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CNN Live Today
North Korea Standoff
Aired February 28, 2003 - 11:29 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: Moving on to North Korea and the Bush administration, saying there are signs that North Korea is about to start turning out a key ingredient for nuclear bombs.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor joins us from Washington.
David, good morning.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
Well, we all reported a couple of days ago that there was evidence that the U.S. had evidence that the North Koreans had restarted the nuclear reactor at Pyongyang. That facility had been closed since 1994, and the North Koreans said they'd restarted it because they need electricity.
It's a very small plant, produces about five megawatts of electricity, but as a byproduct, produces plutonium, and in about a year, officials say, there would be enough from restarting the plant to make a nuclear weapon.
But now officials tell me they are seeing evidence of activity at another building in the same facility. This is a building where there is a reprocessing facility. Now if the reprocessing plant was restarted, then North Korea would be able, nuclear experts say, to produce enough fissile material to put out one nuclear bomb every month. They would have enough for about five to eight bombs, officials say. This would be from using the 8,000 or so spent fuel rods that they've been holding and have been kept safe by the IAEA until this time.
So, this evidence that there is activity at the plant, officials say, is concerning them. They describe it as activity which could lead you to believe that they might be planning before long to fire up the plant -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And yet this still is not officially a crisis? I mean, this is still something that can be solved through diplomacy, as I understand it?
ENSOR: That's not a word the Bush administration likes to use about it, but I certainly do run into officials who are using that word now.
KAGAN: All right, got it. Thank you for that update, David Ensor.
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 28, 2003 - 11:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Moving on to North Korea and the Bush administration, saying there are signs that North Korea is about to start turning out a key ingredient for nuclear bombs.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor joins us from Washington.
David, good morning.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
Well, we all reported a couple of days ago that there was evidence that the U.S. had evidence that the North Koreans had restarted the nuclear reactor at Pyongyang. That facility had been closed since 1994, and the North Koreans said they'd restarted it because they need electricity.
It's a very small plant, produces about five megawatts of electricity, but as a byproduct, produces plutonium, and in about a year, officials say, there would be enough from restarting the plant to make a nuclear weapon.
But now officials tell me they are seeing evidence of activity at another building in the same facility. This is a building where there is a reprocessing facility. Now if the reprocessing plant was restarted, then North Korea would be able, nuclear experts say, to produce enough fissile material to put out one nuclear bomb every month. They would have enough for about five to eight bombs, officials say. This would be from using the 8,000 or so spent fuel rods that they've been holding and have been kept safe by the IAEA until this time.
So, this evidence that there is activity at the plant, officials say, is concerning them. They describe it as activity which could lead you to believe that they might be planning before long to fire up the plant -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And yet this still is not officially a crisis? I mean, this is still something that can be solved through diplomacy, as I understand it?
ENSOR: That's not a word the Bush administration likes to use about it, but I certainly do run into officials who are using that word now.
KAGAN: All right, got it. Thank you for that update, David Ensor.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
