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White House - Source: ONE News -
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The United States held back from making conciliatory gestures to
North Korea after
Bill Clinton's visit there
, and Clinton said
he wanted to avoid saying anything publicly that might tip the
balance.
"I'm not a policymaker anymore," Clinton said in New York.
The message from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs a day after
Clinton
returned from retrieving
two
American journalists held by North Korea was one of thanks to
Clinton and no thanks to Pyongyang.
In words that may well serve to reassure US allies Japan and South
Korea, Gibbs said US policy had not changed as a result of
Clinton's visit.
He said the United States wanted to enforce UN resolutions to
ensure North Korean weapons of mass destruction were not spread - a
familiar stance.
Clinton, in his first public comments since returning on Wednesday
with journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, said he was profoundly
honoured to be a part of the mission.
He chose his words carefully.
"I wanted those young women to be able to come home and I wanted
our two countries to have the ability to decide where to go from
here," he said.
"But anything I say beyond that could inadvertently affect the
decisions and moves either here or in North Korea and I have no
business doing that. I'm not a policymaker anymore," Clinton said
at the headquarters of the Clinton Foundation.
Clinton had an hour and 15 minutes of talks with North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il and then a two-hour dinner with him. He was the
highest-level American to meet Kim in almost a decade.
Ling's sister, Lisa Ling, said that Laura told her that she and Lee
stepped briefly onto North Korean territory before their arrest in
March.
"When they left US soil, they never intended to cross into North
Korea," Lisa Ling told CNN.
"(Laura) said that it was maybe 30 seconds and then everything
just sort of got chaotic."
The pair were arrested on the North Korea-China border while
reporting on the trafficking of women and accused of illegal entry
and sentenced to 12 years of hard labour.
Tip the balance
US officials are anxious to get Clinton's impressions of the ailing
Kim, whose government tested a nuclear device in May and since then
has launched a series of missiles.
The North Korean news agency KCNA said afterward that Clinton had
candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the
DPRK (North Korea) and the US in a sincere atmosphere and reached a
consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of
them.
Obama's national security adviser, General Jim Jones, said he hoped
Clinton's visit to North Korea would ultimately lead to
progress.
Asked if he thought the visit would change US-North Korean
relations, Jones answered: "No, I don't think so. I think that this
was a humanitarian mission."
"We certainly hope it will lead to good things," he added. But he
said: "Who knows where the future will lead? ... We're delighted
that it worked out this way, but I wouldn't draw any other
conclusions beyond the fact."
Clinton has begun briefing White House and State Department
officials about his trip and a meeting with President Barack Obama
is expected soon, although not before Obama travels to Mexico on
Sunday for talks on Monday with the leaders of Mexico and
Canada.
Clinton said he had an obligation to report to my government and
otherwise say nothing that would in any way tip the balance of any
kind of decisions that may or may not be made.
He said he had a brief conversation with Obama and a longer one
with his wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton said that perhaps Bill Clinton's mission might
prompt North Korea to improve its dialogue with the United
States.
"What we're hoping is that maybe, without it being part of the
mission in a way, the fact this was done will perhaps lead the
North Koreans to recognize they can have a positive relationship
with us," she said in a CNN interview.
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