Ex-U.S. President Clinton to visit N. Korea for detained journalists: report

SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was to visit North
Korea later Tuesday to win the release of two detained American journalists, a
South Korean daily reported.
The Chosun Ilbo, citing an unidentified diplomatic source, reported that Clinton,
husband of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was on his way to Pyongyang on a
chartered plane.
The newspaper, however, did not give other details including the exact time of
his arrival, only saying the U.S. government will soon make an announcement.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee of the San Francisco-based media group Current TV,
co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, were arrested in mid-March near
the China-North Korea border while reporting on refugees fleeing the impoverished
North.
They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by the North on charges of illegal
entry and "hostile acts."
lcd@yna.co.kr
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