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North Korea Launches Another Missile; How Prepared is U.S. to Intercept Missiles?

Aired July 05, 2006 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. North Korea launching yet another missile, just a few hours ago. Now seven missile firings in all.
We're live from Washington to Beijing and all parts in between ahead this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello in for Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And we begin with that barrage of missile firings from North Korea. The U.S. confirming another test firing just a few hours ago. That makes seven since yesterday. Now the question is how will the world respond?

Here in New York, in just a few hours, an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to consider options. All seven missiles landed in the Sea of Japan. All but one medium range missiles. The one that caused the most concern in advance of those tests, a long- range missile called the Taepodong-2. But it failed less than a minute into its flight. Analysts say if it was able to work properly, it could reach the Western U.S.

The North Koreans do have a nuclear program. But American intelligence believes it is unlikely they have a nuclear device small enough to fit in the nose cone of a missile.

The White House is sending its chief negotiator on North Korea to Asia today to confer with allies.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House with more on how the administration is responding -- Suzanne, good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Well, senior administration officials who I spoke with this morning are saying honestly they are trying to play this down here, tone down the rhetoric, if you will. They say look, you had six short or mid-range missiles launched, one long-range missile that was launched but failed. And they said Kim Jong-Il essentially is trying to get attention here, that he loves a crisis situation and that that is what he is trying to bring about.

They say they are very heartened by some of the responses already from the international community, from the Japanese, the Chinese, the South Koreans, all at the very least condemning this act, some even going further, taking steps, economic/diplomatic sanctions.

So clearly the administration is really trying to play this down.

We got a statement yesterday from the national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, and Tony Snow, press secretary, saying: "The United States strongly condemns these missile launches and North Korea's unwillingness to heed calls for restraint from the international community. We are consulting with international partners on next steps. This provocative act violates the standing moratorium on missile tests to which the North had previously committed.

But having said all that, Miles, the administration also trying to give an image, if you will, project this image that they're not so worried about this. We even saw President Bush last night on the Truman Balcony here at the White House, watching the fireworks, enjoying his 60th birthday party. All of that to send a message here saying look, this is not going to be a standoff between the United States and North Korea -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right.

Clearly a battle of messages here.

Suzanne Malveaux at the White House.

Thank you.

U.S. spy satellites, of course, trained on those launch sites, watching those launches as they unfolded.

CNN's Jamie McIntyre live at the Pentagon.

The question is how prepared was the U.S. to possibly intercept these missiles if they were headed in a direction that would cause some harm -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the U.S. Northern Command, which has responsibility for operating the missile defense system, was up and operational, monitoring what was going on in -- on the Korean Peninsula. In fact, they've now confirmed, as you said, that seventh launch -- six short-range missiles, one of that Taepodong-2, which supposedly is a long-range missile.

They say the system was operational and they were prepared to take action if necessary. But they said they quickly determined that this missile launch was not a threat when it failed just over 40 seconds into the launch. And so no action was taken.

O'BRIEN: So what do we know, then, Jamie, about these missiles that they're firing? It seems like they're pretty rudimentary. And the one we are most concerned about, the one that had some long-range capability, was a complete dud.

MCINTYRE: Right. Well, the short-range missiles are things that North Korea has had and tested for a long time. They're mostly SCUD missiles, SCUD technology, the so-called Nodong missile, which is a missile that combines several SCUD engines in one missile. And the Taepodong, in which they tried to stack one SCUD on top of another to make a several stage missile. It was tested in 1998. It didn't work that well then. And this one didn't work well at all.

And, in fact, you know, launching a missile isn't as easy. Some of the problems they've had with the U.S. missile defense system have not been with the sophisticated technology to intercept the warhead in space. It's been with some of the more routine, if you will, technology of just getting the missiles to launch. It's sometimes not as easy as it looks.

O'BRIEN: Well, they don't call it rocket science for nothing.

What kind of capability, what sort of technological wherewithal, what kind of great minds do they have in North Korea to pull this kind of thing off?

MCINTYRE: Well, the, you know, the problem with missile technology is if you don't do it all the time and you don't test it all the time, you can't figure out what's working and what's not working. And that's one of the reasons why the U.S. was interested in this moratorium remaining in place. I'm not sure how much they would have gained from this particular test, except to say that so far what they have is not working.

O'BRIEN: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thanks very much -- Carol.

COSTELLO: An official response from China is finally out now and it is decidedly low key. It calls for cool heads and no actions that would increase the tension. Japan and South Korea were much quicker to react and both reacted more strongly than China.

We have live reports from all three places.

Jaime Florcruz is in Beijing.

Sohn Jie-Ae in Seoul.

But we begin with Atika Shubert.

