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CNN Live Today

Discussion With Mark Thompson

Aired January 06, 2003 - 11:31   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: North Korea remains defiant today, accusing the U.S. of plotting the nuclear war on the peninsula. North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Il, are the cover story this week in "Time" magazine, and Mark Thompson joins us from Washington.
Thanks for joining us.

MARK THOMPSON, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: A lot of interesting insights in this article, but number one, how does your magazine assess just how dangerous the situation is in North Korea.

THOMPSON: It's truly not a crisis. I don't think anyone thinks that North Korea is going to drop a nuclear bomb on our forces in South Korea or those in Japan anytime soon. But plainly, what it's done is unlike Iraq, North Korea has a lot of firepower that it can bring to bear, both nuclear and non-nuclear, and that has sort of made the Bush administration say, whoa, let's slow down here and try to find a diplomatic solution.

KAGAN: They have a lot of chutzpah, the way they just blatantly restarted this program right in front of the inspectors when they were there and how they went about it, and your magazine does a good job of this, of describing how they let these inspectors know they would be leaving the country very soon.

THOMPSON: Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, basically negotiates by brinkmanship. That's what we're seeing now, and I think that's why Colin Powell and other members of the administration are saying, listen, let's not overreact here, that's their gambit; they overreact. We need to be calm, cool and collected here.

KAGAN: But it also sends a message around the world here, that if you compare North Korea to Iraq, basically if a country has nuclear weapons, it's going to get a different level of respect than if it's still trying to develop them.

THOMPSON: I think that's a key distinction. You're absolutely right, Saddam Hussein does not yet have nukes, or is not believed to have nukes. North Korea is. That does make a difference. Some people in the administration argue that's a reason for attacking Iraq now and negotiating with North Korea. I mean, North Korea could soon be the ninth member of the world's nuclear club.

KAGAN: You also point out very specifically why the military option for the U.S. are so restricted and so limited. THOMPSON: Yes, I mean basically, North Korea has 700,000 troops within a half an hour of Seoul, South Korea, the capital of South Korea, a city of 10 million people. They have enough artillery tubes and shells to rain down a half a million rounds an hour for a day. It would be utter devastation, even if they don't have the nuclear bomb yet.

KAGAN: And so one thing I think that's difficult for Americans to understand, though, on this day when Japan and South Korea are in Washington, why aren't they more on board with the U.S. position about being hardline? You have South Korea there saying, hey, we'll send some more oil, you know, be nicer to them, and that will get them to shutdown their nuclear program, because clearly, that doesn't work. This is their neighborhood. Why don't they more stridently go after South Korea?

THOMPSON: I think fundamentally the Bush administration has found itself in a difficult bind, and said, we're not going to negotiate, and at the same time, simultaneously acknowledging, we can't go to war. If you're not going to negotiate or go to war, what else can you do? I think what we're going to see are allies of the U.S. trying to tease out some sort of agreement that Washington tacitly after it's struck among the allies except for the U.S. and North Korea can agree to, and maybe in a week, this whole thing will be simmering down a bit.

KAGAN: And if not, you also point out in your article some of the repercussion that could happen, speaking of South Korea and Japan, it could be a message to them, guess what, guys, it's time for you to develop weapons as well, and this problem could blossom bigger than it is today.

THOMPSON: I think that would be a bigger nightmare for the administration than some people are thinking. I mean, you do not want a nuclear-armed northeast Asia, beyond the Russians and the Chinese that we've already got. The small nuclear arsenal of North Korea already has allowed the United States to push ahead with a missile- defense system, and who knows what would happen if anybody from Japan to South Korea, perhaps to Taiwan went nuclear. I think that's a nightmare this administration does not want.

KAGAN: The full article is in "Time" magazine. Mark Thompson, thanks for stopping by. Appreciate it.

THOMPSON: Thank you.

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 January 6, 2003 - 11:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: North Korea remains defiant today, accusing the U.S. of plotting the nuclear war on the peninsula. North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Il, are the cover story this week in "Time" magazine, and Mark Thompson joins us from Washington.
Thanks for joining us.

MARK THOMPSON, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: A lot of interesting insights in this article, but number one, how does your magazine assess just how dangerous the situation is in North Korea.

THOMPSON: It's truly not a crisis. I don't think anyone thinks that North Korea is going to drop a nuclear bomb on our forces in South Korea or those in Japan anytime soon. But plainly, what it's done is unlike Iraq, North Korea has a lot of firepower that it can bring to bear, both nuclear and non-nuclear, and that has sort of made the Bush administration say, whoa, let's slow down here and try to find a diplomatic solution.

KAGAN: They have a lot of chutzpah, the way they just blatantly restarted this program right in front of the inspectors when they were there and how they went about it, and your magazine does a good job of this, of describing how they let these inspectors know they would be leaving the country very soon.

THOMPSON: Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, basically negotiates by brinkmanship. That's what we're seeing now, and I think that's why Colin Powell and other members of the administration are saying, listen, let's not overreact here, that's their gambit; they overreact. We need to be calm, cool and collected here.

KAGAN: But it also sends a message around the world here, that if you compare North Korea to Iraq, basically if a country has nuclear weapons, it's going to get a different level of respect than if it's still trying to develop them.

THOMPSON: I think that's a key distinction. You're absolutely right, Saddam Hussein does not yet have nukes, or is not believed to have nukes. North Korea is. That does make a difference. Some people in the administration argue that's a reason for attacking Iraq now and negotiating with North Korea. I mean, North Korea could soon be the ninth member of the world's nuclear club.

KAGAN: You also point out very specifically why the military option for the U.S. are so restricted and so limited. THOMPSON: Yes, I mean basically, North Korea has 700,000 troops within a half an hour of Seoul, South Korea, the capital of South Korea, a city of 10 million people. They have enough artillery tubes and shells to rain down a half a million rounds an hour for a day. It would be utter devastation, even if they don't have the nuclear bomb yet.

KAGAN: And so one thing I think that's difficult for Americans to understand, though, on this day when Japan and South Korea are in Washington, why aren't they more on board with the U.S. position about being hardline? You have South Korea there saying, hey, we'll send some more oil, you know, be nicer to them, and that will get them to shutdown their nuclear program, because clearly, that doesn't work. This is their neighborhood. Why don't they more stridently go after South Korea?

THOMPSON: I think fundamentally the Bush administration has found itself in a difficult bind, and said, we're not going to negotiate, and at the same time, simultaneously acknowledging, we can't go to war. If you're not going to negotiate or go to war, what else can you do? I think what we're going to see are allies of the U.S. trying to tease out some sort of agreement that Washington tacitly after it's struck among the allies except for the U.S. and North Korea can agree to, and maybe in a week, this whole thing will be simmering down a bit.

KAGAN: And if not, you also point out in your article some of the repercussion that could happen, speaking of South Korea and Japan, it could be a message to them, guess what, guys, it's time for you to develop weapons as well, and this problem could blossom bigger than it is today.

THOMPSON: I think that would be a bigger nightmare for the administration than some people are thinking. I mean, you do not want a nuclear-armed northeast Asia, beyond the Russians and the Chinese that we've already got. The small nuclear arsenal of North Korea already has allowed the United States to push ahead with a missile- defense system, and who knows what would happen if anybody from Japan to South Korea, perhaps to Taiwan went nuclear. I think that's a nightmare this administration does not want.

KAGAN: The full article is in "Time" magazine. Mark Thompson, thanks for stopping by. Appreciate it.

THOMPSON: Thank you.

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