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CNN Live At Daybreak
North Korea Causing Great Concerns
Aired February 27, 2003 - 05:37 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: Let's talk about North Korea now. While the United States prepares for a possible war with Iraq, of course, that other country on President Bush's axis of evil is causing great concerns this morning.
CNN's senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy is live in Hong Kong with the latest developments and I guess North Korea has carried through with its, shall we call it a threat, that it reactivated a nuclear rector?
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. This is the second provocative move by the North Koreans in the last 72 hours. At the beginning of the week, they test fired a short range missile into the waters off the Korean Peninsula. Now, U.S. intelligence has detected that the North Koreans have restarted their five megawatt reactor at their Yongbyon nuclear facility.
This is a reactor which could, in the course of about a year, produce enough plutonium for one nuclear bomb.
The North Koreans, however, have not so far begun to reprocess 8,000 spent fuel rods that have been stored at that facility since the 1994 nuclear agreement between the Clinton administration and the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
The processing is really seen by experts as the red line because if they start to reprocess those fuel rods they could have enough weapons grade plutonium for five or six bombs by the middle of the summer -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh, but, still, Mike, North Korea's neighbors must be really frightened.
CHINOY: Well, North Korea's neighbors are very concerned about what's going on. But almost unanimously in the region what you're getting are calls for the Bush administration to sit down with the North Koreans and negotiate. The North Koreans today in an official statement by their news agency repeated their desire to end this crisis through dialogue. Senior Chinese officials meeting with the Russian foreign ministry in Beijing echoing that call and Secretary of State Powell, when he was in stock to attend the inauguration of the new South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, earlier in the week, got similar advice.
In the region, the governments want the Bush administration to talk -- Carol. COSTELLO: Yes, but you have to wonder how likely that is, because the Bush administration is saying no to face to face talks with North Korean officials. But they have bent a little bit, haven't they?
CHINOY: Well, it's very hard to tell. There are very mixed signals out of Washington because the Bush administration has been divided between supporters of engagement like Secretary of State Powell and more hard-line people like Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who don't want to deal with the North Koreans at all but want to pressure them, arguing the only way to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program is to increase the pressure.
The danger is that in the absence of talks, the North Koreans will go ahead and reprocess those spent fuel rods and the Bush administration could face the fact by the middle of the summer that you have a nuclear armed North Korea with very, very few good options about how to turn that around -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Mike Chinoy reporting live from Hong Kong this morning.
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 February 27, 2003 - 05:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about North Korea now. While the United States prepares for a possible war with Iraq, of course, that other country on President Bush's axis of evil is causing great concerns this morning.
CNN's senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy is live in Hong Kong with the latest developments and I guess North Korea has carried through with its, shall we call it a threat, that it reactivated a nuclear rector?
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. This is the second provocative move by the North Koreans in the last 72 hours. At the beginning of the week, they test fired a short range missile into the waters off the Korean Peninsula. Now, U.S. intelligence has detected that the North Koreans have restarted their five megawatt reactor at their Yongbyon nuclear facility.
This is a reactor which could, in the course of about a year, produce enough plutonium for one nuclear bomb.
The North Koreans, however, have not so far begun to reprocess 8,000 spent fuel rods that have been stored at that facility since the 1994 nuclear agreement between the Clinton administration and the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
The processing is really seen by experts as the red line because if they start to reprocess those fuel rods they could have enough weapons grade plutonium for five or six bombs by the middle of the summer -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh, but, still, Mike, North Korea's neighbors must be really frightened.
CHINOY: Well, North Korea's neighbors are very concerned about what's going on. But almost unanimously in the region what you're getting are calls for the Bush administration to sit down with the North Koreans and negotiate. The North Koreans today in an official statement by their news agency repeated their desire to end this crisis through dialogue. Senior Chinese officials meeting with the Russian foreign ministry in Beijing echoing that call and Secretary of State Powell, when he was in stock to attend the inauguration of the new South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, earlier in the week, got similar advice.
In the region, the governments want the Bush administration to talk -- Carol. COSTELLO: Yes, but you have to wonder how likely that is, because the Bush administration is saying no to face to face talks with North Korean officials. But they have bent a little bit, haven't they?
CHINOY: Well, it's very hard to tell. There are very mixed signals out of Washington because the Bush administration has been divided between supporters of engagement like Secretary of State Powell and more hard-line people like Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who don't want to deal with the North Koreans at all but want to pressure them, arguing the only way to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program is to increase the pressure.
The danger is that in the absence of talks, the North Koreans will go ahead and reprocess those spent fuel rods and the Bush administration could face the fact by the middle of the summer that you have a nuclear armed North Korea with very, very few good options about how to turn that around -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Mike Chinoy reporting live from Hong Kong this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
