Bill Clinton meets N.Korea's Kim in Pyongyang

Former US president Bill Clinton on Tuesday met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang during a surprise visit to the country to seek the release of two jailed US reporters.

Clinton arrived in the hardline communist state earlier in the day on what the White House called a private mission to seek the release of two jailed US female journalists.

His surprise trip, which comes after months of tensions over the North's nuclear programmes, was the highest-profile visit by an American to Pyongyang for nearly a decade.

"Bill Clinton courteously conveyed a verbal message of US President Barack Obama to Kim Jong-Il," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report which was denied by the White House.

"Kim Jong-Il expressed thanks for this. He welcomed Clinton's visit to the DPRK (North Korea) and had an exhaustive conversation with him. There was a wide-ranging exchange of views on the matters of common concern."

But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denied that Clinton had handed over a message from Obama, saying: "That's not true."

North Korean media said the conversation took place at a dinner hosted for the former US leader and members of his delegation at a state guest house which "proceeded in a cordial atmosphere," it said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the North sent two senior officials and a schoolgirl with a floral bouquet to greet the former US president at the capital's Sunan airport.

Analysts said the warm reception may indicate Pyongyang is seeking better relations with its arch enemy Washington, after months of high tensions sparked by the North's nuclear and missile tests and subsequent UN sanctions.

A US official travelling separately with the ex-president's wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, confirmed he would seek the release of the female reporters detained during an assignment along the China border in March.

"Our interest is the successful completion of this issue and to confirm the safe return of the two journalists," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting sources, said Clinton was expected to fly out Wednesday with the journalists.

Clinton, who sent his own secretary of state Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang in 2000, was greeted by chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan and Yang Hyong Sop, vice president of parliament.

He bent down to shake hands with a young girl who presented him with a bouquet, the North's TV footage showed.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested on March 17 while reporting on refugees fleeing the impoverished North. A court in June sentenced them to 12 years of "reform through labour" for illegal entry and other offences.

The harsh sentences further soured relations already strained by the North's atomic test in May -- its second in three years -- its multiple missile tests and its decision to quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

Official media said Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, had admitted to a politically motivated media smear campaign. The pair work for California-based Current TV, co-founded by Clinton's vice president Al Gore.

Their families and Hillary Clinton have appealed for their release on humanitarian grounds.

"North Korea prepared high-profile officials to receive Clinton at the airport," said Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

"It was sending a signal that it was treating the former US leader with great hospitality and also that it was willing to have a political dialogue, including on nuclear disarmament."

Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong Institute think-tank said the North was seeking a breakthrough in relations by allowing the visit.

"It will also be used for domestic propaganda as it comes amid growing concerns about Kim's health," Cheong told AFP.

The 67-year-old is widely believed to have suffered a stroke last August.

US and South Korean officials say the North's recent hardline behaviour is aimed at shoring up Kim's authority while he puts in place a succession plan involving his youngest son.

"With Clinton's trip, Pyongyang will seek to improve relations with Washington or to end the current tense standoff over its nuclear test and UN sanctions," Cheong said.

The visit "will pave the way for bilateral talks on a package of issues including the North's nuclear programme," he said.

The US administration has refused to link the journalists' detention with the nuclear standoff.

"As well as the release of the US journalists, Clinton is expected to discuss a series of political issues including North Korea's nuclear programme," said Kim Yong-Hyun, a North Korea studies professor at Dongguk University.

"There will be no major breakthrough with his trip alone but I believe it will provide fresh momentum for nuclear disarmament talks."

The North quit the six-party talks after the UN censured its long-range rocket launch in April.