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US desists from loosening up on North Korea

* Freed American reporter concedes she entered N Korea ‘briefly’

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday 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 are 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 policy maker 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.

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. Meanwhile, North Korea expressed its willingness to talk about a South Korean worker being held in the communist nation, a news report said Friday after Pyongyang freed two American journalists following a trip by former President Bill Clinton.

Trespassing: Freed journalist, Laura Ling, told relatives she briefly crossed into North Korea, said her sister who gave the first account of conditions endured during their four-month detention. In her first interview since former president Bill Clinton returned to the United States with American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, Lisa Ling told CNN on Thursday that her sister planned to write an editorial to explain events which led to her and Lee’s capture by North Korean authorities.

“She wants to divulge exactly what happened,” Lisa Ling, herself a television personality, said of her 32-year-old sister Laura. “When they left US soil they never intended to cross into North Korea,” Ling said about the pair stepping from China into one of the world’s most secretive countries while researching a story on human trafficking. “She did say they touched North Korean territory very, very briefly,” Ling said. “She said it was maybe 30 seconds. And then, you know, everything just sort of got chaotic,” she added. agencies

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