Freed Journos: "Nightmare of Our Lives" Over
Home with families after Bill Clinton wins pardons from North Korea
Updated 1:34 PM PDT, Wed, Aug 5, 2009
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It's home, sweet home for two American journalists freed by North Korea after a dramatic diplomatic mission by Bill Clinton.
After being held for five months and sentenced to 12 years' hard labor, Laura Ling and Euna Lee landed in Southern California and had a joyful reunion with their families Wednesday morning in a Burbank hanger. The pair, reporters for Al Gore's Current TV, were freed by the rogue regime after Clinton met face-to-face with communist dictator Kim Jong Il, convincing the wacky strongman to grant them a special pardon.
Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, were arrested after they strayed into North Korea while working on a story. At a news conference at the airport, Clinton and the reporters were welcomed by Gore and other officials and Ling told of her whirlwind rescue.
"Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea," Ling said. "We feared at any moment we could have been sent to a hard labor camp, and then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting. We were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton. We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end."
First Published: Aug 3, 2009 7:57 PM PDT
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