Let Bill Clinton’s success serve as springboard for dialogue

Some may simplistically view former President Bill Clinton’s mission to North Korea last week to free two U.S. journalists from captivity as yet another example of the 42nd president’s propensity to upstage his wife, our secretary of state, on the world stage.

Such a view is myopic at best, mean-spirited at worst.

With America engaged in tense and sometimes aggressive struggles with dozens of hot spots around the globe, diplomacy cannot be logically relegated to a one-woman show. In addition, history and the peculiarities of the U.S.-North Korean drama illustrate that Mr. Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang was appropriate and undeserving of derision.

Former presidents, after all, have long played strong roles in public policy and foreign relations long after their tenures have ended. In recent years, Jimmy Carter has served as a strong liaison to the George W. Bush administration on Middle Eastern policy issues. George H.W. Bush led the way in America’s role in recovery efforts from the devastating tsunami in Indonesia five years ago. Clinton himself serves as U.N. ambassador to Haiti. And all four living former presidents consulted with President Barack Obama on policy issues shortly before the 44th president took the oath of office in January.

This case — in which American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for unknowingly entering the country illegally in March — demanded strong and swift diplomatic savvy.

Harsh rhetoric

Given Secretary of State Clinton’s harsh rhetoric of late toward nuclear testing in the repressive Asian nation, she would hardly have been the most fitting mediator.

Indeed some North Koreans retorted to her forceful words with derisive name-calling, branding Mrs. Clinton as “vulgar” and “funny-looking.”

Furthermore, it was no act of pompous self-importance that propelled the former president to negotiate the standoff in North Korea. North Korean President Kim Jong Il had requested his intervention, and the Obama administration quietly acquiesced.

As it turns out, on the surface at least, the emotional release of Ling and Lee came in exchange for a mere dinner and photo opportunity with the frail despot, a small price to pay for the freedom of two Americans.

Had Mr. Clinton not intervened, it is pretty clear the women now would be doing the hard labor to which they were sentenced.

Nor did Clinton try to grandstand the success for his own glory. He stood quietly in the background on the triumphant return of the journalists’ to U.S. soil and their emotional reunion with their families.

The journalists’ case also serves to illustrate — as does the incident last week of three Americans taken hostage in Iran after they mistakenly crossed the border from Iraq — the precautions U.S. citizens must face when traveling in and near aggressive fiercely anti-American nations.

In North Korea, this time the drama has a happy ending. Let’s hope it is just a beginning to opening the door a few more cracks toward dialogue and progress ultimately toward slamming shut decades of tension and mistrust.

While we won’t hold our breath or seek to overstate the long-term impact of the former president’s ex-officio shuttle diplomacy, the U.S. should at least explore using this success as a springboard to open up follow-up dialogues on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

In a new setting where rhetoric by both Korea and the U.S. is cooled down, Mrs. Clinton should rightfully regain the lead role.