She's in Tokyo, where more sanctions have already been considered -- Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Japan has taken the toughest stand out of all of North Korea's neighbors, imposing its own sanctions, barring North Korean officials from entering Japan, also posing economic sanctions, the first step of which was to suspend a ferry that was servicing North Korea and Japan. It was the only direct link between the two countries. And the government says there may be more economic sanctions coming. Having said that, however, Japan's prime minister also spoke to reports today they're leaving room for negotiation, saying that even though North Korea will accomplish nothing with these missile launches, it's important to know that negotiations are still possible. Talks are always an options.

At the moment, Japan is now pushing for this emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. And clearly in that meeting, Japan wants to see some sort of censure of North Korea, possibly also asking for U.N. economic sanctions -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Atika Shubert live in Tokyo.

South Korea lives under a daily threat from the North. It is frustrated by this latest show of force and the world's seeming inability to deal effectively with the North.

Sohn Jie-Ae live in Seoul, South Korea to tell us more -- Jie-Ae.

SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the South Korean government was relatively quick to come out and voice their grave concern about North Korea's missile launch. The South Korean government said that what -- that the North Korea bears responsibility for any type of results that come out of the missile launch. It also expressed its frustration at what North Korea did and the effect it would have on giving more voice to hardliners, especially outside of South Korea, those in Japan and the United States, about the deepening of the -- of isolation of North Korea and the overall effect of South Koreans and how they would look at North Korea.

And when we went to the streets, the South Korean people on the streets echoed this statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The North Korean missile launch must have a bad effect on our country. The pressure by the United States and other big countries in the region are going to be felt by us more than anyone else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOHN: And so the South Koreans overall are gravely concerned about what the effect this missile launch would have on both sides of the Korean Peninsula -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sohn Jie-Ae live in Seoul this morning.

North Korea's powerful ally, China, one of the those big countries, is expressing concern, but in that low key way, perhaps illustrating the tough position it is in now.

Jaime Florcruz live in Beijing, China.

China wants to improve its relations with the United States -- Jaime. It also has strategic interests in China.

So what's it to do?

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is exactly China's dilemma now. In fact, that's probably why it took China more than 16 hours to issue an official reaction after the North Korea launched several missiles.

It came in the form of a foreign ministry statement saying that China is very concerned over this situation, but also hopes that all sides will keep calm and restrained. That's such a carefully worded statement. It reflects China's diplomatic dilemma.

China is a major ally of North Korea, a close neighbor, also a main provider of oil and food and other economic aid.

So the U.S. and Japan has been pressing China to lean on North Korea.

However, North Korea also expects China to help it private any attempts in the United Nations Security Council to impose economic sanctions. So China is in a bind.

However, China hopes that the North Koreans and the Americans will return to the negotiation table and will return to the six party talks. China has hosted five rounds of the six party talks for the past six -- for the past three years. And China hopes to restart that because they think that talking and not threats is the best way to resolve this crisis -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, and, you know, interestingly enough, China's vice premier is supposed to visit Pyongyang next week to renew this friendship treaty between North Korea and China. Of course, that visit might take on new dimensions right now, or maybe not take place at all.

FLORCRUZ: Well, maybe not. But that by chance, perhaps, is a good chance for the Chinese to directly talk with the top leaders, perhaps even with Kim Jong-Il, and convince the North Koreans that the best way out of this crisis is to return to the dialogue and negotiation table instead of doing these high profile missile launches -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jaime Florcruz reporting live for us from Beijing, China this morning.

O'BRIEN: Right now we're about two hours away from an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

CNN's Richard Roth covers the United Nations like nobody else.

He is here to give us a preview. Unfortunately, it will be a closed-door meeting. We won't be able to see it take place. But those ambassadors undoubtedly will give us a sense of where things are headed. RICHARD ROTH, SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Believe me, Miles, some of these meetings you'd want to keep closed. And I guess if it was truly urgent, they would have met last night. But after some huddling, they decided to find out exactly what happened with these launches and then meet this morning.

The Security Council will actually first look at what its schedule is for the month and then they will have so-called consultations.

It's likely that Japan and the U.S. will be pushing for firm action, possibly a statement today by the full Council, which all 15 countries would have to agree to. It's possible China would sign on at least to that, because Beijing and Moscow have both criticized the North Korean missile launch, expressing concern.

But after that, some hard diplomatic work ahead.

Can the U.S. rally other countries and get China, perhaps, to back a resolution that may, down the road, threaten sanctions?

Miles, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi was in Graceland last week with President Bush, honoring Elvis Presley. Maybe one of Elvis's songs, "Suspicious Minds," that's the theme here today regarding North Korea's intentions.

O'BRIEN: It comes to mind here, for sure.

