Clinton Does What Obama Could Not
In June 1994, then-President Clinton used former President Jimmy Carter to get North Korea to agree to a freeze on its nuclear program.
A few months later, Mr. Carter helped the Clinton White House oust a junta in Haiti and restore the democratically-elected president to power.
Now, nearly a decade after leaving office, Bill Clinton could do what President Obama could not: travel to the hostile environs of North Korea and show respect to a megalomaniacal dictator in return for the release of two American journalists imprisoned there.
Photo Essay: Bill Clinton in Korea
The White House insists that Mr. Clinton's mission was a private one and that he carried no official imprimatur or message from Mr. Obama. Fifteen years earlier, the Clinton White House said much the same thing about Jimmy Carter's mission to North Korea.
Veteran diplomats suspect the fix was in for the Clinton mission: that if he went to Pyongyang, bringing with him the prestige of a former U.S. president who happens to be married to the current Secretary of State, pays homage to Kim Jong-il, shakes his hand, does a photo op with him, enhances his standing on the world stage - then the two imprisoned American journalists would be released.
No sitting U.S. president could agree to such terms, but a former president doesn't have as much to lose in terms of authority and status.
The White House is treading exceedingly careful in this matter. Out of an abundance of caution that an ill-spoken word might pull the rug out from under the Clinton mission, spokesman Robert Gibbs refused to answer most questions.
"We're talking about something that's extremely sensitive," said Gibbs at his morning meeting with reporters.
That's the same strategy adopted by the Clinton White House when Jimmy Carter was off on missions that only a former President could carry out.
During his last weeks in office, President Clinton had hoped he could embark on a trip to North Korea to nail down another nuclear agreement, after the one arranged by Jimmy Carter fell apart. The diplomatic arrangements could not be worked out and the trip never happened. But nearly a decade later, it was easier for him to go - as a former president.
