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NUKEWARS
Obama says N. Korea US prisoner release 'small gestures'
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Nov 10, 2014


Top-secret N.Korea mission hit by plane hitch
Washington (AFP) Nov 10, 2014 - A secret mission by America's spy chief to free two US citizens held by North Korea hit an embarrassing snag when his plane broke down while refueling, a US official said Monday.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was sent to Pyongyang last week as the personal envoy of President Barack Obama to bring back detainees Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller.

But his arrival in Pyongyang was delayed when his Pentagon plane broke down while refueling en route to the North Korean capital.

The breakdown is the latest problem to plague the government's aging fleet of aircraft.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki would not go into the specifics of the technical problems that beset Clapper's plane.

A US intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed reports that Clapper spent the night in Hawaii while a second aircraft was sent in to fly to Pyongyang the next day.

Clapper returned to the United States in the Air Force plane on Saturday, landing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.

He brought home Bae and Miller, who had both served lengthy sentences in a North Korean hard-labor camp.

It's not the first time that American diplomacy has been stalled by the technical troubles of the US Air Force fleet that serves the president's top deputies.

Secretary of State John Kerry has been forced to fly home commercially twice this year after his plane broke down -- once after a round-the-world trip in August, and then again in Vienna last month.

On two other occasions in 2014 -- in Switzerland and London -- Air Force aviation experts had to scramble to fix Kerry's Boeing's C-32, the military version of the Boeing 757, and get it back into the air.

"There's no question it presents technical and logistical challenges," Psaki said.

There are several planes in rotation and it was not clear if Clapper's plane was the same one that Kerry has used in the past.

Former Pentagon chiefs in recent years have also faced delays due to technical problems with their aircraft, some of which date back decades.

The mechanical problems became so acute that officials now regularly send a C-17 cargo plane as a back-up aircraft to ensure the Pentagon chief is able to go ahead with his scheduled visits.

The defense secretary flies on one of several E4-B planes, a modified Boeing 747 designed during the Cold War to serve as a command center in a nuclear war.

President Barack Obama on Monday dismissed North Korea's release of two imprisoned Americans as "small gestures", saying nuclear-armed Pyongyang must change its attitude on atomic weapons if it wants improved ties.

"We have been consistent in saying that when and if North Korea becomes serious about denuclearisation on the peninsula and is prepared to have a conversation around that topic, then the United States is going to be very open to try to arrive at a solution," Obama told reporters in Beijing.

"Until that time, there is going to be a core problem between us," he added, speaking during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Both Obama and Abbott are in China to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum annual summit.

Obama said that while he was happy for the families of the freed Americans, it was going to take more than "small gestures like the ones that we saw, the release of these individuals" for relations to improve.

"Until this point we have not seen serious engagement on the part of Pyongyang to deal with that problem," he said, referring to the nuclear issue.

US citizens Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller were released after a secret mission to North Korea by US intelligence chief James Clapper.

Clapper spent less than a day in Pyongyang, conducting talks with senior offices but did not meet leader Kim Jong-Un, before flying out with the two freed men to an airbase in Washington state on Saturday, a US senior administration official said.

Obama elaborated on Clapper's mission, saying issues such as Pyongyang's atomic programme were not discussed.

"It did not touch on some of the broader issues that have been the source of primary concern when it comes to North Korea, in particular, its development of nuclear capacity," Obama said.

North Korea has expressed interest in reviving long-stalled six-party talks with the US and others on the nuclear issue, but Washington insists Pyongyang must first show a tangible commitment to denuclearisation.

No "high level policy discussions between Jim Clapper and the North Koreans" took place, Obama said.

Bae, a Korean-American, was detained for two years. The 46-year-old was arrested in November 2012 and later sentenced to 15 years' hard labour for "hostile acts" against North Korea, having been accused of trying to "topple" the hermit kingdom.

According to his family, Bae was held while leading a tour group as the owner of a travel agency he ran in neighbouring China.

Miller, 24, was sentenced to six years hard labour by the North Korean Supreme Court following his arrest in April after he allegedly ripped up his visa at immigration and demanded asylum.


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