United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday welcomed the release of two U.S. journalists who had been detained by North Korea for more than four months. The two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were arrested on March 17th after crossing the border into North Korea from China while researching a documentary about human trafficking. Last month the two were sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp for illegally entering North Korea. A statement from Ban's press office said “he appreciates the decision of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to release them as a humanitarian consideration, responding to the repeated calls by the international community.” Ling and Lee were released after former U.S. President Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang to intervene on their behalf. In the statement, Ban said he “commends and congratulates former President Clinton for his successful humanitarian mission.” Clinton was recently appointed as the Ban's special envoy to Haiti.
