is al gore going to north korea?

President Obama is considering sending former Vice President Al Gore to North Korea to negotiate the release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the American journalists who have been sentenced to twelve years hard labor: Gore To North Korea? Obama May Send Ex-VP To Negotiate Journalists' Release.

Aides to Obama have been working behind the scenes to bring them, back but matters are obviously complicated by the escalating nuclear standoff: Jailed journalists complicate U.S.-N.Korea dispute.

According to CNN, the idea of sending either Gore or New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to Pyongyang has been floated to the North Koreans. No answer has come so far: Families plead with N. Korea for release.

On the bright side -- if there can by any kind of bright side in this situation -- experts speculate that Laura and Euna will not have to endure the typical (= brutal and inhumane) North Korean gulag experience as negotiators try to cut a deal for their release: Journalists unlikely to see nasty NKorean prisons.