of the terror they spread in places like Gaeyado is only now coming to light with the revelations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This panel was set up in 2005 to investigate dark episodes in modern Korean history, including abuses the South Korean government perpetrated against fishermen, mostly from the 1960s to the 1980s, in the name of fighting the Communist threat from the North.
In the fearful atmosphere of that time, neighbors informed on each other. People were detained and tortured. Families broke apart, and onetime friends — like Park Chun-hwan, now 62, and Im Bong-taek, 61 — turned on each other.
These men’s ordeal began in the spring of 1968. Like every spring, fishing boats from Gaeyado pursued schools of croaker as they migrated north, sometimes venturing too far into frontier waters prowled by the navies of both South and North Korea.
Onboard one such boat was the 21-year-old Mr. Park.
“That morning, the catch was not so good,” he recalled. “We were about to haul in our net when two North Korean patrol boats appeared out of the fog.” He and the other crew members were taken captive.
Some 4,000 South Korean fishermen were seized by the North in the decades after the 1950-3 Korean War. Their captors showered these men with gifts, and tried in indoctrination sessions to persuade them to renounce the Seoul government and defect to the North. Hundreds of fishermen remained in the North, not all voluntarily. But most, eventually, were allowed to go home.
In South Korea, they were treated with suspicion, usually undergoing weeks of interrogation by police officers seeking any evidence of treason. Often they were jailed for violating fishing regulations.
For some, such as Mr. Park, the outcome was far worse.
Mr. Park was held in North Korea for five months. Although pressured to defect, he told his captors he wanted to go back to his wife, whom he had married only a month before he was kidnapped. He was released to South Korea, where he was jailed for eight months for straying outside the legal fishing zone.
In 1971, with Mr. Park back home and working on a prawn ship, two detectives came by to “ask a few more questions.” For the next 70 days, Mr. Park says, he was detained in an inn where he was deprived of sleep and forced to write a “confession.” Each evening, he said, he was taken to an underground torture room.
The interrogators wanted details. Wasn’t it true he had brought back two “red-covered” Communist books and given them to friends? Where had he hidden the radio he intended to use to transmit information about local officials and industries to his spy masters in Pyongyang? Hadn’t he raved about the food he had eaten in the North, and about the enthusiastic welcome women had given him when he visited factories there?
They made him squeeze his knees into a metal bucket for 24 hours at a time, he said. They shocked him with electricity, splashing him with icy water when he lost consciousness.
Finally, he said yes, he had brought back books from North Korea, and named Mr. Im as the friend to whom he had given them.
“I thought the torture was going to kill me,” Mr. Park said. “But my friend had a relative in the police, so I hoped he might be O.K.”
Now the two friends were both tortured in custody.
Mr. Im said his interrogators tied his hands and legs together and hung him upside down, naked, “like a roast chicken,” and beat the soles of his feet.
“They kept asking where the books were,” Mr. Im said. “I wished Chun-hwan really had given me books, so I could at least turn them in. I wanted to kill him for involving me in this.”
Mr. Park was subjected to the same torture: “Hanging upside down like that for hours, you feel like your face has swollen to twice its size. Blood oozed from my eye sockets.”
The men ended up confessing to whatever their torturers seemed to want. Mr. Park was sentenced to seven years in prison for praising and spying for North Korea. Mr. Im was sentenced to eight months for not having reported his friend to the police.
During all their time in custody, the two men never met. Mr. Park’s wife died of heart attack and Mr. Im’s father hanged himself.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is reviewing cases from that era, has concluded that many of the estimated 1,250 fishermen who were tried from the 1960s to the 1980s on charges of cooperating with North Korea had confessed to questionable charges under torture. In April, the commission said Mr. Park and Mr. Im were among them and recommended that they receive new trials.
Gaeyado had its share of such cases. Between 1960 and 1968, five of its fishing boats were seized by North Korea. At least seven fishermen were sentenced to prison terms of 7 to 12 years after their return to South Korea.
Two were arrested more than 16 years after they had come back home. In each case, the commission found, the suspects’ shipmates, neighbors or relatives were tortured, sometimes for weeks, until they testified against them.
Two Gaeyado fishermen recently had their convictions overturned in retrials prompted by the commission’s investigations. Mr. Park and Mr. Im are still awaiting retrial.
After Mr. Park’s release from prison in 1979, he left Gaeyado and settled in an inland town. He spent 30 years as a tobacco farmer and now works the night shift at a toothbrush factory.
Mr. Im still lives in Gaeyado, making his living catching crabs and raising ducks. He scurries around the island on his scooter, shouting greetings at neighbors. But his eyes misted when he talked about the past.
So as not to forget, he recorded his torturers’ names and deeds in a tattered notebook he made out of a used calendar while working as a deckhand on a fishing boat in the mid-1980s.
Following their release from prison, the two men did not meet again until June of this year, when the commission and Gaeyado community arranged a “party of reconciliation.” The entire village was invited, and about 200 people showed up, including the police and other officials.
Despite the commission’s urging, there has been no apology from the central government for what the fishermen went through. But when Mr. Park and Mr. Im met and embraced in tears, old wounds seemed to heal.
“I told him I was sorry,” Mr. Park said. “When the detectives told me what Bong-taek had confessed, I imagined the torture he must have suffered because of me. I wanted to smash my head against a wall.”
Mr. Im said he had long ago forgiven Mr. Park, because he knew his friend had lied under torture.
“I know because I went through the same torture,” he said.

