Former US president Bill Clinton has secured the release of two female US journalists jailed in North Korea after a surprise mercy dash to meet veteran communist leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang.
North Korea said Clinton delivered a special message to Kim from US President Barack Obama during his historic trip, which followed acute tensions over the North's nuclear and missile tests, but the White House denied this.
The families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee said they were "overjoyed" at the news that Kim had agreed to pardon the TV reporters and commute their 12-year jail terms of hard labour slapped down in June.
Kim extended the pardon after Clinton "expressed words of sincere apology" for the journalists' "hostile acts", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
After Kim issued his pardon, Clinton "courteously conveyed a verbal message of US President Barack Obama expressing profound thanks for this and reflecting views on ways of improving the relations between the two countries".
KCNA said Clinton "and his party" had later flown out of Pyongyang but did not specify if he was accompanied by Ling, 32, and Lee, 36.
US and South Korean reports said the journalists were expected back in the United States on Wednesday, ending an ordeal that began with their arrests in March while they were reporting near North Korea's border with China.
"The measure taken to release the American journalists is a manifestation of the DPRK's (North Korea's) humanitarian and peace-loving policy," KCNA added.
It said the Pyongyang meetings, which included a dinner in honour of Clinton, "reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement" of "pending issues" dividing the United States and North Korea.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, asked earlier about the reported delivery of a message from Obama, said: "That's not true."
Refusing to comment on the visit, Gibbs added in a statement: "We do not want to jeopardise the success of former president Clinton's mission."
The US journalists work for California-based Current TV, co-founded by Clinton's vice president Al Gore. North Korea had accused them of spreading anti-regime propaganda.
Their families thanked both Clinton and Gore for working to secure the journalists' release.
"We must also thank all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal, it has meant the world to us. We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms," they said in a statement.
Earlier on Tuesday the North sent two senior officials -- and a schoolgirl with a floral bouquet -- to greet Clinton at Pyongyang's Sunan airport as he disembarked from his chartered plane.
Analysts said the warm reception indicated Pyongyang wanted better relations with Washington, which is pushing for strict enforcement of UN sanctions aimed at shutting down the North's nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea "was sending a signal that it was treating the former US leader with great hospitality and also that it was willing to have a political dialogue, including on nuclear disarmament", said Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.
The harsh sentences given in June soured relations already strained by the North's atomic test in May -- its second in three years -- and by its multiple missile tests and its decision to quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
But Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong Institute think-tank said the North was seeking a breakthrough in relations by allowing the former president's visit.
"It will also be used for domestic propaganda as it comes amid growing concerns about Kim's health," Cheong told AFP.
US and South Korean officials say the North's recent hardline behaviour is aimed at shoring up the authority of Kim, 67, while he puts in place a succession plan involving his youngest son.
Kim is reported to be in ill health after a stroke last year.
Bill Clinton, who is married to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sent his own secretary of state Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang in 2000, during a short-lived thaw in US-North Korea relations.
AFP
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