Burbank, Calif. ? Two American journalists held captive in North Korea since March endured meals of rice with rocks, more than four months of isolation and the constant fear they would be sent to a gulag.

Facing sentences of 12 years hard labor, they were allowed only sporadic contact with each other, let alone the outside world. Then, suddenly this week, they were brought into a meeting with none other than Bill Clinton, who helped win their release and flew home with them for a tearful reunion with their families.

“We could feel your love all the way in North Korea,” an emotional Laura Ling said. “It is what kept us going in the darkest of hours and it is what sustained our faith that we would come home.”

Ling and Euna Lee sobbed and embraced their husbands and Lee’s 4-year-old daughter, Hana, in the sleek hangar of a Burbank airport after a 9 1/2-hour flight from Japan. It was the last stop following their release from North Korea after an unusual diplomatic rescue mission headed by the former president.

In a voice shaking with sobs, Ling recalled how their time in captivity came to an abrupt end after she and Lee were summoned to a meeting and found the former president standing there.

“We were shocked but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end, and now we stand here, home and free,” she said.

Neither woman offered details of their treatment in North Korea, which has a reputation for a brutal government and has struggled through famine. But Ling’s sister later told reporters that her sister was “a little bit weak” and it would take some time for her to gather her wits and speak about her captivity.

Family members found it challenging to hear the few details they have received, she added.

She said the captives saw each other for only a couple days after their detention.

They were held in a guest house and had not yet been sent to the labor camp because of medical concerns, the sister said. Laura Ling suffers from an ulcer, while Lee has lost 15 pounds since being detained. Ling had been seen regularly by a doctor, her sister said.

Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, are reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV. They had been working on a story about the trafficking of women when they were arrested in March, and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korea. The pair were granted a pardon Tuesday, following talks between Clinton and North Korea leader Kim Jong Il.