Talking about China, the response thus far that they've put out has been a bit tepid, you might say.

ROTH: Well, these countries are not going to react as some in Washington might, and other circles. There's going to be a more deliberate attempt -- I mean China is very cautious. We talked to a Chinese official who, in effect, said that -- don't look for any immediate action, that China is not going to be pounding the table like Adlai Stevenson was in 1962 -- where are the missiles -- regarding the Cuban missile crisis.

China is an ally of North Korea, but -- and holds the cards regarding the economic pipeline for North Korea. But it's going to take time here for the U.S. to rally support and convince China, perhaps, that the threat is intent enough that China must come along here diplomatically.

O'BRIEN: Richard Roth at the United Nations.

Thank you very much.

We'll have more on the developments in North Korea in just a moment.

Coming up, former U.N. ambassador and the current New Mexico- governor, Bill Richardson, will join us live. And we'll ask him how serious the North Korean threat is. He was just there this past fall, too. COSTELLO: Also ahead, U.S. forces try a different tactic to cleanup an insurgent stronghold in Iraq. A top U.S. commander tells us why he thinks this plan will succeed where others have failed.

And later, saving lives while battling a racist myth. The push to make sure African-American children are safe in the water. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We just got word from North Korean broadcasters, North Korean state broadcasters, saying North Korea believes the country is prepared to cope with any provocation by the United States.

So that's the first inkling of a public statement from the North Koreans in the wake of these missile tests. Now, seven of them that we've counted since the middle of the day yesterday, July 4th.

Now, we're a few hours away from a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The 16 nations in the Council will try to find a unified response to the North Korean missile barrage. That won't be so easy.

New Mexico-Governor Bill Richardson knows how hard it is to negotiate in that context.

he is a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

He joins us from Cape Cod, joining us from his vacation.

Good to have you with us, sir.

You were just in North Korea in the fall. So before we talk about what's going to happen in the United Nations, I'm curious of your impressions then and if anything you saw at that time sort of laid the groundwork for what we're seeing now.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: Well, what I saw at that time was North Korean distress at the United States freezing their bank accounts, their assets in banks in Macau. They had a little counterfeiting scheme that we caught them and they were very concerned about the pressure we were putting for them to stop it.

I think that may be an unknown reason or a hidden reason why they're so upset.

At the same time, I sense very much that my impression at the time -- and I went there not as an envoy of the Bush administration, although they gave me an airplane -- I went there at their invitation. And their message was look, we're ready to dismantle our nuclear weapons, but we want the United States to deal with us directly. We want to negotiate directly. We want to go through -- we do want to go through the six party countries. We want to have -- be treated as a legitimate nuclear power.

And so I believe what's happened with North Korea is they've been upset because of the freezing of their assets, because we've been paying attention to Iran. We've given Iran incentives on a civilian nuclear reactor that we didn't give them. And they want more attention. And they're like kids reacting to being neglected.

O'BRIEN: Well, they're getting attention. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

"LARRY KING LIVE" last night, Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter was on the program.

Let's listen to a brief excerpt of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: And I think it's very questionable whether the North Koreans are going to stop either their missile program or their nuclear weapons program for anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: You know, it's interesting, you know who seems to sort of agree with that point is the defense secretary under the Clinton administration, Bill Perry, who wrote an op-ed just a week or so ago suggesting a preemptive strike on that long-range missile, which turned out to be a dud after all, was a good course of action.

What do you think of all that kind of talk?

RICHARDSON: Well, my view is that diplomacy is really our only option because what you don't want to do is engage like the North Koreans in provocative acts. And I think the Bush administration is playing it correctly -- not overreact, but what we need is a strategy, one that says to the North Koreans, look, you've got to destroy your missiles and your nuclear weapons.

And they came close about six months ago to an agreement that basically said that, in exchange for destroying those missiles and nuclear weapons, North Korea would not be attacked, an armistice agreement. They would get a substantial amount of fuel, economic assistance from North -- from South Korea, from Japan. And they basically agreed to that framework.

What we failed to do was follow-up and engage them directly on what steps need to be taken on the destruction of those nuclear weapons, consistent with what steps we're ready to give in terms of assistance.

We were preoccupied, I believe, with Iran, and rightly so, and with Iraq. So what you need is consistent engagement with the North Koreans, because if you provoke them, they get very, very, very upset at even the slightest little provocation. Then what happens is they go haywire like they just did. They act irrationally. They act without any kind of common sense. They don't negotiate like any other nation, because they're so isolated and they have a cult of personality in Kim Jong-Il. O'BRIEN: Let's -- the Chinese are out with a reaction this morning, and it's lukewarm. It's interesting -- I want you to help us understand the Chinese in all of this. They say this, in part: "We hope that all relevant sides can remain calm and restrained and do more things which are conducive to peace and stability and do not take any actions to escalate and complicate the situation."

