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CNN Live At Daybreak

'International Wrap'

Aired August 29, 2003 - 05:33   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: An unusual display of North Korean patriotism tops our international wrap.
Our senior international editor Eli Flournoy is joining us today.

And you want to start with France, though.

ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, actually, we just got word in from the French health ministry. They have updated the death toll from the August heat wave in France to 11,435 people. That's up from the last estimate, which was just over 10,000, that they had, and, of course, those are astounding numbers from France.

COSTELLO: I know it. That's just crazy that that many people could die from the heat.

FLOURNOY: Right.

COSTELLO: And it's mostly elderly people, right?

FLOURNOY: Mostly elderly people. We're talking about temperatures above 100 degrees, which is really just unheard of in France, and of course people were not prepared for that kind of heat. They don't have air conditioning, unlike most places in the United States, even, where you don't have that kind of heat and you have air conditioning.

COSTELLO: And the younger people were on vacation and they weren't checking on their older relatives and...

FLOURNOY: There have been some stories about that, that people were left, you know, left alone in a situation where they just got caught by surprise. And the heat, it's amazing how quickly the heat can set in. But...

COSTELLO: Yes, on to North Korea.

FLOURNOY: Moving on to North Korea, in the talks in North Korea, a lot of the information that's coming out, you hear the rhetoric from North Korea. It sounds almost bizarre in what their position on it is and why would they want to have nuclear weapons and why would they want to have such extreme rhetoric and talk about fears that the United States is planning to invade North Korea. And I wanted to show you a piece of video that we've gotten today, which gives a little bit of insight into the mindset of a lot of North Korean people and how important prestige is to North Koreans and their leader, Kim Jong Il, and the way that North Koreans feel about their leader. Because when they're in these talks with the United States and China and South Korea, they, it's incredibly important for them to save face and to have, you know, to have the prestige of being an international power. And being a nuclear superpower is...

COSTELLO: Which kind of leads you to believe that they may be just -- it may be just bravado.

FLOURNOY: Right. Right.

COSTELLO: And not total truth.

FLOURNOY: Well, what we're seeing here is some North Korean cheerleaders who are in South Korea for the university games. And they were driving along in their bus and they saw these banners up, which had been put up to greet them, actually, that show on the banner, as you can see there, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. And they were upset, though, when they saw these banners because they thought it was -- it had been raining outside and they thought -- they saw that they were actually -- they complained that they had been hung on dead trees.

And this seems maybe like an extreme example of a protest, but they were outraged. And some of them were crying there. They were yelling.

And South Korean officials, they came and they took the banners down, got them out. But it is an extreme cult of personality, almost, with Kim Jong Il having almost a god like status there in North Korea.

COSTELLO: Which is strange when you hear that most people are starving in North Korea.

FLOURNOY: Right. And that is the dramatic irony, because on the one hand you've got North Korea that desperately needs economic attention and most analysts believe that that is truly the motivation for waiting to have talks, waiting, of course, to have a relationship with other countries. But at the same time, this cult of personality with Kim Jong Il and his status and the need to have that status for North Korea as a country is leading them down the path to have nuclear weapons or want to become a nuclear superpower, because it does change your status in the world. There's no question about that.

Pakistan is a good example of that. Pakistan getting nuclear weapons capability changed their whole status in the international community. So that is part of the dynamic that's playing out at the talks, or has played out at the talks in Beijing.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll see if they really test those weapons and if talks will happen again.

FLOURNOY: Yes.

COSTELLO: Eli Flournoy, many thanks.

FLOURNOY: Sure.

COSTELLO: Very interesting.

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 29, 2003 - 05:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: An unusual display of North Korean patriotism tops our international wrap.
Our senior international editor Eli Flournoy is joining us today.

And you want to start with France, though.

ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, actually, we just got word in from the French health ministry. They have updated the death toll from the August heat wave in France to 11,435 people. That's up from the last estimate, which was just over 10,000, that they had, and, of course, those are astounding numbers from France.

COSTELLO: I know it. That's just crazy that that many people could die from the heat.

FLOURNOY: Right.

COSTELLO: And it's mostly elderly people, right?

FLOURNOY: Mostly elderly people. We're talking about temperatures above 100 degrees, which is really just unheard of in France, and of course people were not prepared for that kind of heat. They don't have air conditioning, unlike most places in the United States, even, where you don't have that kind of heat and you have air conditioning.

COSTELLO: And the younger people were on vacation and they weren't checking on their older relatives and...

FLOURNOY: There have been some stories about that, that people were left, you know, left alone in a situation where they just got caught by surprise. And the heat, it's amazing how quickly the heat can set in. But...

COSTELLO: Yes, on to North Korea.

FLOURNOY: Moving on to North Korea, in the talks in North Korea, a lot of the information that's coming out, you hear the rhetoric from North Korea. It sounds almost bizarre in what their position on it is and why would they want to have nuclear weapons and why would they want to have such extreme rhetoric and talk about fears that the United States is planning to invade North Korea. And I wanted to show you a piece of video that we've gotten today, which gives a little bit of insight into the mindset of a lot of North Korean people and how important prestige is to North Koreans and their leader, Kim Jong Il, and the way that North Koreans feel about their leader. Because when they're in these talks with the United States and China and South Korea, they, it's incredibly important for them to save face and to have, you know, to have the prestige of being an international power. And being a nuclear superpower is...

COSTELLO: Which kind of leads you to believe that they may be just -- it may be just bravado.

FLOURNOY: Right. Right.

COSTELLO: And not total truth.

FLOURNOY: Well, what we're seeing here is some North Korean cheerleaders who are in South Korea for the university games. And they were driving along in their bus and they saw these banners up, which had been put up to greet them, actually, that show on the banner, as you can see there, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. And they were upset, though, when they saw these banners because they thought it was -- it had been raining outside and they thought -- they saw that they were actually -- they complained that they had been hung on dead trees.

And this seems maybe like an extreme example of a protest, but they were outraged. And some of them were crying there. They were yelling.

And South Korean officials, they came and they took the banners down, got them out. But it is an extreme cult of personality, almost, with Kim Jong Il having almost a god like status there in North Korea.

COSTELLO: Which is strange when you hear that most people are starving in North Korea.

FLOURNOY: Right. And that is the dramatic irony, because on the one hand you've got North Korea that desperately needs economic attention and most analysts believe that that is truly the motivation for waiting to have talks, waiting, of course, to have a relationship with other countries. But at the same time, this cult of personality with Kim Jong Il and his status and the need to have that status for North Korea as a country is leading them down the path to have nuclear weapons or want to become a nuclear superpower, because it does change your status in the world. There's no question about that.

Pakistan is a good example of that. Pakistan getting nuclear weapons capability changed their whole status in the international community. So that is part of the dynamic that's playing out at the talks, or has played out at the talks in Beijing.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll see if they really test those weapons and if talks will happen again.

FLOURNOY: Yes.

COSTELLO: Eli Flournoy, many thanks.

FLOURNOY: Sure.

COSTELLO: Very interesting.

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