U.S. considers envoy to help free reporters

updated 7:30 p.m. ET June 8, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea - The sentencing of two American journalists to 12 years' hard labor in North Korea on Monday sets the stage for possible negotiations with the reclusive nation for their release — perhaps involving an envoy from the United States.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who helped win the release of Americans from North Korea in the 1990s, said he was "ready to do anything" the Obama administration asked. Another possible negotiator, if the U.S. government approved, is former Vice President Al Gore, who founded the TV venture that both reporters work for.

A senior Obama administration official said Richardson and Gore had been in contact with the White House and State Department about potential next steps, including possibly sending an envoy to try to negotiate the release of Euna Lee, 26, and Laura Ling, 32, both of whom work for Gore's Current TV.

But the official stressed that no decisions had been made on how to proceed and said neither Gore nor Richardson had been asked to go. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the diplomatic sensitivity of the situation.

Asked Monday if the United States will send an envoy to the North, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Obama administration is "pursuing every possible approach that we can consider in order to persuade the North Koreans to release them and send these young women home."

She stressed that the reporters' case and Washington's efforts to punish North Korea for its recent nuclear test are "entirely separate matters."

'Humanitarian matter'
"We think the imprisonment, trial and sentencing of Laura and Euna should be viewed as a humanitarian matter," Clinton said. "We hope that the North Koreans will grant clemency and deport them."

The isolated North is probably less interested in having the women sent to its gulag, where poorly fed inmates often do backbreaking work in factories, coal mines and rice paddies.

Instead, Pyongyang will likely try to use them as bargaining chips in an increasingly tense standoff with the U.S. over the North's recent nuclear and missile tests.

President Barack Obama "is deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release," said deputy White House spokesman William Burton.

Richardson, who also traveled to North Korea in 2007 to bring back the remains of Americans killed in the Korean War, said the journalists were part of a "high-stakes poker game" North Korea is playing. Now that the legal process has been completed, he said he thinks talks for their release can begin, with some kind of a political pardon as a goal.

"In previous instances where I was involved in negotiating, you could not get this started until the legal process had ended," he said on NBC's "Today" show.

In touch with Richardson
Richardson said officials of the Obama administration had been in contact with him for his thoughts on how to proceed. Asked by CNN if he would be willing to go to Pyongyang on behalf of the Obama administration, Richardson replied: "If they asked for my help, of course, I'd be ready to do anything. But this is something that is very sensitive at this stage."

He said the sentence was harsher than expected but added that the fact that espionage was not mentioned was a good sign.

He said North Korea so far has not, at least publicly, tried to tie this incident to differences with Washington over its nuclear program and the recent series of missile tests that it has conducted. He also said he has not seen particularly bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang on the issue of the two women.

For several days, rumors have been swirling that Gore would fly to North Korea to negotiate the reporters' release. But Gore has not commented on a possible trip and has stayed silent about the case in general.

Victor Cha, who served as a senior Asia adviser on former President George W. Bush's National Security Council, said a high-level envoy, such as Gore, should be sent to negotiate the release of the Americans.

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