Former US President Bill Clinton's successful mission to Pyongyang to win freedom for two jailed American journalists carries with it new risks to the Obama Administration's efforts to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons.
Mr Clinton's talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Tuesday led to Mr Kim's "special pardon" for journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling of US media outlet Current TV, which was co-founded by Mr Clinton's vice president, Al Gore.
The two women's release after being held since their arrest on the North Korea-China border in March and a sentence of 12 years of hard labour was widely expected once Mr Clinton turned up in Pyongyang. It would have been all but unthinkable for Mr Clinton to travel to Pyongyang without a guaranteed outcome.
North Korean state media described the Clinton-Kim meetings as "candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US" that "reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them".
Mr Clinton has yet to speak publicly on his mission, while the Obama Administration has denied North Korean media assertions the former President carried a message from President Barack Obama.
But Mr Clinton's mission raises issues, including Pyongyang's consistent record of harvesting diplomatic rewards from belligerent behaviour, that could unsettle US allies and make it harder to resolve a long-standing dispute over the reclusive communist state's nuclear weapons programmes.
Nicholas Szechenyi, a Northeast Asia expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the biggest risk was that North Korea would demand a similar US approach to the nuclear issue.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the North Koreans don't budge on the nuclear issue, for example, unless someone of Mr Clinton's stature is involved," he said.
North Korea grudgingly joined the US in five years of on-and-off six-party negotiations that also involve China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. But it quit them last year and has insisted on bilateral talks with Washington.
"We've seen this pattern before and it could send a very bad signal to the region if the Administration suddenly shifts to a bilateral approach," said Mr Szechenyi.
"That is a cause for concern in Seoul and Tokyo," he added.