Gore To North Korea? Obama May Send Ex-VP To Negotiate Journalists' Release

President Obama is considering sending former Vice President Al Gore to North Korea to negotiate the release of two American journalists from Current TV, Reuters reports.

Aides to Obama have been working behind the scenes to secure the release of the two women, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were sentenced on Monday to twelve years of hard labor.

The network they both work for was co-founded by Gore. Victor D. Cha, who holds the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the former vice president would be the best person to attempt to secure their release.

North Koreans are "very sensitive about their public face," Cha told the San Francisco Chronicle, and having Gore there would help ease their concerns.

According to CNN, the idea of sending either Gore or New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to Pyongyang has been floated to the North Koreans. No answer has come so far.

The New York Times' Robert Mackey speculated Monday that Gore's higher profile might make him a more attractive envoy, even though Richardson has more experience in these kinds of negotiations: "Would a visit from Mr. Richardson do the trick, or might the regime in Pyongyang be holding out for a visit from a more prestigious envoy, like the former Vice President?"

Asked about the possibility of sending Gore last week, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly did not rule it out.

"It's a very, very sensitive issue, I'm not going to go into it," Kelly told reporters. "This is such a sensitive issue, I'm just not going to go into those kinds of discussions that we may or may not have had," he added when pressed.

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Comments

[extremerightterrorist]

When Big Al gets there, he'll probably won't be there very long. NK will probably send him back to America on one their sleek new environmentally unfriendly NUCLEAR MISSILES. Maybe they will paint it green for him.

[onepotatotwopotato]

How about a one-two punch?
We send Al Gore to North Korea and if that doesn't get results we send in Jimmy Carter.
And through secret diplomatic channels we inform them that we have a lot more Lear-Jet Liberals where those two came from?

[piggybackmom]

These naive reporters (trusting "Gore media") should have never been there in the first place. Even if Gore goes, these ladies will not be released so quickly.

[whocan]

Knowing Als history of appearances , it will probably snow and be -20

[amdezurik]

oh I see, you are one of the dolts who can't grasp reality

[onepotatotwopotato]

Gotta like those North Koreans, they don't care what the liberals in Hollywood or the New York Times think either!

[scat]

He will bore the NK's to release them.

[Dalovely]

What if NK decides to free one of the women, but doubles the sentence of the other, making it 24 years instead..Then what will the the USA do?

[pjones006]

Odd hypothetical situation.

[VinnieKissimmee]

I like Al and enjoy that he has been pretty much accepted as right on his environmental views, even by the former President.
I think he is way too close to this situation to be effective! President Obama would have to re-reevaluate all of the information from Al because any personal biases. The family doesn't do the negotiating in a hostage situation, they only lend support when asked.

[Jazzman323]

If we are lucky, Al Gore will be sentenced to 12 years in NK prison as well.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

Having been in the Vietnam war at the same time as Al, I must ask what are your credentials for your opinion?

[bighat]

Being in Vietnam at the same time as Al Gore gives you credentials. Credentials for what. Sending 2 women to the most dangerous country on earth.

[scat]

We can only hope that is the case.

[pjones006]

Wrong administration when talking about former VP's behind bars.

[Fretchen]

Al to North Korea? Since he was the one who by his own words "invented the internet," I'm sure he'll have no problem resolving this.

Just wondering ... If he goes by private or government aircraft, has he already paid for his carbon footprint offset?

[mike42nola]

I hope they release the journalists and keep him forever.
He fits in with their radical world views.
They just won't listen to his whining about global warming.
Poor Al can't get anyone to listen to him.

[aflurry]

You better sniggety Snopes yourself before you higgety hoax yourself.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

Al Gore did not claim he invented the internet. You can't make something true just by repeating it over and over.

[Kula]

Can anyone ensure he won't come back? That would be nice.

[CostaDelBarto]

You get negative points for unoriginality.

[ATH]

"Negative points for UNoriginality?" I guess you must mean he is being original, as this is a double negative. And even though two wrong might not make a right, just as in math, in grammer a double negative equals a positive. Somehow I don't think that's what you meant. Leave the clever to the clever, and just what you mean--and say it mean(ly).

[CostaDelBarto]

Obamalicious:

I never claimed to be a seer. That's what you said I claimed.

I just said you never took science at uni and I'm right, aren't I?

If you did you would NOT scorn peer review. You would NOT accept unreviewed articles as fact. You would NOT accept an internet link as evidence of anything. You would NOT scorn the call for proper journal citations.

You might actually know the culture of science as practiced internationally but you demonstrated total contempt of all those arguments so I know... I don't need to be clairvoyant. You never studied sciecne beyond high school or college and frankly, it's absolutely obvious.

Either that or you did study science at uni - but dropped out. Or you took science at uni and are not employed in your degree.

Which is it?

[CptKendrick]

CostaDelBarto!

You still posting on this same thread?!?!

Go home!

Fanned.

