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American Morning

All Over For the Day in Beijing, China

Aired August 27, 2003 - 08:10   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is all over for the day in Beijing, China. Negotiators from the U.S., North Korea and four other nations are holding three days of talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
In talks today, North Korea said it had no nuclear weapons or any plans to build them.

For some insight on the talks, we are joined by Ambassador Wendy Sherman of the Albright Group. She was a special adviser to North Korea to President Clinton.

And she joins us from our bureau in Seoul, South Korea this morning.

Good morning to you, Ambassador Sherman.

Nice to see you and thanks for joining us.

AMB. WENDY SHERMAN, FORMER CLINTON ADVISER: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Give me an assessment of the first day of talks, especially in light of what the North Koreans are now reported to be saying about having no nuclear weapons.

SHERMAN: Well, the first day of any negotiation is really the day where everybody sets out their position. So I'm sure in these opening speeches that each of the six delegations made, people probably put out their hardest line, laid down really everything that they wanted to say in the way they wanted to say it.

What is more interesting about today's meetings were probably the informal discussions. And those will be the bits of information that will get leaked out over the next several hours, and that'll be the real telling message about whether the United States and North Korea had a conversation that might move these talks along.

O'BRIEN: While we wait for the information, I guess, to leak out to us, tell me, give me a sense of how hopeful you are. It's been said by U.S. officials if the North Koreans don't walk out, well, we'll count that as a big success. That's a very low bar, obviously.

SHERMAN: I think every administration and every negotiator always goes in setting the bar as low as possible so then if you make any progress, it's seen as very significant progress. So I'm not surprised that our government is saying that if the North Koreans don't walk out, it's a success.

I hope that we get a little bit more than that, that, in fact, a next set of talks is set, that perhaps some principles are laid out for such talks and that maybe some work goes on in the interim between these talks and the next round, which probably wouldn't be until October, so people have some time to talk, reflect, get new instructions and come back to work.

Time matters here. The clock is ticking because if we give North Korea too much time to just talk, they'll continue to reprocess spent fuel and they'll have more nuclear bombs.

So time does matter in this instance.

O'BRIEN: Senior administration officials say there will be no inducements offered to end the nuclear program. In addition to that -- or make them comply with what they've already agreed to in the past.

Is it possible, in your mind, to strike a deal where there is no financial inducement for North Korea?

SHERMAN: Well, of course, I think you're quite right, it's not possible to strike a final deal without the United States putting something on the table. But I think our opening position, and understandably so, is that North Korea has to freeze or halt its nuclear weapons program, begin to dismantle that program and then if they meet the concerns of the United States and the rest of the world community, good things come of such good behavior, because the United States is in a position where it doesn't want to say that it's rewarding bad behavior.

The other thing that the United States is doing which is sort of interesting is using these six party talks to let other countries put inducements and incentives and a vision for a positive future on the table to tantalize North Korea without the United States having to do it themselves.

At the end of the day, though, the United States will be in the game, along with everyone else.

O'BRIEN: We noted yesterday that Jack Pritchard, who was a special envoy in these talks, resigned. Give me a sense of how his resignation is being felt and the impact of that. It was noted yesterday that he had a very different approach than the administration's more hard-line approach. How will that affect the talks if they go with this hard-line direction, in your mind?

SHERMAN: Well, Ambassador Pritchard is an extraordinary public servant. He served in the Army for 23 years, then he served at the National Security Council, at the State Department as the special envoy to North Korea. He's a very capable individual and actually during the time I was in the Clinton administration he was the skeptic. He was the tough, toughest negotiator there was. So for him to be described as some kind of a softie, I find a bit amusing. I think that after the initial press interest, however, it really won't have a major impact on the negotiation. The main impact will be that his expertise, his institutional memory won't be present as part of the American delegation. But I think we do have a capable team and it'll go forward. And I don't know that at the end of the day that Ambassador Pritchard's approach, which was one of carrots and sticks, and certainly of both, won't be the exact same approach that the United States will end up taking.

O'BRIEN: Former Ambassador Wendy Sherman, thanks for joining us this morning.

