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CNN Live At Daybreak

Inside North Korea

Aired January 13, 2003 - 05:34   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 now take you inside North Korea. This morning we begin part one of the five part series on the isolated, impoverished communist nation at the center of a nuclear crisis.
Our senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy reports the nation is run more like a cult than a country, and its people are paying a high price.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED NORTH KOREANS: Kim Jong Il!

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a society run like a religious cult based on mass worship of a godlike leader, Kim Jong Il, communism taken to the ultimate extreme. But those who've met him say it's too simple to call Kim Jong Il a menacing megalomaniac. Kim Yun Quo (ph) of the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai who's pioneered doing business with North Korea, sees Kim Jong Il regularly.

KIM YUN QUO: He is very alert. He knows what's going on in the world. He's clearly aware of the domestic issues and the issues in South Korea.

CHINOY: Along with then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Wendy Sherman spent hours negotiating with Kim.

WENDY SHERMAN: He is an intelligent man. He watches CNN. He goes on the Internet. At the same time, he lives in a very isolated world.

CHINOY: And therein lies Kim Jong Il's dilemma, isolated with communism having collapsed almost everywhere else, impoverished. With nearly two million people dead of starvation since the mid-1990s, North Korea is struggling to survive. Famine has driven many to flee to neighboring China. Some have died in the attempt. Yusang Jon survived. "I had to eat grass and tree bark to stay alive," he told a conference in Washington recently. "My mother and son starved to death."

The tide of China bound refugees has begun to spill over into foreign diplomatic missions there. These dramatic bids for asylum, orchestrated in part by a German doctor and former aide worker, Norbert Vollertson (ph).

NOBERT VOLLERTSON: I saw those children starving and dying under my hands because there is no food, there is no medicine, there is no medical aid, no power supply, no running water, no soap, no sanitation at all, in winter no heating system. There is no food.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I asked how often do they get meat and I was told five or six times per year.

CHINOY: But Zelliger (ph) says there's something new in North Korea now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I compare my first visit, which was in April of 1995, to my 40th visit, which was just a couple of weeks ago, I, of course, see big changes.

CHINOY: Chief among them, cautious experimentation with markets and moves to end diplomatic isolation, driven by Kim Jong Il's longstanding desire for a thaw with Washington, which, to Pyongyang's intense frustration, did not materialize under the agreed framework.

SHERMAN: Part of the agreed framework was that relations would be normalized and what is fundamental to North Korea is the survival of the regime, regime survival. And they believe the biggest threat to their survival is the United States of America.

CHINOY: Mike Chinoy, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And part two of our North Korea series look at what the communist nation really wants from the United States. Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel will explain the rocky relationship between Washington and Pyongyang. That's tomorrow right here on CNN DAYBREAK.

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 13, 2003 - 05:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We now take you inside North Korea. This morning we begin part one of the five part series on the isolated, impoverished communist nation at the center of a nuclear crisis.
Our senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy reports the nation is run more like a cult than a country, and its people are paying a high price.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED NORTH KOREANS: Kim Jong Il!

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a society run like a religious cult based on mass worship of a godlike leader, Kim Jong Il, communism taken to the ultimate extreme. But those who've met him say it's too simple to call Kim Jong Il a menacing megalomaniac. Kim Yun Quo (ph) of the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai who's pioneered doing business with North Korea, sees Kim Jong Il regularly.

KIM YUN QUO: He is very alert. He knows what's going on in the world. He's clearly aware of the domestic issues and the issues in South Korea.

CHINOY: Along with then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Wendy Sherman spent hours negotiating with Kim.

WENDY SHERMAN: He is an intelligent man. He watches CNN. He goes on the Internet. At the same time, he lives in a very isolated world.

CHINOY: And therein lies Kim Jong Il's dilemma, isolated with communism having collapsed almost everywhere else, impoverished. With nearly two million people dead of starvation since the mid-1990s, North Korea is struggling to survive. Famine has driven many to flee to neighboring China. Some have died in the attempt. Yusang Jon survived. "I had to eat grass and tree bark to stay alive," he told a conference in Washington recently. "My mother and son starved to death."

The tide of China bound refugees has begun to spill over into foreign diplomatic missions there. These dramatic bids for asylum, orchestrated in part by a German doctor and former aide worker, Norbert Vollertson (ph).

NOBERT VOLLERTSON: I saw those children starving and dying under my hands because there is no food, there is no medicine, there is no medical aid, no power supply, no running water, no soap, no sanitation at all, in winter no heating system. There is no food.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I asked how often do they get meat and I was told five or six times per year.

CHINOY: But Zelliger (ph) says there's something new in North Korea now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I compare my first visit, which was in April of 1995, to my 40th visit, which was just a couple of weeks ago, I, of course, see big changes.

CHINOY: Chief among them, cautious experimentation with markets and moves to end diplomatic isolation, driven by Kim Jong Il's longstanding desire for a thaw with Washington, which, to Pyongyang's intense frustration, did not materialize under the agreed framework.

SHERMAN: Part of the agreed framework was that relations would be normalized and what is fundamental to North Korea is the survival of the regime, regime survival. And they believe the biggest threat to their survival is the United States of America.

CHINOY: Mike Chinoy, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And part two of our North Korea series look at what the communist nation really wants from the United States. Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel will explain the rocky relationship between Washington and Pyongyang. That's tomorrow right here on CNN DAYBREAK.

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