This summer while students laid out on beaches or bussed tables, International Affairs Professor Han Park traveled to the tightly-sealed communist block of North Korea. There he played a crucial role in the release of American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from a 12-year sentence in a hard labor prison.

Park has been a professor at the University since the 1970′s and acts as the director of GLOBIS, The Center for the Study of Global Issues at the University. He has traveled to North Korea more than 40 times since 1981. Among other things, Park’s acts of diplomacy resulted in a North Korean interview with the Associated Press, the first of any such broadcasts ever allowed by Western media.

Current Media journalists Ling and Li were not so fortunate when they sought to cross North Korean boarders this past March. Tonight Park will hold a talk on conflict resolution in which he explains the ins and outs of what their release process entailed, including meetings with Al Gore and highly placed North Korean politicians, and his take on why the release was effective.

“I was there twice since the capture. The first time was one week after their arrest, Park said of his hand in the situation. “I advised them to never send the journalists to prison if they were going to pursue a relationship with the United States and to send them home as soon as possible. Secondly, I told them not to attach any demand to their release that may look like a ransom.”

Fortunately for the journalists, Park’s contacts took his advice seriously. As soon as the judiciary ruling was finalized, they ensured that the journalists received necessary medical attention and stayed in a comfortable guesthouse. The United States, however, remained in the dark about the situation for nearly a month.

“After the verdict no one knew what was going on for at least four weeks, including the state department. And then I went back on the seventh of July,” Park said.

“To my pleasant surprise I found out that they were still not sent to prison but were treated very well with medical attention. So they followed my recommendations.”

During his second trip Park began discussion over what North Korea wanted from the United States in return for the journalists’ release.

“They wanted the U.S. government to ask them for a pardon. Eventually the conclusion was that only one person could be sent, and that person was [former President Bill] Clinton,” he said.

Although U.S. relations with North Korea were at an all time low after a nuclear weapons testing in March, Kim Jong Il still thought highly of Clinton. The former president maintained peaceful diplomatic relations with Il throughout his time in office and would have traveled to North Korea at the end of his second term if the 2008 presidential election had not been so close.

“No one would have had the assurance of seeing Kim Jong Il himself except for Clinton,” Park said. “I tried Al Gore. I tried Jimmy Carter. I mean I didn’t pursue Clinton to go, but the family and Al Gore impressed him to go. He would have been the only one who could have done it. They wanted a man of that stature to come and that’s what they got.”

The U.S. had to send a private citizen, because at this time they have no official diplomatic relations with North Korea. In addition to Clinton’s relationship with Il, his unique position as husband of the Secretary of State made him the only private citizen whose visit could potentially reopen U.S. North Korean discourse over nuclear weapons.

“I think Bill Clinton, although he went as a private citizen, was no ordinary private citizen,” Park said.

When asked whether he believes if this so-called private humanitarian mission was an unofficial message that the United States is ready to resume contact with North Korea he said, “They would not admit that, but it’s written all over it.”

Today, thanks in part to Park’s effective mediation between the two countries, the United States and North Korea are a step closer to re-opening a discussion that has been on hold for the past eight years.

“It would not have been possible to resume nuclear discussions if our girls had still been there,” Park said.