North Korea: 2 U.S. journalists pardoned

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il issued a "special pardon" for two jailed American journalists and ordered their release at former U.S. President Bill Clinton's request, North Korean media reported Wednesday.

The move to free reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee reflected North Korea's "humanitarian and peaceloving policy," the Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang early Wednesday.

It was unclear when Clinton and the women would leave the country. The report said the Clinton visit was taking place Tuesday and Wednesday.

Clinton landed in the North Korean capital on Tuesday on a private mission to negotiate the freedom of the two women working for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV media venture.

During his visit, he held rare talks with Kim — the reclusive North Korean leader's first meeting with a prominent Western figure since reportedly suffering a stroke a year ago.

Lee, 36, and Ling, 32, were arrested in March after crossing into North Korea from China, where they had been reporting on North Korean defectors. They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and engaging in "hostile acts."

Washington had pushed for their release, with Clinton's wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, requesting last month that they be granted amnesty. She described the women as remorseful, and expressed their families' anguish.

Lee, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, is married and has a 4-year-old daughter in Los Angeles; a native Californian, Ling is the married younger sister of TV journalist Lisa Ling.

State media said Clinton offered Kim "words of sincere apology" for the women's transgressions, and "courteously" conveyed President Barack Obama's gratitude for North Korea's leniency, KCNA said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, however, denied Clinton went with a message from Obama. "That's not true," he told reporters in Washington.

Clinton's landmark visit, which was not announced in advance by North Korea or the U.S., comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, foes during the Korean War of the 1950s, over the regime's nuclear program.

North Korea in recent months has conducted a nuclear test and test-fired an array of ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, with Washington leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its defiance.