Obviously, a very tame response from the Chinese.

Help us understand why -- I mean, really, if you think about it, the Chinese have as much at stake as anybody in this game.

Shouldn't they be taking the lead on trying to stop North Korea from whatever their goal might be in this case?

RICHARDSON: Well, we have tried incessantly to get the Chinese to pressure the North Koreans the most. But they refuse to do it. China has the most leverage because they provide foodstuffs and other necessities to North Korea.

But at the same time, I think that China do not want North Korea to have a stream of refugees going into China at the same time that North Korea might collapse.

So, unfortunately that response of the Chinese is not good, because if we are going to have...

O'BRIEN: So it's up to the U.S. then, because the Chinese won't do it? So it's up to the U.S.? is that the way you do it?

RICHARDSON: Well, I think South Korea, too, has some pressure points. But South Korea has a policy of accommodating the North Koreans. That's the policy of their administration. So they've got to put some sanctions on.

Japan, I believe, has ways to put economic sanctions.

But the first effort should be diplomacy. The first effort should be either face-to-face talks between the United States and North Korea or a resumption of the six party talks, where they start agreeing in concrete ways that the North Koreans, in exchange for dismantling their nuclear arsenal, they get some assistance and some assurances of stability and that they won't be attacked.

That's the only way. It's not a perfect solution. But what you don't want to do is provoke the North Koreans militarily. They have possibly six nuclear weapons. They've got the fourth largest army in the world. They've got missiles poised at South Korea. We've got 50,000 American troops on the DMZ.

So we have to be careful and diplomacy is, I believe, tough diplomacy, is the best response that we can give right now, without overreacting.

O'BRIEN: New Mexico-Governor Bill Richardson.

Thanks for being with us this morning.

RICHARDSON: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Carol.

COSTELLO: As we've been telling you, the White House has condemned North Korea's actions.

But what are other countries in Asia saying?

We're going to take you live to Hong Kong for more on that.

And the deadline to keep Atlantic City casinos open has passed.

Could lawmakers find a winning hand to keep them from closing?

We're live in Atlantic City on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's done. They're packing up. All bets are off. Atlantic City's 12 casinos now closed for the first time ever thanks to New Jersey's big budget mess.

CNN's Mary Snow live at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, where -- ooh, I see some people behind you still.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, actually, those are regulators walking through. The hotel is open. But as you just mentioned, the 12 casinos here in Atlantic City shut down.

Joining me now is Joe Corbo.

He is the president of the Casino Association of New Jersey.

But, also, he is the vice president and general counsel of Borgata.

Joe, you were saying that you, along with gamblers, were surprised that it came to this.

What is the immediate impact? How many -- what do you tell your workers here?

JOSEPH CORBO, PRESIDENT, CASINO ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY: Well, our workers, our casino floor workers were on furlough for today. And as an industry, we employ about 45,000, 50,000 people. I would estimate about 20,000 of them are directly related to the casino floor. They're on a day to day basis.

Our hotels, our restaurants, our bars, our clubs, our spas are still open. Those employees are here, but we're going to be monitoring those business levels because obviously the casino generates businesses for those separate businesses. And to the extent that they suffer a decrease, we're going to have to decrease those employees, as well. SNOW: So that number could grow by the thousands each day, right?

CORBO: Absolutely. And they're -- from what I understand, there are other casinos within our association that are more casino concentric than others and they may be laying off even more of their employees.

So there is going to be an hour to hour, day to day process for our employees. Also, for the citizens of the State of New Jersey, who benefit from the millions of dollars of tax benefits that we generate as an industry for the state.

SNOW: Any other avenues -- I know you had tried legal avenues to stay open. Are you hearing any word on how this is going to play out?

CORBO: We really don't have any other legal plans of attack at this point. However, I will say, with regard to that, what we don't understand as an industry is with the tax dollars that we generate and the fact that we actually pay the state inspectors who are on our casino floor their salaries, we don't understand why an exception couldn't have been made for our industry, particularly given the tax revenues that we generate for the state. That just doesn't make sense to us.

SNOW: And Joe Corbo, we're hearing that from gamblers, as well.

Thank you for joining us this morning -- and, Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: Thanks.

Mary Snow reporting live from Atlantic City this morning.

The day's top stories just ahead, including the latest on that barrage of missile tests in North Korea.

We'll take you live to Hong Kong for reaction across Asia.

And later, the brutal battle for control of Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold in Iraq. U.S. forces have struggled to gain control, but that may soon change. A top U.S. commander tells us why.

That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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