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CNN Live At Daybreak

Wake-Up Call: North Korea

Aired December 27, 2002 - 06:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk more about the situation in North Korea in this morning's "Wake-Up Call." CNN State Department producer Elise Labott is on the phone.
Thanks for getting up so early with us.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: This is getting evermore dangerous, it seems.

LABOTT: Yes, well, it really seems like a game of chicken. The U.S. is trying to wait it out and not taking the bait North Korea keeps putting out there, trying to goad the U.S. into talks on normalizing ties.

And the administration is concerned about North Korea developing nuclear weapons, but officials say it will be at least a month or so before this nuclear reactor is up and running. And even when it is operational, some officials say the threat is not all that great.

Now, the first week in January, the board of governors of the IAEA is going to meet. At that point, they could consider going to the UN Security Council to impose some sort of sanctions against Pyongyang if they don't stop the weapons program. But the U.S. itself has no plans to push any action at the Security Council on North Korea, because officials say they don't want it to interfere with what they're doing at the UN on Iraq.

COSTELLO: Understand. I know U.S. officials are trying to get Russia and China involved in this, but some officials in Washington are accusing those countries of dragging their feet.

LABOTT: Well, certainly they say that they do have influence on those countries, on North Korea, but they say that they're definitely not exerting as much influence as the U.S. would like.

Now, as you said before, President Bush is expected to send an envoy to Seoul next week to consult with officials there on how to diffuse the crisis. It isn't set in stone who is going to travel there yet, but we're told it will likely be Assistant Secretary James Kelly.

Now, this is the official to whom North Korea admitted it had a secret nuclear weapons program a few months back, which is really what started this whole diplomatic chess game, and the visit would be a way to prepare for the trip to Washington early next year by the South Korean president-elect. When President Bush called Mr. Roh to congratulate him last week, he extended the invitation to the White House and said he wanted to intensify consultations on this North Korean issue.

So, the U.S. really trying to stand shoulder to shoulder with its allies as the crisis continues -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Elise, thank you very much.

And again, in case you are just joining us right now, the latest news out of North Korea is that it is expelling those two UN weapons inspectors that are there monitoring its nuclear program. They will be out of the country shortly.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired December 27, 2002 - 06:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk more about the situation in North Korea in this morning's "Wake-Up Call." CNN State Department producer Elise Labott is on the phone.
Thanks for getting up so early with us.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: This is getting evermore dangerous, it seems.

LABOTT: Yes, well, it really seems like a game of chicken. The U.S. is trying to wait it out and not taking the bait North Korea keeps putting out there, trying to goad the U.S. into talks on normalizing ties.

And the administration is concerned about North Korea developing nuclear weapons, but officials say it will be at least a month or so before this nuclear reactor is up and running. And even when it is operational, some officials say the threat is not all that great.

Now, the first week in January, the board of governors of the IAEA is going to meet. At that point, they could consider going to the UN Security Council to impose some sort of sanctions against Pyongyang if they don't stop the weapons program. But the U.S. itself has no plans to push any action at the Security Council on North Korea, because officials say they don't want it to interfere with what they're doing at the UN on Iraq.

COSTELLO: Understand. I know U.S. officials are trying to get Russia and China involved in this, but some officials in Washington are accusing those countries of dragging their feet.

LABOTT: Well, certainly they say that they do have influence on those countries, on North Korea, but they say that they're definitely not exerting as much influence as the U.S. would like.

Now, as you said before, President Bush is expected to send an envoy to Seoul next week to consult with officials there on how to diffuse the crisis. It isn't set in stone who is going to travel there yet, but we're told it will likely be Assistant Secretary James Kelly.

Now, this is the official to whom North Korea admitted it had a secret nuclear weapons program a few months back, which is really what started this whole diplomatic chess game, and the visit would be a way to prepare for the trip to Washington early next year by the South Korean president-elect. When President Bush called Mr. Roh to congratulate him last week, he extended the invitation to the White House and said he wanted to intensify consultations on this North Korean issue.

So, the U.S. really trying to stand shoulder to shoulder with its allies as the crisis continues -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Elise, thank you very much.

And again, in case you are just joining us right now, the latest news out of North Korea is that it is expelling those two UN weapons inspectors that are there monitoring its nuclear program. They will be out of the country shortly.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.