Former U.S. President Bill Clinton left North Korea on Wednesday with American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, whose release he secured after meeting with leader Kim Jong-il.

The Obama administration says the North Korean government agreed in advance that Clinton's visit would not be linked to the nuclear issue and the U.S. offered no apology to the North over the journalists.

A senior U.S. official said Clinton did talk to North Korea about the positive things that could flow from freeing the two women, but the U.S. will continue on the path of enforcing existing sanctions on the hermit state.

The two journalists, who work for Current TV, an American TV outlet co-founded by Clinton's vice president Al Gore, were arrested in March for illegally crossing into North Korea from China.

They were each sentenced to 12 years hard labour in June in what many analysts said was aimed largely at trying to give Pyongyang some leverage with Washington.

Japan's top government spokesman welcomed the release of the U.S. journalists.

[Takeo Kawamura, Chief Cabinet Secretary]:
"We hope this visit by the former president would prompt the resumption of talks between the United States and North Korea as well as the six-party talks. We also hope that through further talks, we would be able to resolve other pending issues, including the kidnapping cases of Japanese citizens and to normalise diplomatic relations with North Korea."

North Korean agents' abduction of Japanese decades ago remains an emotional issue and a major obstacle to establishing diplomatic ties with Tokyo.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international studies from Renmin University in Beijing, said it is very unlikely the release of the two journalists would change the stance of either the U.S. or North Korea on the nuclear standoff.

[Shi Yinhong, Renmin University]:
"The American government will definitely consider the potentially large negative impact of direct U.S.-North Korea talks on U.S. relations with Japan and South Korea, and even China. So it's hard to imagine the Obama administration will change the stance they have already made clear and enter into direct U.S.-North Korea talks while there are still no six party talks."

A U.S. official in Washington said Pyongyang would face deeper isolation if it continued "provocative behavior" that has included recent nuclear and missile tests.