A mystery trip to North Korea
WASHINGTON — It began with quiet words from State Department officials: Apply for a new passport immediately. You may soon be going to a country for which ordinary U.S. passports are not valid for travel.
Vague as it was, the instruction to two reporters last Friday left little doubt about our mystery destination: North Korea.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had visited the capital, Pyongyang, in complete secrecy while he was still CIA chief in early April to set the stage for an unprecedented summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Now, Washington was abuzz with rumors he would be heading back soon to finalize details for the summit and bring back three U.S. citizens who had been held by North Korea for more than a year for alleged anti-state activities.
It would turn out to be my second visit to the isolated, authoritarian nation. Eighteen years ago, I accompanied Madeleine Albright on her historic trip to North Korea, the first-ever by a sitting secretary of state — a highly choreographed and publicized two-day affair covered by some 80 journalists.
But this was something completely different: an under-the-radar, secret mission with only two American reporters as independent witnesses.
Since the death last year of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who suffered brain damage while in North Korean custody, U.S. nationals have been prohibited from traveling to North Korea without special passport validation.
An hour after handing over our passports, Carol Morello of The Washington Post and I were in possession of new ones and an extraordinary letter.
“Dear Mr. Lee,” mine read, “The Department of State grants your May 4, 2018, request for a special validation permitting travel to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea … Based on the information provided, we determined that the validation is in the national interest of the United States.”
The “national interest of the United States.” Hmm, I pondered, had I ever done anything before that would qualify?
Carol and I, both State Department journalists, were told to pack a bag and be on standby but were given no departure time, let alone a date. We were sworn to secrecy and advised that any leak of a potential Pompeo return to Pyongyang would be grounds for the two press seats on his plane to go empty.
Rumors of the trip intensified through the weekend as European diplomats who wanted to meet with Pompeo to discuss the administration’s imminent decision on the Iran deal — which Trump was preparing to withdraw from — were being told he would be out of the country on North Korea-related travel.
Still, Saturday and Sunday passed with no word.
Then, late Monday afternoon, we were told we’d depart from the department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters at 7:45 that night. We would
fly overnight with refueling stops in Alaska and Japan, and go on to North Korea, returning in reverse order at some undetermined point. The State Department had allotted 10 hours of time on the ground. Officials cautioned though that it could be as many as 24 hours depending on the unpredictable North Koreans.
So began a four-day journey with no confirmed schedule on the ground in North Korea, no guarantee of the prisoners’ release or on progress for the summit and little to no sleep.
Notwithstanding the secret arrangements for Pompeo’s return trip, we wouldn’t be the first to report it. As our plane descended Tuesday into the U.S. air base in Yokota, Japan, for its second refueling stop, Trump announced his top diplomat was on his way to Pyongyang.
It came during his highly anticipated declaration that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal. Trump would use the fact of Pompeo’s visit to counter criticism that the Iran decision meant he was not interested in negotiating with adversaries.
After a quick cold shower, which would be the only bathing opportunity in four days, we left Japan for the two-and-a-half-hour flight north and arrived at the Pyongyang airport early Wednesday morning. All normal communications were effectively shut down with staffers carrying “burn phones” on which they could text and a limited number of satellite phones for emergency use only.
Pompeo was greeted by North Korean dignitaries and boarded a Mercedes limousine. We climbed aboard a Chevy van, identified by logos on the spare tire and driver’s console as “The American Road.” The driver, whether or not he spoke or understood English, was non-communicative, so our questions about “The American Road” went unanswered.
After a winding drive past grandiose memorials, museums, government offices and revolutionary billboards, we arrived at the city’s main hotel for foreign
visitors, the Koryo International, where many of us had stayed when Albright visited in 2000. The hotel re-opened last year after a renovation aimed at ridding it of its Soviet-style appearance, with gleaming marble floors and walls. The elevators, however, remained as slow as they had been 18 years earlier.
With Pompeo’s uncertain schedule, the Koryo lobby, bookstore, luxury goods market, coffee shop and traditional Korean restaurant were Carol’s and my base for the next nearly 13 hours while he met and lunched with North Korean officials and finally left for closeddoor talks with Kim, just an hour after receiving confirmation
that the meeting was, in fact, on. We waited for news over endless cups of coffee.
After Pompeo finally returned from his 90-minute meeting with Kim, he gave a “fingers-crossed” response when asked if the American prisoners would be released. About 10 minutes later, a North Korean emissary arrived to give him the good news: They would be released. We would be heading home soon.
A small team of medical personnel and officials were dispatched to collect the three detainees. The rest of us, including Pompeo, drove to the airport to board the plane for the long journey back to Washington.