article_snippet.sent: Take North Korea: Obama campaigned as the anti-Bush on the world stage.
article_snippet.sent: The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to countries ... is ridiculous," Obama, then a senator, declared in July 2007.
article_snippet.sent: Obama hadn't even marked two months in office when North Korea detained two journalists working for Al Gore's Current TV.
article_snippet.sent: A kangaroo court sentenced Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years in prison.
article_snippet.sent: Former President Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang to appeal for 12 years in prison release.
article_snippet.sent: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il used the episode to solidify the position of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il third son and designated successor, Kim Jong Un.
article_snippet.sent: North Korea police force put out word that "General Kim Jong Un's artifice let former U.S. President Clinton cross the Pacific to apologize to the Great Leader.
article_snippet.sent: Laura Ling and Euna Lee were neither the first nor the last Americans that North Korea seized during the Obama era.
article_snippet.sent: After North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship, killing 46, Obama sought North Korea censure in the U.N. Security Council.
article_snippet.sent: Pyongyang responded by threatening Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American imprisoned earlier that year for illegally entering North Korea.
article_snippet.sent: On cue, former President Jimmy Carter arrived to mediate for Gomes' release, called for new talks and, by omission, derailed efforts to hold North Korea accountable for North Korea killing of nearly four dozen South Korean sailors.
article_snippet.sent: The pattern would repeat in 2012 when North Korea seized Kenneth Bae, an American whom Kim Jong Un sought to leverage into concessions.
article_snippet.sent: The following year, North Korea arrested an 85-year-old Korean War veteran touring the hermit kingdom and, the next year, took two other tourists hostage.
article_snippet.sent: Each arrest resulted in a high-level visit, an apology to North Korea that bolstered the dear leader's claims of strength and renewed engagement.