LONDON - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has left North Korea with his party by air, the the official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

They were seen off at the airport by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, KCNA said in a statement which carried a Pyongyang dateline.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il earlier granted a special pardon to two jailed U.S. journalists which releases them from detention, KCNA news agency reported.

The latest agency despatch did not mention the two journalists.