Two American journalists freed by North Korea after months of detention returned to the United States today accompanied by former president Bill Clinton.
Mr Clinton secured the release of Laura Ling (32), and Euna Lee (36) in a meeting with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il.
The two reporters, who work for Current TV, a American cable television venture co-founded by Mr Clinton's former vice president Al Gore, arrived with Mr Clinton at Burbank airport near Los Angeles aboard a private jet from North Korea.
They were arrested in March for illegally crossing into the North from China and had been reporting on the trafficking of women. They were both sentenced to 12 years hard labour in June.
Mr Ling raised her arms in the air as the two women descended from the plane for a tearful reunion with their families inside the airport hangar. Mr Clinton was received with a round of applause and an embrace from Mr Gore.
A White House spokesman said the Obama administration is "enormously pleased" at the safe return of two journalists.
US officials said North Korea was not promised any rewards for their release and there was no link to nuclear non-proliferation talks.
Mr Clinton's wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, told reporters in Nairobi she was happy and relieved. She added that there was no connection between the effort to free the two journalists and the nuclear issue.
"We have always considered that a totally separate issue from our efforts to re-engage the North Koreans and have them return to the six-party talks and work for a commitment for the full, verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," she said. "The future of our relationships with the North Koreans is really up to them. They have a choice.”
A US official said the former president talked to North Korea's leadership about the "positive things that could flow" from freeing the two women, who had been held since March.
The Obama administration official gave no details, but some analysts have speculated that Mr Clinton's visit and discussions with Mr Kim Jong-il could open the way to direct nuclear disarmament talks.
Washington faces a tricky task of trying to convince North Korea to give up plans of becoming a nuclear weapons power without being seen to reward it for repeated military acts or ignoring the demands of others in the region, analysts said.
“President Clinton had made clear that this was a purely private humanitarian mission," the US official told reporters in Washington after Mr Kim granted the journalists a pardon.
North Korea had agreed in advance that Mr Clinton's trip would not be linked to the nuclear issue, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.