|
 Clapper gave details of his trip, made at the behest of President
Barack Obama, for the first time during a forum on Monday at the
Council on Foreign relations.
He said that after his arrival in the isolated country's capital, a
North Korean four-star general hosted what Clapper called a
"marvelous" 12-course meal at a restaurant above a bowling alley.
The next day, Clapper said, a representative of the state security
ministry came to his guest house and told him the government no
longer considered him a presidential envoy and could not guarantee
his security and that of his party.
Clapper said they packed their bags and were taken to a room at a
Pyongyang hotel where a delegation of Korean officials, led by state
prosecutors, was waiting with the Americans, Kenneth Bae and Matthew
Miller, who were still dressed in prison uniforms.
After a denunciation of the prisoners was read out, the officials
walked out of the room, leaving the Americans in the company of
Clapper and his aides. The freed Americans changed clothes, and the
party headed for the airport for a flight home.
Bae and Miller returned to a warm welcome in the United States on
Nov. 8.
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Bae, 46, a Korean-American missionary from Lynnwood north of
Seattle, was arrested in North Korea in November 2012 and sentenced
to 15 years' hard labor for crimes against the state. Miller, in his
mid-20s, was reportedly convicted on an espionage charge and in
custody since last April, serving a six-year hard labor sentence.
North Korea is under tough international sanctions for its nuclear
and missile programs and was severely criticized for its human
rights abuses in a United Nations report last year.
(Reporting by David Storey; Editing by Ken Wills)
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