Carter to the rescue

South Korea (AP):

North Koreans welcomed Jimmy Carter back to Pyongyang with smiles, salutes and hearty handshakes yesterday, as the former American president arrived on a mission to bring home a Boston man jailed in the communist country since January.

United States (US) officials have billed Carter's trip as a private humanitarian visit to try to nego-tiate the release of Aijalon Gomes, sentenced to eight years of hard labour in a North Korean prison for entering the country illegally from China.

However, visits like Carter's and the journey ex-President Bill Clinton made a year ago to secure the release of two American journalists, serve as more than just rescue missions. They also offer an opportunity for unofficial diplomacy between the US and North Korea, analysts say.

Communist North Korea and the capitalist US fought on opposite sides of the Korean War. Three years of warfare ended in 1953 with a cease-fire but not a peace treaty, and the two Koreas remain divided by one of the world's most fiercely fortified borders.

To this day, the US stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to guard the longtime ally, a presence that chafes at Pyongyang, which cites the forces as a main reason behind its need for nuclear weapons.

For more than a year, relations have been particularly tense, with North Korea testing a nuclear weapon and long-range missile technology, and the US leading the charge to punish Pyongyang for its defiance.