Bill Clinton left North Korea this morning with two freed US journalists after talks with Kim Jong-il, who pardoned the women sentenced to hard labour for entering the country illegally.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling were heading back to the US with Clinton, said his spokesman, Matt McKenna, less than 24 hours after the former president landed in Pyongyang on what was described as a private, humanitarian trip to secure their release.

The women, dressed in short-sleeved shirts and jeans, appeared healthy as they climbed the steps to the plane and shook hands with Clinton before getting into the jet, APTN footage showed. Clinton waved, put his hand over his heart and then saluted.

North Korean officials waved as the plane took off. McKenna said the flight was bound for Los Angeles, where the journalists would be reunited with their families. The White House had no comment.

US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said she had spoken with her husband who told her the two journalists were "extremely excited" to be on their way back to the US. Mrs Clinton, in Nairobi at the start of a tour of Africa, said she was "very happy and relieved" that the women were on their way home.

According to the New York Times, Mrs Clinton was deeply involved in the case. The paper said she proposed sending various people to Pyongyang – including the former vice-president, Al Gore – to lobby for the release of the women, before her husband emerged as the preferred choice of the North Koreans.

The message from Pyongyang was relayed through the reporters families, who asked Clinton to travel to North Korea to seek their release. They were joined in their request by Gore.

The newspaper quoted a senior official as saying the administration did "due diligence" to ensure that if Clinton went, he would return with the journalists.

An administration offical told the Associated Press that the former president's mission did not include any discussions about issues beyond the release of Lee, 36, and Ling, 32, both journalists with Gore's Current TV media venture. The official rejected an official report by the North Korean news agency that Clinton had delivered an apology about the incident to Kim.

Their departure marked and end to a more than four-month ordeal for the women, who were arrested near the North Korean-Chinese border in March while on a reporting trip for Current TV. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labour for illegal entry and engaging in "hostile acts".

North Korean media characterised the women's release as proof of "humanitarian and peace-loving policy."

The Lee and Ling families thanked the president, Barack Obama, the secretary of state and the state department. "We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice-President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home," it said. "We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms."