BILL CLINTON MEETS N.KOREA LEADER

Bill Clinton, the former US president, has met Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader, in Pyongyang, North Korean state media have reported.

• The Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday that Clinton "courteously" conveyed a verbal message from Barack Obama, the US president.
• The report was denied by the White House as untrue.
• "That's not true," Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday.
• Clinton was travelling with US government officials to seek the release of two jailed US journalists, South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited a source as saying.
• The former US president, who flew to the capital on an unmarked jet on Tuesday, is the most senior US official to arrive in the North Korean capital in nearly a decade.
• He was greeted at the airport by North Korean officials, including Kim Kye Gwan, who has been the North's chief negotiator in nuclear negotiations.
• Kim hosted a dinner for Clinton at the state guest house and received the message from Obama, according to Radio Pyongyang and the Korean Central Broadcasting Station.
• The White House said Clinton was travelling on a "solely private mission" and refused to comment so as not to "jeopardise the success" of his trip.

Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labour after being found guilty of entering the country illegally.

Source: Al Jazeera