AFP Reports: Former president Clinton arrived in North Korea on Tuesday on a surprise mission to free two jailed US journalists, in what was the highest-profile visit by an American to Pyongyang for nearly a decade.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested on March 17 while reporting on refugees fleeing the impoverished North. A court in June sentenced them to 12 years of "reform through labour" for illegal entry and other offences.
The harsh sentences further soured relations already strained by the North's atomic test in May -- its second in three years, its multiple missile tests, and its decision to quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
Clinton is following in the footsteps of another ex-president, Jimmy Carter, who went to Pyongyang in 1994.
That trip during Clinton's presidency was widely seen as averting a US attack on the North's nuclear plants. It led months later to a breakthrough accord, which fell apart during the administration of George W. Bush.
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