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CNN Sunday Morning

Kelly to Meet With South Korean President-Elect

Aired January 12, 2003 - 07:10   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the standoff with North Korea. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly arrived in Seoul, South Korea today, for talks on the escalating crisis.
CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon following the developments from Seoul. She joins us now with an update. Rebecca, Mr. Kelly is there, have the talks begun yet?

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, the talks have not begun yet. He arrived here. It's evening here. The talks will begin for a full day in the morning, Seoul time, which will be the evening your time. Most importantly, Kelly will be meeting with South Korea's new President-elect Roh Moo-hyun. Roh was elected in December, and he's going to be taking office in February. However, his incoming team is already heavily involved in trying to help find a solution, and perhaps even broker a solution between Washington and Pyongyang as the tensions intensify with North Korea now having withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Now, Roh has in the past been critical of Washington's policies, calling them a bit too hard line, and accusing Washington of isolating North Korea too much, so the South Korean government is very much hoping to find a way to bring Washington to the table with North Korea and to reassure it that Washington has no intentions of attacking North Korea -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: This comes, Rebecca, at a time of tension between the U.S. and South Korea -- how much of this is an effort just to sort of try to solidify an old alliance here, that Mr. Kelly and Mr. Roh sitting down?

MACKINNON: Well, certainly that is one major purpose of this meeting, because Roh is a new administration. Certainly many of the people who voted for him do feel that South Korea and Washington need to reorganize their relationship and make Seoul a more equal partner. So, this is in part a matter of getting to know one anther, but also of course, coordinating strategy and trying to come up with a solution in dealing with North Korea -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: But, there's still currently is quite a fault line on philosophy and how to approach the situation with the North. It seems that President Roh rode to office on the whole stance that engaging the North Koreans is the way to go.

MACKINNON: Yes, that is true, that is his philosophy, and the South Korean government has not changed its policy. Neither he nor the outgoing administration have stopped engaging North Korea. In fact, there are going to be high level meetings between North and South Korea going on here in Seoul later in the month.

And so one of the goals of the Roh administration is to convince Washington that engagement is the way to go, and that isolation North Korea doesn't bear any useful results, just makes it more defensive, and causes it to do the types of things it's been doing lately -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. Difficult diplomacy at the moment. Rebecca MacKinnon in Seoul, appreciate it.

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 12, 2003 - 07:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the standoff with North Korea. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly arrived in Seoul, South Korea today, for talks on the escalating crisis.
CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon following the developments from Seoul. She joins us now with an update. Rebecca, Mr. Kelly is there, have the talks begun yet?

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, the talks have not begun yet. He arrived here. It's evening here. The talks will begin for a full day in the morning, Seoul time, which will be the evening your time. Most importantly, Kelly will be meeting with South Korea's new President-elect Roh Moo-hyun. Roh was elected in December, and he's going to be taking office in February. However, his incoming team is already heavily involved in trying to help find a solution, and perhaps even broker a solution between Washington and Pyongyang as the tensions intensify with North Korea now having withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Now, Roh has in the past been critical of Washington's policies, calling them a bit too hard line, and accusing Washington of isolating North Korea too much, so the South Korean government is very much hoping to find a way to bring Washington to the table with North Korea and to reassure it that Washington has no intentions of attacking North Korea -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: This comes, Rebecca, at a time of tension between the U.S. and South Korea -- how much of this is an effort just to sort of try to solidify an old alliance here, that Mr. Kelly and Mr. Roh sitting down?

MACKINNON: Well, certainly that is one major purpose of this meeting, because Roh is a new administration. Certainly many of the people who voted for him do feel that South Korea and Washington need to reorganize their relationship and make Seoul a more equal partner. So, this is in part a matter of getting to know one anther, but also of course, coordinating strategy and trying to come up with a solution in dealing with North Korea -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: But, there's still currently is quite a fault line on philosophy and how to approach the situation with the North. It seems that President Roh rode to office on the whole stance that engaging the North Koreans is the way to go.

MACKINNON: Yes, that is true, that is his philosophy, and the South Korean government has not changed its policy. Neither he nor the outgoing administration have stopped engaging North Korea. In fact, there are going to be high level meetings between North and South Korea going on here in Seoul later in the month.

And so one of the goals of the Roh administration is to convince Washington that engagement is the way to go, and that isolation North Korea doesn't bear any useful results, just makes it more defensive, and causes it to do the types of things it's been doing lately -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. Difficult diplomacy at the moment. Rebecca MacKinnon in Seoul, appreciate it.

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