WASHINGTON — The negotiations that led to former President Clinton's secret mission to North Korea began almost as soon as two U.S. journalists were seized by the isolated Stalinist state, and were spurred on by the Obama administration's hope that they might lead to a resumption of disarmament talks, according to people close to the process.
The narrow goal was a specific deal: If the United States showed respect to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il by dispatching an emissary of significant stature to Pyongyang, the regime would release journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were arrested along the border with China on March 17. The choice of Clinton, one of many high-profile public figures who volunteered for the assignment, met that test.
But many in the administration argued that providing North Korea with a face-saving resolution on the fate of the journalists could open the way to a broader diplomatic goal: the resumption of talks to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, which have been gridlocked.
Worried that the North Koreans would use Clinton's trip to win concessions on nuclear issues, the administration was careful to publicly characterize the mission as a private initiative with simple humanitarian aims. Clinton arrived in the North Korean capital in a private jet.
But behind the scenes, White House officials kept tight control of negotiations, said people close to the process.
"This has been an orchestrated diplomatic process, carefully calibrated in both capitals," said a person who has been close to the exchanges since they began. He asked for anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.
The ostensible aim of the mission was a success. The North Koreans issued a "special pardon" to Ling and Lee, and the pair left Pyongyang aboard Clinton's plane to return to Los Angeles.
On Tuesday, a senior official outlined the administration's nearly five-month effort to free the women, which involved a number of contacts with North Korean officials and almost daily contacts with the families of the journalists.
The U.S. regularly entreated the North Koreans, through Swedish intermediaries in Pyongyang, to free the women and to improve their treatment while they were imprisoned, the official said.
