Former president Bill Clinton met Tuesday in North Korea with reclusive dictator Kim Jong Il, part of an unannounced and highly unusual diplomatic mission to win the release of two detained American journalists. The meeting in Pyongyang, images of which were broadcast on North Korean television, was the first time in years that the ailing North Korean head of state has been visited by a Western leader. Former president Jimmy Carter visited North Korea as an unofficial emissary in 1994 -- while Clinton was in the White House -- and met with Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, who died weeks afterward. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted state-controlled media in Pyongyang as saying that Kim hosted a dinner for Clinton at the state guest house, and that the two exchanged 'a broad range of opinion' in their talks. But although North Korean state media reported that Clinton delivered a verbal message to Kim from President Obama, the White House denied that any formal message was sent. Clinton traveled to North Korea after receiving explicit assurance that he could depart with the two journalists, according to a source involved in the planning of the trip. North Korea is believed to be in the middle of a leadership transition. Its relations with the United States have deteriorated steadily since Clinton left office, and North Korean officials were openly caustic in July toward his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been deeply concerned about the captive journalists. The former president and his party were greeted early Tuesday at an airport in Pyongyang, the capital, by Yang Hyong Sop, vice president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's official news agency said. Kim Kye Gwan is the chief nuclear negotiator for North Korea, raising questions about whether Pyongyang hoped to use the visit to make progress on the impasse over its nuclear weapons. Photos and televised footage showed Clinton, who is deeply respected in North Korea, smiling and chatting with a girl who presented him with a large bouquet of flowers. Clinton was accompanied on the trip by John Podesta, who was his White House chief of staff, served as Obama's transition chief and is president of the Center for American Progress. Also seen in photos released by the Korean media were David Straub, former head of the Korea desk at the State Department, who is now at Stanford University; longtime Clinton aide Douglas Band; and Justin Cooper, who has worked with the William J. Clinton Foundation. In a sign of the significance attached to the visit in North Korea, the English-language version of the Korean Central News Agency Web site declared, 'BILL CLINTON ARRIVES HERE,' in extra-large type. A spokeswoman for the Center for American Progress referred questions about who funded the trip to the State Department. News of Podesta's role came as a surprise to staffers at the center. He was believed to be on vacation in Truckee, Calif. A source familiar with the planning of the visit said the administration's consensus choice to travel to Pyongyang was former vice president Al Gore, who co-founded the news channel that employs the journalists. But North Korea rejected Gore as an envoy. The administration tried to separate the trip from its ongoing diplomatic efforts regarding North Korea by having Clinton travel on a privately chartered plane, rather than a government jet, unaccompanied by any government officials. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs declined to comment on what he called 'a solely private' mission, saying he did not want to 'jeopardize the success' of the effort. A senior U.S. official, traveling with Hillary Clinton on an unrelated trip to Africa, said the secretary also would not discuss her husband's efforts. Still, there was some immediate criticism. 'This is a reward for hostage-taking,' said former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, who advocates a hard line in U.S. policies toward North Korea. 'Will Bill be off to Tehran next to get those backpackers out?' Euna Lee, 36, and Laura Ling, 32, were seized March 17 near the Chinese border, and they immediately became pawns in the diplomatic back-and-forth between Washington and Pyongyang. The San Francisco-based journalists were researching a story about the trafficking of North Korean women to China. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor. The communist state declared that the women -- who were working for Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV -- were convicted of 'grave crimes' and 'slander' against the nation. Ling recently told her sister by telephone that she and Lee broke North Korea's laws. After that conversation, the Obama administration shifted its tone regarding the reporters, calling for their 'amnesty' in contrast to earlier demands for a 'humanitarian release.' Chris Nelson, editor of a respected newsletter on Asia policy, said the White House decided last week to send Clinton after considering a number of other emissaries, including Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Nelson said he believes the successful outcome of Clinton's mission was prearranged and negotiated beforehand. Relations between North Korea and the United States reached a high point during Clinton's administration, highlighted by a 1994 deal for the North Koreans to freeze a plutonium-based nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. Relations have deteriorated since Clinton left office. Bush accused North Korea of violating the nuclear agreement with a clandestine program to enrich uranium, killing the deal, and North Korea restarted the reactor. Experts estimate that North Korea has since harvested enough plutonium for at least a half-dozen nuclear weapons. Obama's desire for more direct engagement between the countries was met in North Korea with the test-firing of more missiles and, in May, the country's second test of a nuclear device. The United States moved quickly to impose new sanctions at the U.N. Security Council, and North Korea responded by vowing to never return to a six-nation negotiating forum on its nuclear programs. Reports in the South Korean press on Tuesday speculated that Clinton could leave with the journalists as early as Wednesday. North Korea said the women admitted at their five-day trial that they came to the country to vilify its human rights record. The sentences, described by many outsiders as unusually harsh, could not be appealed, officials in Seoul said. Kim reported from Seoul. Staff writers Mary Beth Sheridan in Rota, Spain, and Garance Franke-Ruta also contributed to this report. 