[CostaDelBarto]

I am home :)

[Eoin45]

CostaDelBarto's point was completely accurate and well said. Since you've nothing cogent to add, why don't you go home instead.

[whocan]

Al will be right there with a documentary on the emissions of nukes,,,, and the NORKS will immediately cease and desist and release the reporters

[BlueStateMensch]

Still jealous of our success, right?

good.

[CostaDelBarto]

Bush will turn up with an "Axis of Evil" conference poster and the NK's will all get scared and surrender.

[CptKendrick]

I dunno....He might be disappointed when he gets there and finds there are no phone booths to change into his costume!

[CostaDelBarto]

There aren't too many phone booths in Oz either.

We have cell phones now.

[Obamalicious]

Poor Al. He gets restless when he isn't feeling self-important.

I wonder if he will try to talk them into using more "environmentally friendly" nukes?

[CostaDelBarto]

You didn't read the article.

The suggestion is Obama wants him for the job.

Honestly, so, so lame.

[Obamalicious]

You sure have been defending Al a lot on this board. Do you have a man-crush on him?

[pangurban]

And your accomplishments compared to Gore's are........? Please enlighten us!

[Obamalicious]

So, he made a movie based on manipulation of scientific facts. The Europeans loved it and gave him a symbolic award. I can sleep better at night not being a hypocrite and falsifying scientific evidence.

[Eoin45]

Answer the question rather than evading.

[scat]

The guy who made his money from Mommy and Daddy the Senator, then became a politician and fleeced the people. Also, as he made money with the suspect science of global warming (now called climate change, by the way, wonder why?), he made millions of companies who supposedly contributed to global warming. As he flies around the world in his gas guzzling plane to espouse his un-proven theories, that will bankrupt the world economy?

Would that be him?

[MIKEinNYC]

Maybe we can exchange Al for the two journalists being held by the NK's.

[111]

Mr. Gore,

When you are finished in North Korea, our government, the USA, is holding Ibrahim Jassam, a photographer for Reuters, in Iraq without charge since September 2008, nine months, despite objections from the Iraqi government, Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters without Borders and Reuters.

Please negotiate this journalist's release with the Obama administration with whom you have obvious connections. He was arrested while doing his job - taking photographs for Reuters but no charges have been brought against him.

Thank you.

[KevinHallShow]

Good lord, must we go through this charade? It sounds like they actually did break the law. They were in the area to do an expose about how bad North Korea is. It sounds like they did a sloppy job and got arrested. If they were trespassing, then rightfully so. I know this won't be popular, but they don't have freedom of the press in North Korea. They wanted to be rough and tough reporters, I say doing time when break the law should give them great journalistic credibility.

http://kevinhallshow.com/?p=185

[CostaDelBarto]

Are you actually serious?

[BryantG]

I think Kevin makes a cogent, even if unpopular point. I tend to agree.

[breakingnews3]

Wow!! What a completely fact free post.

The 2 journalists were in China, covering the human trafficking of human sexslaves over the NK border into China. They were not in China when arrested, as NK has admitted.

But rant away kevinShallow.,

[BryantG]

How can you be certain as to where they were apprehended? Perhaps they were in China, perhaps they crossed the border into NK. I haven't seen anything to convince me either way and wonder how you arrive at such a conclusion, and yes I am aware that NK has been known to engage in kidnapping.

[BryantG]

I've been thinking along these same lines. The question is what if anything do we do next?

[breakingnews3]

So you are in favor of NK being able to kidnap our journalists, even if they have not borken any laws and put them out for a show trial and imprison them for 12 years, even though they have not broken any laws.

Your Republican is showing.....

[CostaDelBarto]

Gee... how about lobby the NK's to release them?

[pjones006]

So now the word of the NK's is good enough for you?

[ScoreKeepN]

Meanwhile tens of millions of trespassers in this country reap their reward...government freebies.

[BlueStateMensch]

{{{{{{ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz}}}}}}}}}

[BlueStateMensch]

Don't you just LOVE the fact that our resident tr0lls feel that Al Gore would be ineffective in NK, while they ALL thought that KAREN HUGHES was capable of winning the "hearts & minds" of the "Arab Street"???

heh!

[CostaDelBarto]

I know! They also thought Sarah Palin was the epitome of the educated diplomat.

[LMKay66]

They're afraid of a Nobel Peac Prize winner, academy award winnter (Inconvenient Truth), Grammy Award winner and former member of the House and Senate, not to mention his Harvard and Vanderbilt education. He's way over their heads.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

Just proof that a little ignorance goes a long ways. There's more of them here than in the actual electorate.

[kagenin]

Exactly. People like this are a minority, just a really vocal one. Just remember, it's just the sound a fish flopping around, waiting for the mainstream to come to it, instead of making an effort to find it on their own.

[ScoreKeepN]

Send Jimmy. He did a bang-up job before, now he should go clean up his own mess.

[BlueStateMensch]

I rest my case, throwback.