After being released from North Korean imprisonment Tuesday, American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling arrived home to U.S. soil Wednesday morning as their plane landed in Burbank, CA. Ling and Lee had a public and tearful reunion with their families upon arrival. Their release came hours after former President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. According to North Korea's state news agency, the women received a "special pardon" from Kim Jong-Il himself, relieving them of the 12 years of hard labor they received after wandering across the border between North and South Korea while reporting for San Francisco-based and Al Gore-owned Current TV. Politico reports that the White House approved Clinton's mission "which has been secretly planned for weeks" after reports surfaced that the Pyongyang would release the women in exchange for a diplomatic visit from Clinton. His visit is the first presidential-level American sit-down in North Korea since Jimmy Carter's 1994 visit with Kim Il-Sung on behalf of then-President Clinton.
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