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North Korea Insists Direct Talks With U.S. Only Way to End Crisis
Aired January 14, 2003 - 05:05 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: Turning now to the stand-off with North Korea, the communist nation insists direct talks with the United States is the only way to end the nuclear crisis. It comes as U.S. envoy James Kelly wraps up talks in Seoul, South Korea.
CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon has the latest from the South Korean capital.
REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly departed from Seoul and headed off to Beijing, where he will speak with the Chinese about further steps to resolve the nuclear stand-off with North Korea. Now, here in South Korea, Kelly, according to diplomats, had a very good meeting with President Elect Roh Moo-hyun. The atmosphere was very friendly and Roh emphasized that he wants a strong alliance with the United States and also emphasized that he wants U.S. forces to remain in South Korea, despite the existence of protests. He emphasized to Kelly that he believes that those protesters represent a very small minority of the South Korean population and that the majority do appreciate and do want the presence of U.S. troops there.
Now, while Kelly did say that there could be some economic energy assistance to North Korea if it does scrap its nuclear program, we've made clear that the United States and South Korea are in firm agreement that the next step and the next concession needs to be coming from North Korea.
Meanwhile, international diplomatic efforts continued. A delegation from Australia, which has diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, headed from Beijing to North Korea today, hoping that they might be able to bring some pressure to bear on North Korea. Also, a United Nations envoy, special envoy from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, also got on a plane to Pyongyang.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAURICE STRONG, U.N. ENVOY: I'm simply seeking to determine how the United Nations can best be helpful in this situation, particularly in meeting the humanitarian needs. That is our primary interest. There is a very acute humanitarian situation evolving there and we want to find out from the DPRK how they think we can best help to avoid humanitarian, further humanitarian crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACKINNON: Now, North Korea, however, does appear to be pouring cold water on international efforts. In a statement on the state run news agency today, the government said that this is a bilateral issue, the nuclear issue is bilateral between North Korea and the United States and that the U.S. attempts to internationalize it are simply an effort by the U.S. to "evade responsibility."
Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And in the next hour an update on the North Korea stand-off from Washington when we wake up our State Department producer Elise Lavitt (ph).
For more on both sides of this nuclear stand-off, log onto our Web site at cnn.com. The AOL keyword, altogether now, CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Crisis>
Aired January 14, 2003 - 05:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the stand-off with North Korea, the communist nation insists direct talks with the United States is the only way to end the nuclear crisis. It comes as U.S. envoy James Kelly wraps up talks in Seoul, South Korea.
CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon has the latest from the South Korean capital.
REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly departed from Seoul and headed off to Beijing, where he will speak with the Chinese about further steps to resolve the nuclear stand-off with North Korea. Now, here in South Korea, Kelly, according to diplomats, had a very good meeting with President Elect Roh Moo-hyun. The atmosphere was very friendly and Roh emphasized that he wants a strong alliance with the United States and also emphasized that he wants U.S. forces to remain in South Korea, despite the existence of protests. He emphasized to Kelly that he believes that those protesters represent a very small minority of the South Korean population and that the majority do appreciate and do want the presence of U.S. troops there.
Now, while Kelly did say that there could be some economic energy assistance to North Korea if it does scrap its nuclear program, we've made clear that the United States and South Korea are in firm agreement that the next step and the next concession needs to be coming from North Korea.
Meanwhile, international diplomatic efforts continued. A delegation from Australia, which has diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, headed from Beijing to North Korea today, hoping that they might be able to bring some pressure to bear on North Korea. Also, a United Nations envoy, special envoy from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, also got on a plane to Pyongyang.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAURICE STRONG, U.N. ENVOY: I'm simply seeking to determine how the United Nations can best be helpful in this situation, particularly in meeting the humanitarian needs. That is our primary interest. There is a very acute humanitarian situation evolving there and we want to find out from the DPRK how they think we can best help to avoid humanitarian, further humanitarian crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACKINNON: Now, North Korea, however, does appear to be pouring cold water on international efforts. In a statement on the state run news agency today, the government said that this is a bilateral issue, the nuclear issue is bilateral between North Korea and the United States and that the U.S. attempts to internationalize it are simply an effort by the U.S. to "evade responsibility."
Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And in the next hour an update on the North Korea stand-off from Washington when we wake up our State Department producer Elise Lavitt (ph).
For more on both sides of this nuclear stand-off, log onto our Web site at cnn.com. The AOL keyword, altogether now, CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Crisis>