Kissinger Weighs in on North Korea

How would you reckon?
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August 9, 2009, 3:48 pm

By Ashley Southall
The debate over former President Bill Clinton’s trip this week to North Korea has drawn in one of his wife’s predecessors, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Mr. Kissinger, who served as the architect of American foreign policy under Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, wrote an editorial published on several news Web sites Sunday, including that of The New York Times, about the long-term implications of the former president’s trip on negotiations with Pyongyang.
Mr. Clinton, who is married to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il last week in the capital Pyongyang and secured the release of two American journalists imprisoned there.
The trip’s critics said the endeavor, which the Obama administration said was a private humanitarian effort, was the equivalent of a ransom payment, and that it put Americans living and working abroad at risk.
Mr. Kissinger called the women’s imprisonment “blackmail,” and urged the Obama administration not to be intimidated by Pyongyang as it presses North Korea to disarm.
“The benign atmosphere by which it culminated its latest blackmail must not tempt us or our partners into bypaths that confuse atmosphere with substance,” Mr. Kissinger wrote. “Any outcome other than the elimination of the North Korean nuclear military capability in a fixed time frame is a blow to nonproliferation prospects worldwide and to peace and stability globally.”
Mr. Kissinger fretted that the visit had given North Korea just the propaganda it needed to portray itself as legitimate, and he questioned whether the visit had given other nations an incentive to stockpile nuclear weapons.
“A visit by a former president, who is married to the secretary of state, will enable Kim Jong Il to convey to North Koreans, and perhaps to other countries, that his country is being accepted into the international community,” Mr. Kissinger said, “precisely the opposite of what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has defined as the goal of U.S. policy until Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons program.”
He said Mr. Clinton’s trip fueled speculation about possible bilateral talks between North Korea and the United States outside of the so-called Six-Party talks. But the success of any agreement between the two countries, he said, would hinge on the support of North Korea’s neighbors, who have been involved in the talks: China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.
“These countries should not be made to feel that the United States uses them as pawns for its global designs,” Mr. Kissinger said.
But the trip was not enough to pose a serious threat to negotiations, and Mr. Kissinger urged the administration to keep its goal for nuclear disarmament in North Korea saying, “the administration is still in a position to achieve a beneficent long-term outcome.”

Concerning North Korea's Stalemate Diplomacy; How effective is this?

Clinton to Pyongyang: Criteria for Success
Posted by Scott Snyder on 08/04/2009 :: Permalink :: Comments
A former U.S. president visits Pyongyang to break the stalemate at a time of rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear program. This sounds like déjà vu, but the twist is that the mission is a purely "private" one to secure the release of two American journalists convicted and sentenced to twelve years in a North Korean labor camp for committing "hostile acts" against the regime. Nonetheless, if Jimmy Carter's 1994 visit to Pyongyang is any guide, Bill Clinton's visit might turn out to be the equivalent of hitting the "reset" button in U.S. relations with North Korea. What are the criteria for judging the outcome of the Clinton visit to Pyongyang?

