By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama thanked former President Bill Clinton in person on Tuesday for his trip to North Korea early this month to secure the release of two American journalists, the White House said. The two men met in the White House Situation Room for nearly 40 minutes, after which Obama invited his fellow Democrat to the Oval Office to talk for another half hour. "Former President Clinton described the process, including a meeting with Kim Jong-il, that culminated in the North Korean leadership granting 'special amnesty' to the two journalists and permitting them to return to the United States," the White House said in a statement. "President Obama said he was gratified that the Americans had been safely reunited with their families." Clinton left after the meeting without speaking to reporters. His wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said his trip had provided insight into North Korea. "The briefing that my husband and those who traveled with him ... is, you know, extremely helpful, because it gives us a window into what's going on in North Korea," she told reporters. In what the Obama administration described as a private humanitarian mission, Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea to secure the freedom of the two U.S. reporters. He became the highest-level American to meet the North's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, in almost a decade. The Obama administration has been trying to coax North Korea back into six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, while saying it wants to enforce U.N. resolutions to ensure the North's weapons of mass destruction are not spread. Pyongyang, which tested a nuclear device in May and has since launched a series of missiles, has said it will not return to the six-party talks and has insisted instead on direct talks with the United States. North Korea's media portrayed the trip as proof that the nuclear test and missile launches were a stunning victory that prompted Bill Clinton's visit to pay tribute and negotiate. But Hillary Clinton said U.S. policy has not changed. "Our policy is consistent," she said. "We continue to offer to the North Koreans the opportunity to have a dialogue within the six-party talk framework with the United States that we think could offer many benefits to the people of North Korea." (Editing by Chris Wilson)
A general view shows the damaged machine room of Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station near Siberian village of Cheryomushki, about 520 km (323 miles) south of Krasnoyarsk, August 18, 2009. Ten people ...
