Mick Hartley

I think he's getting carried away here by his well-known contempt for Clinton – and for Henry Kissinger, whom he cites only to dismiss elsewhere in the article. Yes, he's no doubt right that the two journalists were always going to be released, and were just being held as pawns until such time as a deal could be made on favourable terms. But consider the US options: it was unconscionable that two US citizens should be tried and held in such conditions, and everything clearly had to be done to ensure their early release, yet the US government coudn't be seen to be making concessions in the face of provocation from such a repulsive regime acting outside international law. In the circumstances I think they got just about as good a deal as they could hope for. 

The key points are, firstly, that the women were freed, and secondly that no member of the US government was publicly involved. Bill Clinton, it should not be forgotten, is an ex-president. He holds no official position. If it flattered the Dear Leader's ego to have an ex-president come to visit, that's a small price to pay, and, frankly, no skin off Obama's nose. Hey, let Clinton's famous charisma do some good for a change. You can imagine the scene in the White House: what? – you mean he'll let them go with just a visit from Bill Clinton? That's all he wants? He does realise, doesn't he, that Clinton isn't President any more? Jesus, what are we waiting for? If it goes pear-shaped it's Clinton takes the fall. 

Of course it's not ideal. In an ideal world Kim's actions would've been condemned in the strongest possible terms. Instead bad behaviour has, if you like, been rewarded. But dealing with the North Koreans is never going to be straightforward, and the reward was, from the US point of view, next to nothing. No face was lost – if it can be put in those terms (and many commentators do put it in those terms) – because Bill Clinton is not the face of the US government. So I'd say the US did well here, in an extremely difficult situation.

As for the charge that Kim somehow got what he wanted, you could surely argue that it says nothing complimentary about the puffed-up vanity of the man that he'd view it as a victory just to be photographed with an ex-president who's otherwise largely employed on the after-dinner speech circuit, who now takes a back seat to his wife, and who's remembered mainly for his dress-staining proclivities. And it's difficult to see how his standing in North Korea could somehow be boosted by this when he's already more of a god than a leader, with his worship the sole official state ideology.

Of course if there's more to this than meets the eye – if the US made other concessions – then this whole argument fails. But at the moment that appears not to be the case.