Former President Bill Clinton landed in Pynogyang this morning in an attempt to secure the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two journalists arrested in March and sentenced to 12 years for illegally crossing into North Korea. While the White House is characterizing the visit as a "solely private mission," both North Korea and the United States benefit from the diplomatic encounter: North Korea gets the recognition it so desperately craves in the eyes of the world-we sent them a former President, and it wasn't Jimmy Carter!-while the United States may finally be able to achieve the journalists' safe return home. Should Clinton succeed in retrieving Ling and Lee, it will both burnish his reputation and be a big "fuck you" to Bill Richardson, who is usually the guy you fly in for these kind of things. There's been no word on how Clinton will attempt to pull it off, but there are rumors that he brought along former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who will surreptitiously stuff the two women down his pants when the North Koreans aren't looking.