First, the visit will be successful if Bill Clinton is able to reverse North Korea's harsh verdict and secure the release and return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee to their families. There is a high possibility that the visit can achieve this result since the North Koreans have discreetly sent signals to this effect by not assigning the two journalists to a labor camp and by allowing limited telephone contact between the reporters and their families. North Korea's UN Ambassador Sin Son-ho held a hurriedly arranged press conference on July 25th at which he stated that "we are not against a dialogue. We are not against any negotiations on issues of common concern."
Second, the visit opens a channel through which authoritative messages can be delivered regarding U.S. expectations for the future of the relationship with North Korea. Even if it is a private visit with a humanitarian purpose, former president Clinton is uniquely placed to provide the North Koreans with a clear understanding of the conditions and parameters under which the U.S.-DPRK relationship might go forward. Presumably, the core of such a message would be that the basis upon which it is possible to envision an improved political relationship between the United States and North Korea remains denuclearization, and that continued nuclear activity will be met with the continued implementation of UN sanctions under UN Security Council Resolution 1874.
Third, the DPRK has suggested its own preconditions for dialogue, but a private visit does not recognize North Korean statements that six party talks are dead, as the North Korean foreign ministry has claimed. The DPRK foreign ministry may have signaled its desire for Clinton's visit when the spokesman referred last week to a "specific and reserved form of dialogue that can address the current situation." The visit provides an opportunity to listen directly to North Korea's leadership without committing to any specific response or giving weight to North Korean preconditions. Delivery of diplomatic messages through private channels provides a means by which dialogue is possible while sidestepping the official preconditions for dialogue that both sides are attaching to their current positions.
Fourth, the visit provides an opportunity to gain additional direct knowledge regarding the status of North Korea's leadership succession process. How the North Koreans handle Clinton's visit, including who Clinton meets inside North Korea, will provide additional information regarding that state of top-level decision making in North Korea.
Most importantly, the Obama administration will have time to assess the results of a private visit and to consult with allies and friends regarding next steps based on the outcome. This means that the initiative lies with North Korea and the response on the part of the United States and its partners will depend on how North Korea handles the visit.
The primary danger of such a private visit is the possibility of overreach by a former president, a danger regarding which Clinton should be acutely aware, given the Clinton administration's own experience with Jimmy Carter's visit in 1994.
Another potential challenge is that North Korea's release of the two American journalists without the accompanying release of a South Korean employee of Hyundai Asan at the Kaesong Industrial Complex may put additional political pressure on South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak at a sensitive point in inter-Korean negotiations over the future of the complex.

Release of 2 American journalists

Two American journalists sentensed for 12 years of hard labor and detained in North Korea were pardoned upon the former US president Bill Clinton's visit to the country and released. They, along with Clinton, are on their ways to their beloveds now, but how to interpret this grows to be ever more controversial. How Korea's major news media perceive the news are clearly distinguishable and contradictory in terms of the future relations of the six parties in accordance with this ruling.

