Obama debriefs Clinton on his meeting with Kim Jong-il: White House

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday debriefed former President Bill Clinton on Clinton's recent trip to North Korea to win the release of two American journalists, the White House said.

"Former President Clinton described the process, including a meeting with Kim
Jong-il, that culminated in the North Korean leadership granting special amnesty
to the two journalists and permitting them to return to the United States,"
spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
Gibbs did not elaborate on the substance of Clinton's discussions with the North
Korean leader on a possible rapprochement between the sides after the North's
recent nuclear and missile tests invited international sanctions on the reclusive
communist state.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, however, said that "The briefing that my
husband and those who traveled with him have provided to us is extremely helpful
because it gives us a window into what's going on in North Korea."
She reiterated Washington's demand that North Korea return to six-party talks on
ending its nuclear programs, dismissing Pyongyang's call on Washington to engage
the North bilaterally instead of the six-party forum.
"Our policy remains the same. Our policy is consistent. We continue to offer to
the North Koreans the opportunity to have a dialogue within the six-party-talk
framework with the United States that we think could offer many benefits to the
people of North Korea," she told reporters in a joint press availability with her
Colombian counterpart. "But the choice is up the North Koreans. They know that we
are committed to the goal of full and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula."
Earlier in the day, Gibbs described the debrifing as "a crucial opportunity to
speak directly with and get the first-hand and direct impressions of former
President Clinton about what he heard and what he saw and where we go from here."
While in Pyongyang earlier this month, Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il for more than three hours to discuss the journalists' release and a
variety of other issues involving the two countries in a rare, lengthy public
appearance by the ailing communist leader.
In another conciliatory gesture, Kim Jong-il gave a rare audience Sunday to Hyun
Jung-eun, chairwoman of South Korea's Hyundai Group, which has invested heavily
in North Korea, to allow the resumption of inter-Korean tour projects and
operations at the joint industrial park in Kaesong, which borders South Korea.
It is the third meeting Kim has had with foreign dignitaries since last summer,
when he apparently suffered a stroke. Kim also met with a senior Chinese official
in Pyongyang late last year.
Since returning home earlier this month with the two journalists, Clinton gave
briefings to senior White House officials, but has spoken to Obama only briefly
over the phone.
Obama had expressed his hope to get more information from Clinton on Kim.
"I suspect that President Clinton will have some interesting observations from
his trip, and I will let him provide those to me," Obama said in an interview
with NBC earlier this month.
Secretary Clinton did not attend the briefing to be given by her husband due to a
prior appointment to meet with her Colombian counterpart, State Department
spokesman Ian Kelly said.
Cheryl Mills, the secretary's counselor and chief of staff, attended the
debriefing, Kelly said. "It's simply a matter of trying to juggle schedules. Ms.
Mills was the secretary's point person in dealing with the issue of Ms. Lee and
Ms. Ling and their detention in North Korea."
Laura Ling and Euna Lee of the San Francisco-based Internet outlet Current TV
were detained on the Chinese border in March for illegally entering the North
while on a reporting tour.
Analysts say the 67-year-old reclusive leader may aim to use the visits by
Clinton and the South Korean business leader as a turning point for a
breakthrough in the stalled talks over the North's nuclear ambitions. Months of
provocations by Pyongyang are seen as an attempt to facilitate an unprecedented
third generation power transition to Kim's son Jong-un, 26.
In responding to Kim Jong-il's conciliatory gesture, Philip Crowley, assistant
secretary of state for public affairs, said Monday, "One might infer that North
Korea is feeling some pressure, whether it's political pressure, economic
pressure or a combination of the two."
Crowley reiterated Washington's stance that it will continue sanctioning North
Korea until Pyongyang takes irreversible steps toward its denuclearization.
"These marginal steps in and of themselves are not enough," he said. "We continue
to work with others in the region to fully implement U.N. Security Council
resolutions and in fact to apply that kind of pressure, you know, to get North
Korea's attention."
North Korea has said it will boycott the six-party talks on ending its nuclear
ambitions due to the international sanctions and perceived U.S. hostility,
nevertheless demanding that Washington deal with Pyongyang bilaterally for a
breakthrough.
The U.S. wants the North to return to the six-party talks first and then have
face-to-face negotiations within that framework.
The six-party agreement signed in September 2005 between the two Koreas, the
U.S., China, Japan and Russia calls for North Korea's denuclearization in return
for massive economic aid, diplomatic recognition by Washington and Tokyo and a
permanent peace regime to replace an armistice that ended the Korean War.