Diplomatic breakthrough?

Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 | 2:08 a.m.

Bill Clinton’s 20 hours in North Korea meant everything in the world to journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. When the former president’s return flight landed Wednesday morning near Los Angeles, the sight of the freed Americans rushing into the arms of their family members was the picture, on a personal level, of a happy ending.

On a national level, the scene was also a symbol of a successful diplomatic mission, and perhaps more.

Early analyses of Clinton’s trip, and of the back-channel negotiations by the Obama administration that preceded it, suggest that an opening, however narrow, might have been created for talks between the United States and North Korea.

This would be important because North Korea has not been open about its nuclear program and has been testing and exporting ballistic missiles, issues that have created serious tensions between North Korea and many other nations, including China, Japan and the United States.

Tension in this country only increased when, in March, the two journalists were detained after crossing into North Korea while researching human trafficking. In June the communist government sentenced them to 12 years of hard labor.

Because North Korea and the United States have not had formal diplomatic relations since late in Clinton’s administration, fears arose that Ling and Lee might end up in one of the gulags North Korea has set up to house political prisoners. Reports from ex-prisoners and guards, as disclosed last month by The Washington Post, portray the gulags as death camps.

High-level negotiations that took place behind the scenes between the United States and North Korea spared the two from that fate.

Some analysts are saying that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, was willing to negotiate because, despite the closed society he rules, deep down he wants recognition from the United States.

Why? For domestic propaganda reasons? Or as a first step in reducing his country’s isolation? No one knows, but the possibility of more diplomacy with North Korea is intriguing.