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CNN Live At Daybreak
North Korea Nukes: The Last Holdout
Aired February 24, 2004 - 05:45 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: This is the eve of some important negotiations in Beijing. Officials from six nations are in the Chinese capital and tomorrow the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and North Korea open talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
Our senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy has a preview for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN SENIOR ASIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korean's Kim Jong IL is, for all practical purposes, the last holdout. Libya's Col. Gadhafi has abandoned his nuclear weapons program. Iran is talking to the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog the IAEA. Saddam Hussein, of course, is in custody. Yet North Korea continues to reject the Bush administration's demands for the unilateral dismantling of its nuclear program.
JACK PRITCHARD, FMR. STATE DEPT. KOREA SPECIALIST: It's absolutely a non-starter, at least from a North Korean point of view.
CHINOY: Former State Department Korea expert Jack Pritchard visited North Korea last month where he was shown the country's nuclear facilities and met senior officials.
PRITCHARD: They feel themselves to be a very small country in the face of a superpower, the United States. And he needs to feel as though whatever they are doing is being matched by either goodwill or a specific action by the United States.
CHINOY: In the run up to these talks, Pyongyang has signaled a desire to deal, offering to freeze its nuclear activity in return for energy assistance. But as was true in last August's first round of six nation talks, Washington's negotiating position is that the North must act first.
JOHN BOLTON, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: The dismantlement of their nuclear weapons program is critical to any further movement in the talks.
CHINOY: And now there is a new twist, Pakistan's revelation that rogue scientist Abdel-Qadeer Khan provided North Korea with technology and know-how to make a uranium-based bomb to complement the country's plutonium-based weapons program.
Kim Jong IL's regime, however, has denied the existence of a uranium program. Getting the North to come clean on this is high on the U.S. agenda here. BOLTON: I think the uranium enrichment program is the 800-pound gorilla in the negotiating room. You can't solve a problem if you deny that it exists or if you wish it away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHINOY: Despite the denial, there have been some signs that North Korea may be willing to discuss the uranium issue with Washington, but only in return for the kind of concession, economic and diplomatic, that the Bush administration has so far been unwilling to grant unless Pyongyang first agrees to abandon its nuclear program once and for all -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Mike Chinoy live from Beijing 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 24, 2004 - 05:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: This is the eve of some important negotiations in Beijing. Officials from six nations are in the Chinese capital and tomorrow the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and North Korea open talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
Our senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy has a preview for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN SENIOR ASIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korean's Kim Jong IL is, for all practical purposes, the last holdout. Libya's Col. Gadhafi has abandoned his nuclear weapons program. Iran is talking to the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog the IAEA. Saddam Hussein, of course, is in custody. Yet North Korea continues to reject the Bush administration's demands for the unilateral dismantling of its nuclear program.
JACK PRITCHARD, FMR. STATE DEPT. KOREA SPECIALIST: It's absolutely a non-starter, at least from a North Korean point of view.
CHINOY: Former State Department Korea expert Jack Pritchard visited North Korea last month where he was shown the country's nuclear facilities and met senior officials.
PRITCHARD: They feel themselves to be a very small country in the face of a superpower, the United States. And he needs to feel as though whatever they are doing is being matched by either goodwill or a specific action by the United States.
CHINOY: In the run up to these talks, Pyongyang has signaled a desire to deal, offering to freeze its nuclear activity in return for energy assistance. But as was true in last August's first round of six nation talks, Washington's negotiating position is that the North must act first.
JOHN BOLTON, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: The dismantlement of their nuclear weapons program is critical to any further movement in the talks.
CHINOY: And now there is a new twist, Pakistan's revelation that rogue scientist Abdel-Qadeer Khan provided North Korea with technology and know-how to make a uranium-based bomb to complement the country's plutonium-based weapons program.
Kim Jong IL's regime, however, has denied the existence of a uranium program. Getting the North to come clean on this is high on the U.S. agenda here. BOLTON: I think the uranium enrichment program is the 800-pound gorilla in the negotiating room. You can't solve a problem if you deny that it exists or if you wish it away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHINOY: Despite the denial, there have been some signs that North Korea may be willing to discuss the uranium issue with Washington, but only in return for the kind of concession, economic and diplomatic, that the Bush administration has so far been unwilling to grant unless Pyongyang first agrees to abandon its nuclear program once and for all -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Mike Chinoy live from Beijing 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
