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The final day of President Obama's Asia trip turned into a once in a lifetime experience for a small group of reporters and White House staffers who were taken on a tour of the DMZ, the demilitarized zone between South Korea and its mysterious neighbor to the north, North Korea.

The ride out of Seoul, the South Korean Capital of 12 million people, took about an hour. As we drove along the Han River, we noticed South Korean guard posts every few hundred feet and barbed wire rolling down the banks.

It was an eerie feeling approaching the DMZ as we came up a few checkpoints with anti-vehicle spikes and roadblocks making for delicate driving. Seeing a U.S. soldier salute our van as we drove through made us feel that we had arrived at Camp Bonifas, the United Nations Joint Security Area that comprises the border and is run by the U.S.

Once we got through the first gate, a public affairs officer and a security officer got on board and gave us some basic ground rules, like where we could and could not take pictures. We were all given purple "press" armbands to wear, so we were seen as noncombatants. Our security officer was wearing a yellow one, meaning that he was armed.

We drove past the first few gates and were told not to take any pictures for a while. We passed through security areas, an anti-tank wall and minefield and drove through rice fields before arriving at a large, modern looking, grey stone and glass building. We entered the building and went up an escalator and out another door. We were instructed to stand outside, atop a small set of stairs.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** Senate health care bill pleases most Democrats...

** President Obama gives a stern message to North Korea and Iran...

** Sarah Palin hits the road...

HEALTH CARE: "Senate majority leader Harry Reid unveiled his long-awaited version of a sweeping health care bill last night, setting the stage for a tense Senate showdown pitting Republicans against a fragile and fractured Democratic majority," report the Boston Globe's Lisa Wangsness and Susan Milligan.

"The proposal would expand coverage to most Americans and is predicted to cut the deficit by $127 billion over 10 years, a benefit Senate leaders hoped would help it attract fiscally conservative moderates who will decide the bill’s fate. It also includes a so-called public option, a government-backed insurance plan in states that want one, a concession to liberals.

"With President Obama calling for a bill to be sent to his desk by the end of the year, Reid is hoping to bring the historic health care package up for a test vote on Saturday.”

"Sixty votes are needed to begin debate on the measure, and Senate leaders said they're confident they'll get the votes to proceed after talking with three wavering moderates, Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Nebraska's Ben Nelson," adds McClatchy Newspapers' David Lightman.

"Nelson said that while he remained undecided, the possible Saturday vote shouldn't be seen as a judgment on the bill's substance. 'It is a motion to start debate on a bill and to try to improve it,' he said.

Other moderates were also cautious. 'We'll wait and see,' Lincoln said. Added Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., 'I'm going to reserve judgment until I've had a chance to read it, but the numbers on deficit reduction are encouraging.'

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Jack Pritchard, a former high-level envoy to North Korea and president of the Korean Economic Institute, said on "Washington Unplugged" Wednesday that there "has been a lot of [behind the scenes] activity" between the U.S. and North Korean governments since two American journalists were detained by North Korea.

"The North Koreans have a small mission in New York, about eight or nine people. One of those individuals, at a minister level, his job is solely to maintain contact with the United States," Pritchard said. "There is an open channel of communications there that's been open since day one."

He said that "instructions" have been channeled from Kim Jung Il to New York to Washington, DC, a process that resulted in former President Bill Clinton's mission to negotiate the women's pardon. Additionally, Pritchard said that North Korean officials pressured the journalists to tell their families that it would take Mr. Clinton or another high level envoy to make the deal.

Pritchard also said that Swedish ambassador Mats Foyer was influential in the months leading up to the release, and that Foyer visited the journalists a few times.

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President Obama said the return of Euna Lee and Laura Ling to the U.S. is a "source of happiness, not only for the families, but for the entire country."

Mr. Obama spoke on the White House lawn soon after a welcome home ceremony for Lee and Ling at an airport hanger in Burbank, Calif., on Wednesday morning. The two journalists were released after months in a North Korean prison following a high-profile mission on the part of former President Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton traveled to North Korea and met with leader Kim Jong Il and other officials.

In his remarks, Mr. Obama thanked Mr. Clinton as well as former Vice President Al Gore for their "extraordinary work." The two detained journalists worked for Gore's Current TV.

"I think that not only is this White House, obviously, extraordinarily happy, but all Americans should be grateful to both former President Clinton and Vice President Gore for their extraordinary work," Mr. Obama said.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

**Bill Clinton returns with freed journalists...

**President Obama focuses on the economy today...

**'Cash for Clunkers' to live - for now...

**Health care latest...

**Sotomayor debate continues in Senate...

BILL CLINTON & N. KOREA: The Comeback Kid is back.

Former President Bill Clinton is back from North Korea with the two freed U.S. journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling. And he's back on the national stage, returning there not because of his wife or some controversy he's been involved with, but because of his diplomacy skills.

