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CNN Live At Daybreak

Wake-Up Call: North Korea Nukes

Aired July 16, 2003 - 06:05   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: The White House also has a controversy over North Korea's nuclear program to deal with. The communist nation tells Washington it has completed reprocessing spent fuel rods into plutonium. The White House calls that a serious matter, but it's still pushing for diplomacy to resolve the issue.
A spokesman for the State Department says North Korea has no reason to reprocess those fuel rods other than to produce nukes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Reprocessing is a particular concern for us and for many other countries in the international community. Reprocessing is only for the purpose of harvesting plutonium to make weapons. There is no other legitimate use that North Korea has for plutonium.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, are the North Koreans just blowing smoke?

We have placed a "Wake-Up Call" to our State Department producer, Elise Labott. She's live on the phone with us from Washington.

Elise -- good morning.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, how is the United States dealing with North Korea now?

LABOTT: Well, Carol, officials are going out of their way to remain calm, measured in how they respond to the latest declaration by the north. They want to avoid calling this a crisis, because the administration feels that that would increase the north's ability to blackmail the international community, and they've made clear they won't give in to blackmail.

But I have to tell you, Carol, officials are very concerned. They have heard Pyongyang make these types of claims before, but officials tell us they do have evidence now the north has begun the reprocessing. They can't say for sure how much of this has been done. And so, while the U.S. doesn't really know how close the north is to having a nuclear bomb, they know they can't be far away -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, Elise, we know all of this hullabaloo started that the North Koreans wanted to meet directly with U.S. officials. Will that happen now?

LABOTT: Well, first of all, Carol, the administration is looking towards the Chinese, who are meeting with the north this week about the possibility of setting up another round of talks. The U.S. has continued it wants to have -- continued to insist it wants to have multiparty talks to include South Korea, Japan and possibly Russia, not ruling out another three-way meeting with just North Korea and China.

The U.S. is also asking the Security Council to criticize North Korea in some sort of presidential statement. They haven't been able to get that through the council yet, but they're still pushing on that front.

And then the U.S. is working with about 10 other countries to squeeze Pyongyang by going after its sources of income. Those countries have now agreed to seize any North Korean shipments of arms or drugs as an act of self-defense.

And U.S. officials are also traveling to countries that North Korea supplies with weapons and warning them not to buy from Pyongyang.

So, they have a lot of things going on many fronts -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Elise Labott, thanks for waking up early with 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 July 16, 2003 - 06:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The White House also has a controversy over North Korea's nuclear program to deal with. The communist nation tells Washington it has completed reprocessing spent fuel rods into plutonium. The White House calls that a serious matter, but it's still pushing for diplomacy to resolve the issue.
A spokesman for the State Department says North Korea has no reason to reprocess those fuel rods other than to produce nukes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Reprocessing is a particular concern for us and for many other countries in the international community. Reprocessing is only for the purpose of harvesting plutonium to make weapons. There is no other legitimate use that North Korea has for plutonium.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, are the North Koreans just blowing smoke?

We have placed a "Wake-Up Call" to our State Department producer, Elise Labott. She's live on the phone with us from Washington.

Elise -- good morning.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, how is the United States dealing with North Korea now?

LABOTT: Well, Carol, officials are going out of their way to remain calm, measured in how they respond to the latest declaration by the north. They want to avoid calling this a crisis, because the administration feels that that would increase the north's ability to blackmail the international community, and they've made clear they won't give in to blackmail.

But I have to tell you, Carol, officials are very concerned. They have heard Pyongyang make these types of claims before, but officials tell us they do have evidence now the north has begun the reprocessing. They can't say for sure how much of this has been done. And so, while the U.S. doesn't really know how close the north is to having a nuclear bomb, they know they can't be far away -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, Elise, we know all of this hullabaloo started that the North Koreans wanted to meet directly with U.S. officials. Will that happen now?

LABOTT: Well, first of all, Carol, the administration is looking towards the Chinese, who are meeting with the north this week about the possibility of setting up another round of talks. The U.S. has continued it wants to have -- continued to insist it wants to have multiparty talks to include South Korea, Japan and possibly Russia, not ruling out another three-way meeting with just North Korea and China.

The U.S. is also asking the Security Council to criticize North Korea in some sort of presidential statement. They haven't been able to get that through the council yet, but they're still pushing on that front.

And then the U.S. is working with about 10 other countries to squeeze Pyongyang by going after its sources of income. Those countries have now agreed to seize any North Korean shipments of arms or drugs as an act of self-defense.

And U.S. officials are also traveling to countries that North Korea supplies with weapons and warning them not to buy from Pyongyang.

So, they have a lot of things going on many fronts -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Elise Labott, thanks for waking up early with 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.