Jones: Clinton acted independently in N. Korea

Twice this morning National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones (Ret.) reiterated that former President Bill Clinton did not carry a message from the White House during his trip to free two American journalists from a North Korean jail.

“This was a private mission in which there were no official or unofficial messages sent…by President Obama,” Jones told David Gregory on Meet the Press. His remarks echo a similar statement he made to Chris Wallace earlier on Fox News Sunday.

Clinton’s excursion–announced to the press only after he secured a “special pardon” for the two women–has received considerable attention today.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger published an op-ed in the Washington Post claiming that Clinton’s mission accomplished “precisely the opposite” of what his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has been trying to do in recent weeks:

“A visit by a former president, who is married to the secretary of state, will enable Kim Jong Il to convey to North Koreans, and perhaps to other countries, that his country is being accepted into the international community–precisely the opposite of what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has defined as the goal of U.S. policy until Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons program.”

Gregory grilled Jones on this, citing a staged photograph of the former U.S. president and the North Korean leader as evidence that the former president undermined the secretary of state’s mission.

Jones, however, dodged the NBC host’s question and emphasized recent improvements in the United States’ tenuous relationship with North Korea.

Another member of the Obama administraion’s foreign policy team, United Nations ambassador Susan Rice, also claimed that former President Clinton’s trip was a “private humanitarian mission” on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Rice was not previously scheduled to appear on the program.