FORMER US president Jimmy Carter flew into Pyongyang in North Korea yesterday in an attempt to have an American teacher sentenced to eight years’ hard labour for trespassing at the Chinese border released.
TV footage showed Mr Carter receiving a bouquet of flowers as he landed in Pyongyang.
He was met by top North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan and the country’s second most powerful nuclear official, Ri Gun, a sign that this visit is as much about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions as it is about releasing a US national.
Aijalon Mahli Gomes (31) a Boston teacher linked to the Evangelical Christian movement, was convicted in April of crossing into North Korea illegally from China. He was the fourth American detained in North Korea within a year.
President Carter’s visit is a private one, but one with huge diplomatic resonance, as it comes at a time when relations between the West and North Korea are under strain over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and the March sinking of a South Korean warship, which investigators from the US and South Korea blame on Pyongyang.
One year ago, former president Bill Clinton made a trip to the secretive north to secure the release of two American journalists also sentenced for trespassing. He apologised on behalf of the women, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, and relayed President Barack Obama’s thanks during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Mr Gomes reportedly attempted suicide during his incarceration, and the North has agreed to release him on the grounds of his ailing health. It is still not clear why exactly he crossed into North Korea.
President Carter was expected to spend one night in North Korea and return home with Mr Gomes today. The former president (85) is a relatively popular figure in the north.
In 1994 he visited the country during Bill Clinton’s presidency and met then leader Kim Il-sung, laying what many believe was the groundwork for a disarmament deal on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
The Korean peninsula remains technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Washington does not have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, and there are 28,500 troops stationed on the other side of the Demilitarised Zone in South Korea to protect the long-time ally, and much of the diplomatic contact comes through Sweden and, increasingly, China, which is North Korea’s last remaining meaningful ally.