Former president Bill Clinton met with American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee in North Korea today, ABC News is reporting.

The network says it's getting that news from a "government source ... who has knowledge of the Clinton team's mission." Presumably it's an American or South Korean source. The same person, ABC says, "was hopeful that the two (journalists) will leave North Korea tonight for the United States, possibly even on the same plane as Clinton."

Clinton arrived in Pyongyang today on what the White House says is a private mission that's aimed in part at securing the journalists' release.

Lee and Ling, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV media venture, were arrested along the Chinese-North Korean border in March and sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and engaging in "hostile acts."