Former President Bill Clinton was in North Korea this week, working towards the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been held in North Korea for four months on charges of illegally entering North Korean territory. Clinton, along with Ling and Lee, arrived safely in Burbank, CA this morning to be reunited with their families.

The two woman had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor and as Ling said, until “thirty hours ago” they were being held by the government and “feared that at any moment we could be prisoners in a hard labor camp.”

President Clinton was in North Korea for 20 hours, where he procured the women’s freedom, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, and many hope, opened a channel to its government, which has had strained diplomatic relationships with the U.S. in the past.

After the meeting, the North Korean government announced it had pardoned Link and Lee after Clinton apologized to Kim Jong-il for their actions. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she and the Obama administration are “extremely excited” that the women are free, but she claimed her husband did not apologize on their behalf.

At the White House this morning, President Obama chimed in on the journalists’ return: “I want to thank President Bill Clinton – I had a chance to talk to him – for the extraordinary humanitarian effort that resulted in the release of the two journalists.”

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