Tag: Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton was touring the sites in downtown Seoul and what I found of interest is who I did not see with him, which is Hillary Clinton:

Photos and videos of former U.S. President Bill Clinton apparently sightseeing in central Seoul have been shared online, raising speculation over the nature of seemingly his first visit to South Korea in decades. 

The posts, shared on social media and online communities, showed the former U.S. president reportedly visiting the Gwanghwamun and Insadong areas, popular tourist destinations in the South Korean capital, on Sunday. 

Some posts showed Clinton taking photos with locals and exchanging conversation. 

During his presidency, Clinton visited South Korea in November 1998 for a summit with then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

Yonhap

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When Bill Clinton traveled to DPRK in 2009, a "glorious" NK movie about it was quickly made. https://t.co/yoVSXRFmAv

— Richard Horgan (@LiberateLaura) December 22, 2016

If the contents from the hacked email are true then it appears that Kim Jong-il genuinely had a liking for Bill Clinton and even invited him to vacation in North Korea:

A memo attached to a hacked email shows that in 2009, former President Bill Clinton was invited to go sightseeing in North Korea by then-ruler Kim Jong Il, and seemed open to the offer.

Clinton was in North Korea to help with negotiations to free two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been arrested and jailed; he was successful, and the women were released. The memo was apparently written by David Straub, a Stanford University professor whose name was at the bottom of it, BuzzFeed reports, and it was attached to an email forwarded to John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and Bill Clinton’s former White House chief of staff. It’s believed Podesta’s email was hacked by Russians.  [The Week]

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Here is what former US President Bill Clinton thinks in regards to what to do about North Korea:

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said North Korea is a “funny country” that is good at making bombs and missiles, but unable to feed its people, and its leader Kim Jong-un appears to be “more militant than his father and grandfather.”

Clinton made the remark in an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose Tuesday night, saying he “worked very hard” with former Defense Secretary and North Korea policy coordinator William Perry and then Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili to prevent a nuclear-armed North Korea.

“I worked very hard to avert this when I was president. And my former defense secretary, Bill Perry, and General John Shalikashvili … They went there and said, you know, this can’t happen, and so we worked very hard to avoid it with some success,” Clinton said.

The former president declined to discuss what the North Korea policy of his wife Hillary Clinton would look like, saying he wants her to speak for herself. But he added that the Democratic presidential nominee has suggested that the U.S. should toughen the sanctions and try to get the support of Russia and China.

“North Korea is, it’s a funny country. That is, they’re good at making missiles and bombs, and they can’t bring in a rice crop,” Clinton said. “They believe that you, and the news media, and those of us who are in the political world, all over the world, that all of us, we never think about them unless they misbehave.”  [Yonhap]

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South Korean President Kim Young-sam (R) goes jogging with visiting U.S. President Bill Clinton at the compound of the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in this July 1993 file photo. Kim, who has been hospitalized due to a high fever, died at Seoul National University Hospital on Nov. 22, 2015, the hospital said. He was 88. Kim formally ended decades of military rule in South Korea and accepted a massive international bailout during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. (Yonhap)