Jimmy Carter Frees American

Jimmy Carter's mission to Pyongyang has been a success. The former president flew out of North Korea today with Aijalon Mahil Gomes after securing the American citizen's release yesterday, the AP reports. Kim Jong Il released Gomes at the request of Carter, who was traveling as a private citizen, said a Carter Center spokeswoman. "President Carter’s trip was a private, humanitarian, and unofficial mission solely for the purpose of bringing Mr. Gomes home and reuniting him with his family," said a State Department rep.

Korea's state-run media used the release as an opportunity to remind the world that doing so reveals its "humanitarianism and peace-loving policy," and added that "Jimmy Carter made an apology for American Gomes' illegal entry and gave him the assurance that such case will never happen again." And though it was a successful mission, one security expert warns that “we are running out of ex-presidents." (More Jimmy Carter stories.)