Appreciate your time.

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 August 27, 2003 - 08:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is all over for the day in Beijing, China. Negotiators from the U.S., North Korea and four other nations are holding three days of talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
In talks today, North Korea said it had no nuclear weapons or any plans to build them.

For some insight on the talks, we are joined by Ambassador Wendy Sherman of the Albright Group. She was a special adviser to North Korea to President Clinton.

And she joins us from our bureau in Seoul, South Korea this morning.

Good morning to you, Ambassador Sherman.

Nice to see you and thanks for joining us.

AMB. WENDY SHERMAN, FORMER CLINTON ADVISER: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Give me an assessment of the first day of talks, especially in light of what the North Koreans are now reported to be saying about having no nuclear weapons.

SHERMAN: Well, the first day of any negotiation is really the day where everybody sets out their position. So I'm sure in these opening speeches that each of the six delegations made, people probably put out their hardest line, laid down really everything that they wanted to say in the way they wanted to say it.

What is more interesting about today's meetings were probably the informal discussions. And those will be the bits of information that will get leaked out over the next several hours, and that'll be the real telling message about whether the United States and North Korea had a conversation that might move these talks along.

O'BRIEN: While we wait for the information, I guess, to leak out to us, tell me, give me a sense of how hopeful you are. It's been said by U.S. officials if the North Koreans don't walk out, well, we'll count that as a big success. That's a very low bar, obviously.

SHERMAN: I think every administration and every negotiator always goes in setting the bar as low as possible so then if you make any progress, it's seen as very significant progress. So I'm not surprised that our government is saying that if the North Koreans don't walk out, it's a success.

I hope that we get a little bit more than that, that, in fact, a next set of talks is set, that perhaps some principles are laid out for such talks and that maybe some work goes on in the interim between these talks and the next round, which probably wouldn't be until October, so people have some time to talk, reflect, get new instructions and come back to work.

Time matters here. The clock is ticking because if we give North Korea too much time to just talk, they'll continue to reprocess spent fuel and they'll have more nuclear bombs.

So time does matter in this instance.

O'BRIEN: Senior administration officials say there will be no inducements offered to end the nuclear program. In addition to that -- or make them comply with what they've already agreed to in the past.

Is it possible, in your mind, to strike a deal where there is no financial inducement for North Korea?

SHERMAN: Well, of course, I think you're quite right, it's not possible to strike a final deal without the United States putting something on the table. But I think our opening position, and understandably so, is that North Korea has to freeze or halt its nuclear weapons program, begin to dismantle that program and then if they meet the concerns of the United States and the rest of the world community, good things come of such good behavior, because the United States is in a position where it doesn't want to say that it's rewarding bad behavior.

The other thing that the United States is doing which is sort of interesting is using these six party talks to let other countries put inducements and incentives and a vision for a positive future on the table to tantalize North Korea without the United States having to do it themselves.

At the end of the day, though, the United States will be in the game, along with everyone else.

O'BRIEN: We noted yesterday that Jack Pritchard, who was a special envoy in these talks, resigned. Give me a sense of how his resignation is being felt and the impact of that. It was noted yesterday that he had a very different approach than the administration's more hard-line approach. How will that affect the talks if they go with this hard-line direction, in your mind?

SHERMAN: Well, Ambassador Pritchard is an extraordinary public servant. He served in the Army for 23 years, then he served at the National Security Council, at the State Department as the special envoy to North Korea. He's a very capable individual and actually during the time I was in the Clinton administration he was the skeptic. He was the tough, toughest negotiator there was. So for him to be described as some kind of a softie, I find a bit amusing. I think that after the initial press interest, however, it really won't have a major impact on the negotiation. The main impact will be that his expertise, his institutional memory won't be present as part of the American delegation. But I think we do have a capable team and it'll go forward. And I don't know that at the end of the day that Ambassador Pritchard's approach, which was one of carrots and sticks, and certainly of both, won't be the exact same approach that the United States will end up taking.

O'BRIEN: Former Ambassador Wendy Sherman, thanks for joining us this morning.

Appreciate your time.

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