"Mr. Clinton's mission to Pyongyang was the most visible by an American in nearly a decade," write the New York Times' Mark Landler and Peter Baker. "It came at a time when the United States' relationship with North Korea had become especially chilled, after North Korea's test of its second nuclear device in May and a series of missile launchings.

"It ended a harrowing ordeal for the two women, who were stopped on March 17 by soldiers near North Korea's border with China while researching a report about women and human trafficking. They faced years of imprisonment in the gulaglike confines of a North Korean prison camp.

"And it catapulted Mr. Clinton back on to the global stage, on behalf of a president who defeated his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a bitter primary campaign last year, and who later asked her to be his secretary of state."

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

**Bill Clinton heads to North Korea to negotiate release of U.S. journalists..

**Protests heat up on health care...

**Obama closes door on middle-class tax hike...

**Senate mulls future of 'Cash for Clunkers'...

**Sotomayor debate begins in Senate...

BILL CLINTON TO N. KOREA: "Former President Bill Clinton arrived in North Korea Tuesday, state media reported, in an effort to gain the release of two American journalists who were arrested in March and have been in the North's custody ever since," reports McClatchy Newspapers' Warren P. Strobel. "The Clinton mission was earlier reported by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, and an Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the situation's sensitivity, said that sending the former U.S. president as an envoy was discussed within the Obama administration last week.

"Yonhap reported that Clinton was en route to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, where he'd try to secure the release of the two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee…

"The Obama administration has had back-channel talks with North Korea for several weeks over sending an envoy to resolve the situation, according to U.S. officials."

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said this morning in a written statement: "While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment. We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton's mission."

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"The stakes are high, and the world is watching" President Obama's trip to Russia next week, an expert on Russian relations told CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr today on Washington Unplugged.

The president travels to Russia on July 6 for a summit meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

"It's a very big test," said Heather Conley, a senior fellow for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "This is where we're going to have to cut through some of the rhetoric and see how much President Obama can get done with his Russian counterparts."

It will be critical to see, Conley said, what the president is willing to compromise on in his pursuit of a new nuclear arms pact to replace START, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Russia is likely to see concessions from the United States on that and other issues, such as a U.S. missile shield in Europe and the expansion of NATO.

A White House official this week said Mr. Obama would stand his ground on those issues, adding that "we don't need the Russians."

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The United Nations Security Council's condemnation of North Korea's nuclear program is "a half-measure, it's inadequate," Senator John McCain said on Face the Nation Sunday.

When asked what the U.S.S John McCain should do if not given permission to board and inspect a North Korean ship carrying suspicious — potentially nuclear — cargo, the Arizona Republican said, "That's the $64 question."

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President Obama on Tuesday said the United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state, in spite of its ballistic missile test in April and its recent nuclear test.

"We have continually insisted that North Korea de-nuclearize," Mr. Obama said, standing next to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in the White House Rose Garden. "We have not come to a conclusion that North Korea will or should be a nuclear power. Given the belligerent way in which they are constantly threatening their neighbors, I don't think there is any question that it would be a destabilizing situation that would be a profound threat."

Mr. Obama said his administration welcomes the country's economic development but that belligerent, provocative behavior that threatens the country's neighbors will be met with serious enforcement of sanctions that are in place.

"They have not shown any restraint in terms of exporting weapons, not only to state actors but to nonstate actors," he said. "There is a path for North Korea to take in which they are joining the world community, becoming integrated into the world economy...In order to take that path, North Korea has to make a decision and understand prestige and security and prosperity are not going to come through the path of engaging neighbors and threatening violations of international law."

The president emphasized that along with the United States and the Republic of Korea, Russia, China and Japan have also made it clear North Korea will not find security or respect through threats or weapons.

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In case you missed it, here's a summary how President Obama spent his busy weekend in Germany, France and the Czech Republic.

Saturday morning the president began a NATO summit by meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other NATO leaders to walk across a pedestrian bridge connecting France and Germany. In a symbolic gesture, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met the group midway across the bridge for a tribute to fallen NATO personnel.

Following the North Atlantic Council Summit meeting in Strasbourg, Mr. Obama praised NATO for cooperation over Afghanistan.

"These commitments of troops, trainers, and civilians represent a strong down payment on the future of our mission in Afghanistan and on the future of NATO," Mr. Obama said in a press conference . "These are the new missions that NATO must take on in the 21st century and these are the new capabilities that we need to succeed. NATO was founded upon mutual responsibility to our common security. Today I'm confident that we took a substantial step forward in renewing our alliance to meet the challenges of our time."

Later Saturday afternoon, Mr. Obama held a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis. Following the meeting he said: “not only is the United States inspired by Greece, not only were our founding fathers inspired by the values of ancient Greece, but that Greek independence was also inspired by the United States. It gives you a sense of the fact that we have shared values, a shared belief in democracy and liberty; that we have struggled and fought for that democracy and liberty as fellow members of NATO. Now in the 21st century, we continue to fight on behalf of those issues shoulder to shoulder.”

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