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| Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller, American Detainees, Released by North Korea | Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller, American Detainees, Released by North Korea |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| WASHINGTON — North Korea has released two Americans who have been held in the country for extended periods, after the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., flew to the country on a secret mission and secured their freedom. | |
| In a terse statement issued Saturday by Mr. Clapper’s office, the Americans — Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller — were described as “on their way home, accompanied by D.N.I. Clapper.” Officials said they were likely to land on the West Coast, where Mr. Bae and Mr. Miller both live, some time on Saturday night. | |
| It was an unusual role for Mr. Clapper, the nation’s most senior intelligence official, whose job is to coordinate policy and operations among the nation’s 16 spy agencies. Gruff and blunt-speaking, the retired general is an unlikely diplomat but, in the words of one American official, “perfect for the North Koreans.” | |
| Mr. Bae, 46, had been held for two years on charges of operating with an evangelical organization, Youth with a Mission, and preaching against the North Korean government. North Korea charged he had been planning a “religious coup d’état,” and after a brief trial he was sentenced to hard labor on a farm. Mr. Miller, 25, entered North Korea seven months ago and reportedly tore up his visa, and by some reports sought asylum. He was charged with unruly behavior. | |
| Together with the release last month of Jeffrey E. Fowle, who had been held for six months, the decision to let the two Americans go is the latest evidence that Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s unpredictable young leader, is attempting new approaches to the Obama administration. It was not clear whether Mr. Clapper traveled with a letter from President Obama — which would be a usual approach — but a senior administration official said he “was there to listen,” and to “reiterate our views.” | |
| Mr. Obama said Saturday that “we’re very grateful for their safe return” and he praised Mr. Clapper for successfully completing what he called “a challenging mission.” | |
| It was also not clear whether Mr. Clapper had spoken directly with Mr. Kim, who had disappeared from public view earlier this summer with what now appears to have been a painful leg ailment, or whether he had seen other North Korean leaders. | |
| Mr. Clapper rarely announces his schedule and can travel with little notice. But earlier this week he canceled, at the last moment, a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, with no explanation. He left shortly after that on his trip to the North. Sending high-level emissaries to the North is a long tradition; in Mr. Obama’s first term, former President Bill Clinton went to secure the release of some young American women who had been seized on a journalistic trip along the Chinese border with the North. But Mr. Clinton’s trip led to no fundamental change in relations, which have been in a deep freeze since the North conducted a nuclear weapon test just months into Mr. Obama’s presidency in 2009. The test, one of Mr. Obama’s aides said at the time, made “us all North Korea hawks,” and Mr. Obama has not attempted the kind of broad engagement with North Korea that he has pursued so vigorously with Iran. | |
| But with the Iran nuclear negotiations approaching a major deadline in two weeks, and the possibility of a new opening of dialogue with North Korea, Mr. Obama has a chance, in the last two years of his presidency, to make some headway with two countries that have posed both nuclear and human rights challenges to the United States and its allies. | |
| In both cases of Mr. Bae and Mr. Miller, the North had made the most of their capture. Mr. Bae received a sentence of 15 years and the North alleged that he had attempted to build an underground proselytizing network. | |
| However far-fetched it may have seemed that a single American could overthrow a North Korean family that has had absolute control of the country since just after World War II, the trial was used as part of the narrative that the country is constantly a target of American plotters. That is also the justification offered by the North for its nuclear program. | |
| Mr. Miller, of Bakersfield, Calif., seemed a bit lost in the interviews he was allowed to conduct. He went through a brief trial earlier this fall; photos released by the North showed him with eyes downcast, and flanked by uniformed security officials. He was accused of entering North Korea with the “ambition” to deliberately violate North Korean law so he could experience life in a North Korean prison and later become a firsthand witness about the human rights conditions in the North, The Associated Press and The Choson Sinbo, a South Korean paper, reported at the time of the trial. | |
| That may have touched a nerve. In recent weeks the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations met with a group of Americans, including two reporters, to argue that a U.N. report documenting the North’s extensive prison camp system was based on fabrications. | |
| That report described “widespread, systematic and gross” violations, including enslavement, torture, rape and executions in the North’s prison camps. | |
| The ambassador seemed concerned that Mr. Kim could face charges at the International Criminal Court for human rights violations, and he said the North only had “ordinary prisons,” like those in the United States. |