Leader Invites Clinton to Visit as U.S. Mediator

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has invited former President Bill Clinton to visit Pyongyang to play a mediating role and to cool rhetoric from Washington, a North Korean official said.

The official declined to specify whether Kim issued the invitation before or after President Bush's January speech in which he branded North Korea as part of an "axis of evil."

"The plan of the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il is that Mr. Clinton should end the rhetoric," the official said.

In New York, Clinton spokeswoman Julia Payne said the former president had not received any such invitation.