Dee Dee Myers, press secretary under former President Bill Clinton, was interviewed this week. One of the questions was why Clinton was chosen to go on the mission to negotiate for the the release of the 2 American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who entered North Korean territory and had been held captive for 5 months.

It turns out that Bill Clinton had emerged as the top choice of the North Koreans because, when he was president, Clinton had sent Kim Jong-il a letter of condolence on the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, in 1994.
Apparently, Kim Jong-il felt that freeing the women was a “reciprocal humanitarian gesture” that he would agree to, since Bill Clinton had shown him such respect when his father died, even though there were no official diplomatic relations between the US and North Korea.

How amazing that a simple letter of condolence written 15 years ago would have that impact.

I think it this is very powerful message. If we would all just sit and think about this for a few minutes: what more could we do in our daily lives to be human with each other? What effects would that make for us today and in the years ahead? Could a thawing of diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea have started because of a condolence letter? What simple actions can we take to do something similar to that simple act of humanity with our friends, coworkers, clients, and competitors?

It’s definitely something worthwhile to think about, isn’t it?