Clinton Succeeds! Kim Jong Il Issues Pardons For Journalists

Update: Bill Clinton has left North Korea. But are the journalists with him? See the families' statement here.

I just heard the news on NPR--Kim Jong Il issues a special pardon. More to come.
Yay for Bill Clinton! Nice job Hillary. Good job Obama administration. Kudos the whole way around.

There had been some question as to whether Obama signed off on Bill Clinton's travel to North Korea. But of course. David Axelrod confirmed that the White House had signed off on the trip. Reports say that the journalists' release was prearranged.
The White House was trying to keep the humanitarian aspect--bringing Euna Lee and Laura Ling back home--separate from the diplomatic efforts of resuming six party negotiations on North Korea's nuclear programs (wapo).

The former president and his party were greeted early Tuesday at an airport in Pyongyang, the capital, by Yang Hyong Sop, vice president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's official news agency said. Kim Kye Gwan is the chief nuclear negotiator for North Korea, raising questions about whether Pyongyang hoped to use the visit to make progress on the impasse over its nuclear weapons.

Photos and televised footage showed Clinton, who is deeply respected in North Korea, smiling and chatting with a young girl who presented him with a large bouquet of flowers.
....
Clinton was accompanied on the trip by John Podesta, who was his White House chief of staff, served as Obama's transition chief and is president of the Center for American Progress. Also seen in photos released by the Korean media were David Straub, former head of the Korea desk at the State Department, who is now at Stanford University; longtime Clinton aide Douglas J. Band; and Justin Cooper, who has worked with the William J. Clinton Foundation. In a sign of the significance attached to the visit in North Korea, the English-language version of the Korean Central News Agency Web site declared, "BILL CLINTON ARRIVES HERE," in extra-large type.

A spokeswoman for the Center for American Progress referred questions about who funded the trip to the State Department. News of Podesta's role came as a surprise to staffers at the center. He was believed to be on vacation in Truckee, Calif.
WaPo

Former U.S ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton argued against Clinton's trip, saying it gives North Korea an upper hand.