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August 5, 2009
Clinton and Two Freed Journalists Leave N. Korea
By CHOE SANG-HUN, MARK LANDLER and PETER BAKER
SEOUL, South Korea — Former President Bill Clinton left North Korea early Wednesday, after securing a pardon for two jailed American journalists from the reclusive North Korean president, Kim Jong-il, Reuters reported. The two journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, were returning to the United States with Mr. Clinton, the news agency reported, after having been held by North Korea since being detained by North Korean soldiers along the Chinese border on March 17. They were on a reporting assignment from Current TV, a San Francisco-based media company co-founded by Al Gore, the former vice president.
They were eventually convicted and sentenced to 12 years at hard labor for “committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry.” But they were held near Pyongyang rather than sent to a labor camp after the sentencing, raising hopes that North Korea might be willing to pardon them. The administration, which had initially said the charges were “baseless,” began discussing a possible “amnesty” for the women, signaling a readiness to acknowledge some degree of culpability in return for their freedom.
On Tuesday, the Ling and Lee families issued a joint statement on their Web site in which they thanked the Obama administration, President Clinton and “all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal.” They added that they were “counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms.”
The pardon added to speculation among analysts in Seoul that North Korea, after months of raising tensions and hostile rhetoric towards Washington, may be ready to return to dialogue with Washington.
Tensions have been high since a nuclear test by the North on May 25 and the subsequent American-led effort to impose international sanctions against the North.
Administration officials sought to temper suggestions that Mr. Clinton would engage in sweeping discussions with Mr. Kim about North Korea’s nuclear program. His brief, one official said, was strictly limited to the imprisoned journalists.
Since its last short-range missile tests in early July, North Korea has refrained from taking any provocative actions, setting the stage for a possible return to dialogue. In recent weeks, it has indicated that it wanted one-on-one talks with Washington. The United States insists that such discussions are possible only within the six-nation talks involving other regional powers, a multilateral forum the North has declared “dead.”
Accompanying Mr. Clinton was John Podesta, who was his last chief of staff at the White House and is now an informal adviser to the Obama administration. Mr. Podesta, the president of the Center for American Progress, a research organization in Washington, is an influential player in Democratic policy circles. Mr. Clinton also brought longtime personal aides, including Douglas Band.
Kang Sok-ju, the first vice foreign minister and Mr. Kim’s most trusted adviser on Pyongyang’s relations with Washington, attended the meeting, and later in the evening the North’s National Defense Commission, the country’s top governing agency chaired by Mr. Kim, hosted a dinner party for Mr. Clinton, state media reported.
Mr. Clinton flew into Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in an unmarked jet early Tuesday morning local time, Central TV, a North Korean station, reported. The White House confirmed the visit on Tuesday, but said it was a private mission.
“While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment,” Mr. Gibbs said in a statement. “We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton’s mission.”
It was widely assumed that Mr. Clinton would not have undertaken the mission without specific assurances that Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee would be released.
The last time an American official met with Mr. Kim was in October 2000, when Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Mr. Clinton’s top envoy, traveled to Pyongyang. Mr. Kim reportedly suffered a stroke last August, raising uncertainty about his health and the future of his regime.
Television footage from Pyongyang showed Mr. Clinton being greeted at the airport by North Korean officials including the chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan and Yang Hyong-sop, the vice parliamentary speaker. The footage showed him smiling and bowing as a young girl presented him with flowers. Photographs released by North Korea showed Mr. Clinton sitting next to a thin, though not sickly looking, Mr. Kim.
The Obama administration had been considering for weeks whether to send a special envoy to North Korea. The visit by Mr. Clinton, even if officially a private effort, was clearly undertaken with the blessings of the White House, and marked his first diplomatic mission abroad on behalf of the administration. Mr. Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has been deeply involved in the journalists’ case.
Mr. Clinton is the first former American president to travel to North Korea since 1994, when Jimmy Carter went to Pyongyang — with Mr. Clinton’s half-hearted blessing — to try to strike a deal to suspend the North’s nuclear work in return for concessions from the United States. Ultimately that led to a 1994 nuclear accord, which froze North Korea’s production of plutonium until the deal fell apart in 2002.
As president, Mr. Clinton was initially ambivalent about Mr. Carter’s intervention. But Mr. Carter’s trip also proved that a former president could break a logjam, and Mr. Clinton has some cards to play with the North. In December, 2000, the last days of his presidency, he came close to traveling to the country in hopes of striking a deal to contain North Korea’s missiles. Mr. Clinton ultimately decided not to go because the deal was not pre-cooked, and his advisers feared he would be appearing desperate for an end-of-presidency deal.
Relations with the North deteriorated rapidly under the Bush administration, with the North renouncing the 1994 nuclear agreement, harvesting enough plutonium for approximately eight nuclear weapons and conducting a nuclear test. Mr. Obama never had time to get talks off the ground with the North before it conducted a second nuclear test and terminated the one significant deal it struck with the Bush administration. It is in the process of restarting its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.
It is not clear whether the timing is propitious for Mr. Clinton to revive the broader relationship, with Mr. Kim in failing health after a stroke last summer and the North Korean leadership facing an apparent succession struggle.
In fact, the jailing of Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee came amid a period of heightened tensions following the second nuclear device in May and the subsequent launchings of several ballistic missiles.
In recent months, the White House has marshaled support at the United Nations for strict sanctions against the North Korean government, including a halt to all weapons sales and a crackdown on its financial ties.
But the administration has tried to keep its diplomatic campaign separate from this case, which American officials have portrayed as a humanitarian issue, appealing to North Korea to return the women to their families.
“Their detainment is not something that we’ve linked to other issues, and we hope the North Koreans don’t do that, either,” Mr. Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said to reporters in June.