This front-page photo in the Washington Post cries out for a caption:Former president Bill Clinton meets with dictator Kim Jong Il in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The trip was a "private humanitarian mission," according to the White House, though it was preceded by discreet back-channel talks involving U.S. officials attempting to secure the release of the two reporters.

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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