of North Korea."

By midmorning, Ling was resting at her house in North Hollywood with her mother, sister and best friend as television cameras and trucks clogged the normally quiet street. Her sister, Lisa, also a journalist, told reporters outside that Laura was exhausted. "She can barely speak she's so tired," she said.

Her sister craved fresh food and told her that in North Korea she and Lee had been fed rice that included small rocks, she said, adding, "I know there will be a sushi dinner at some point really soon."

Their mother, Mary, said she had prepared a special soup for her daughter's return home and that she had felt both wishful and scared during the last few months.

Lisa Ling thanked everyone who had worked to secure the releaseand said the family would be "forever indebted" to the Clintons, President Obama and Gore, who co-founded Current TV, the cable and satellite channel for which the two women were working when they were arrested by the North Koreans in March.

"We are especially appreciative of our government, who really came to the rescue of Laura and Euna," she said.

Laura Ling's husband, Iain Clayton, said that his wife told him during their most recent phone conversation that she believed a visit from Clinton "would be successful in securing their release."

Clayton said reuniting with his wife was amazing. "It was just the best thing in my life . . . to see her come down from that plane and on the steps," he said.

Marc Foulkrod, chairman and chief executive of