North Korea frees U.S. journalists, with assist from Bill Clinton

Nice job, Bill Clinton. A visit from the 42nd president seems to have accomplished what months of diplomacy couldn't, persuading North Korean leader Kim Jong II to release two American journalists who had been looking at 12 years in a labor camp after they were caught straying into the Hermit Kingdom.

According to the Associated Press, Kim issued a "special pardon" for the two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, just hours after Clinton's arrival in Pyongyang. Both women are employees of Current TV, the network founded by former Al Gore.