Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today on the return home of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two American journalists who had been imprisoned in North Korea for more than four months.
“The world welcomes the joyful news that American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee are now home. It is a relief that they have been freed and now are safely reunited with their families.
“I congratulate former President Bill Clinton, who went to North Korea at the request of the families, the White House and former Vice President Al Gore, for his outstanding work to secure the release of these two Americans.
“Their safe return home marks a welcome end to the journalists’ nightmare, marked by a harsh 12-year sentence to hard labor in a North Korean prison camp. And it comes not a moment too soon for their families, who have advocated vigorously for their release and anxiously awaited their return.
“I call on other governments around the world to release journalists who are being held and to respect freedom of the press.”
