By Richard Saccone

Welcome home journalists! Now let's answer some questions. Americans are relieved that the two reporters from Current TV, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, finally returned home after spending several months in custody within North Korea.

They are enjoying a hero's welcome and their faces are dominating the news for several days. Without doubt they will become wealthy from the book deals and movie rights forthcoming.

Appropriate credit should be given to the Obama administration in the handling of the ordeal. After a few initial missteps, administration officials kept the negotiations affecting the release out of the press and toned down the harsh rhetoric against North Korea until the girls were safely on American soil.

Now that the danger has passed it is time to ask the tough questions as to how we got into this mess. Question number one: ``Who ordered such a foolhardy mission?''

Someone encouraged two young reporters to visit a dangerous border area between China and North Korea where the United States wields little leverage to protect them.

It is safe to assume that nearly everyone in the world knows North Korea is a closed state with tightly guarded borders and that filming nearby is particularly risky and extremely dangerous.

North Korean punishments are far more severe than those in America so one tests North Korean justice at their own risk. And let's not hide behind the journalistic freedom excuse; we all know that North Korea does not honor Western notions of a free press.

And for what purpose did they undertake such a risk, ostensibly to gather information about human trafficking? The necessary information for such a report could have safely been collected from inside China.

It does not advance this story to cross into North Korea, which renders the stated purpose of their reporting suspect. The cover story loses additional credibility when you consider that only three years ago Laura's older sister Lisa Ling entered North Korea under false pretenses to gather information for a National Geographic special in which she portrayed the country in the worst possible light.

Luckily for her, she escaped undetected and lived to chortle about it in the West. So, was it Al Gore or underlings within the Current TV organization that dispatched these two on such a perilous mission?

Secondly we might ask, should Current TV, the reporters, or both be compelled to pay for at least a portion of all the time, money and unknown diplomatic concessions our government had to expend to rescue these two tyros from a failed mission that should never have been undertaken in the first place.

Shouldn't they bear some of the responsibility for the consequences?

Finally, we must ask, what if anything did the U.S. government offer North Korea to secure the release of the young ladies? North Korea often demands payment before allowing the United States to have its way.

Compensation might take the form of food aid or even much needed fuel deliveries, but the American people have a right to know now that the danger has passed.

Hopefully, something good will come out of this for America. Certainly, North Korea benefited politically. Kim Jong-il forced a former U.S. president to travel to his turf to plead for their release, allowing Kim to demonstrate his magnanimity by pardoning the girls for humanitarian reasons ― after the appropriate apologies of course.

Kim looks much stronger to his domestic audience including military hardliners who are undoubtedly enjoying their chance to chuckle at our expense.

The photo opportunity with President Clinton granted Kim the gravitas of an important international leader. But if Clinton's efforts won future concessions, lessoned tensions, or lured North Korea back to the negotiating table, then at least we could gain something. If not, those two young reporters cost their country greatly in a vain quest for personal fame.

Dr. Richard Saccone teaches international relations and political science at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. He has lived and worked in both North and South Korea for 14 years, regularly negotiating with North Koreans. He has written seven books on Korea including, ``Negotiating Your Way Through Korea, Negotiating With North Korea,'' and his most recent book, ``Living with the Enemy: Inside North Korea.'' Contact Dr. Saccone at richard.saccone@email.stvincent.edu.