White House depicts ex-President Clinton's N. Korean visit as private

(ATTN: ADDS State Dept. spokesman's remarks in paras 5-6)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- The White House depicted former President Bill
Clinton's visit to Pyongyang to free two American journalists as "solely private"
Tuesday, denying reports that Clinton conveyed a verbal message from President
Obama to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

"While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on
the ground, we will have no comment," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
said in a two-sentence statement. "We do not want to jeopardize the success of
former President Clinton's mission."
Gibbs, meanwhile, denied a report from North Korea's official Korean Central News
Agency that Clinton "courteously conveyed a verbal message of U.S. President
Barack Obama to Kim Jong-il," saying, "That's not true."
Clinton arrived in Pyongyang earlier in the day and attended a dinner hosted by
Kim, the KCNA reported, saying the North Korean leader "welcomed Clinton's visit
to the DPRK and had an exhaustive conversation with him." DPRK stands for the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood would not respond to questions on
Clinton's trip.
"The White House statement spoke for itself. And at this point, I don't have
anything further on it," Wood said in the daily news briefing. "So let me just
leave it at that."
Clinton's North Korean trip comes amid escalating tensions on the Korean
Peninsula. Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests in recent months drew a U.N.
Security Council resolution calling for an arms embargo, financial sanctions and
an interdiction of North Korean cargo on the high seas.
North Korea reacted angrily by threatening to abandon the six-party talks on
ending its nuclear ambitions and to bolster its nuclear arsenal. Pyongyang
demands bilateral engagement with Washington to resolve the standoff.
Washington, however, has maintained that any dialogue should be held within the
six-party framework, fearing any bilateral dealings will undermine the ongoing
multilateral efforts for the North's denuclearization.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton's wife, also said recently
the U.S. will not accept "half measures" nor reward provocations, warning North
Korea "will face international isolation and the unrelenting pressure of global
sanctions" until it agrees to denuclearization.
The lukewarm response from the White House separating itself from Bill Clinton's
North Korean trip comes in this context.
There is no doubt that Clinton's visit will result in the release of Laura Ling
and Euna Lee of San Francisco-based Internet outlet Current TV, who were arrested
in March on the China-North Korea border while reporting on refugees fleeing the
isolated state. They were sentenced in June to 12 years in a labor camp for an
unspecified "grave crime" and illegal border crossing.
Concerns, however, are mounting over a chasm in the international unity to
pressure North Korea into returning to the six-party talks for its eventual
denuclearization.
"While gaining the freedom of the two journalists would be a welcome development,
Clinton's mission risks undermining ongoing international efforts to pressure
North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons," said Bruce Klingner, senior fellow
at the Heritage Foundation. "The Obama administration should have, instead,
insisted on resolving the issue through existing diplomatic channels, including
special envoy Ambassador Stephen Bosworth."
The scholar also expressed worries about the response from China, North Korea's
staunchest communist ally, which has reluctantly agreed to international
sanctions on North Korea.
"Even if Clinton focuses solely on gaining the release of the journalists, China
and Russia would seize upon any perceived diplomatic breakthrough with North
Korea as justification for rescinding sanctions imposed against Pyongyang for
repeatedly violating U.N. resolutions," he said.
North Korea earlier this year rejected Washington's proposal to send Bosworth,
U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, to Pyongyang to discuss the
stalled six-party talks, amid speculation Pyongyang wants to have a higher-level
figure capable of discussing a package deal.
In calling for the early release of the two journalists, Secretary Clinton has
warned the North not to link their detention to the crisis created by North
Korea's second nuclear test in May. She said the issue "should be viewed as a
humanitarian matter."
Klingner urged the Obama administration to stick to that principle.
"The Obama administration must ensure former President Clinton remains
constrained by narrowly defined negotiating parameters and insist that the issues
of the two U.S. journalists and North Korean compliance with U.N. resolutions be
seen as clearly separate issues," he said. "Abandoning these punitive measures
prior to North Korea taking meaningful steps to come into compliance with U.N.
resolutions would mark another dangerous weakening of international resolve to
secure complete North Korean denuclearization."
Nonetheless, Kim's hosting of Bill Clinton at a dinner party leaves open the
possibility of the influential former U.S. president may seek a bigger role than
the release of the journalists.
"Clinton may be tempted to freelance U.S. diplomacy, negotiating his own vision
of a nuclear agreement with North Korea, as former President Jimmy Carter
disastrously did in 1994," Klingner said.
Under the Clinton administration, high-level exchanges took place between North
Korea and the U.S. to address concerns over the North's nuclear and ballistic
missile capabilities, with then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and North
Korean Marshal Jo Myong-rok visiting each other's capitals.
In his waning months in 2000, Clinton agreed to visit Pyongyang, but did not keep
his promise, citing a lack of time. He recently expressed regret that he was not
able to visit Pyongyang at that time.
Talk also abounds about the possibility that Bill Clinton may follow the path of
Carter, who visited Pyongyang to broker a nuclear deal between the U.S. and North
Korea and even an inter-Korean summit in 1994, at the height of the first North
Korean nuclear crisis.
It might be in the interest of North Korea, allegedly on its way to transfer
power to Kim Jong-un, the ailing North Korean leader's youngest son, to discuss a
package deal with Clinton to help consolidate the power of the 26-year-old heir.
Secretary Clinton recently said that "full normalization of relations, a
permanent peace regime, and significant energy and economic assistance are all
possible in the context of full and verifiable denuclearization." But she said
the U.S. will not accept "half measures" nor reward provocations, warning North
Korea "will face international isolation and the unrelenting pressure of global
sanctions" until it agrees to denuclearization.
Whether or not Bill Clinton's visit produces a breakthrough, the visit appears to
be a diplomatic gain for the reclusive communist state.
"The North Korean side will be very pleased that their American hostage gambit
has lured former President Clinton to the DPRK," said Nicholas N. Eberstadt,
Henry Wendt Scholar in political economy at the American Economic Institute.
"After eight years of dealing with his administration, Pyongyang will be
confident they know how to play him," he said. "The North Korean side never gives
anything away for free. If the Clinton visit succeeds in wresting loose the two
hostage U.S. journalists, it will be in exchange, in Pyongyang's estimate, for
valuable American concessions on the nuclear question or the U.S.-South Korean
alliance."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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