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North Korea Off.: Satellite Successfully Launched Into Space; GOP Candidates Slam President Obama in Debate Over the Weekend; Poll: Trump Coming Out on Top of Rivals in New Hampshire. Aired 2-2:15a ET

Aired February 07, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:16] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're live from Atlanta. Thank you for joining us, I'm Natalie Allen. And we begin with the breaking news that is out of North Korea.

North Korean state media are celebrating what they claim is the successful launch of a satellite. But the U.S., Japan and South Korea say, it is all a cover for a ballistic missile test. And it calls for the emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, now set for late Sunday morning.

Still not clear if the satellite actually made it into orbit. Parts of the rocket apparently fell on to the sea, to the West and South of the Korean Peninsula. The lost coming one month after Pyongyang taunted (ph) what they said was a successful test of a hydrogen bomb.

We're covering this story across the world.

CNN's Alexandra Field is in Beijing for us. And Paula Hancocks is monitoring the story from Seoul, South Korea.

And let's start with you, Paula, because you've been monitoring the official statements and the photographs coming out of North Korea.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Natalie.

The smile really says it all. Kim Jong-un, the young North Korean leader is clearly delighted a photo of him smiling with the scientist behind him applauding.

This is a big day for the North Korean leader and he has put a premium on his space program. And this, as far as North Korea was concerned, has been a very successful satellite launch.

Now, they didn't expect that it took place about 9:00 this morning, local time, that's about 6.5 hours ago now. And they say that's -- within 9 minutes and 46 seconds, the satellite entered orbit.

Now, we don't have confirmation of that. So, we understand from a Senior U.S. defense official that they believe that the launched vehicle appeared to have reached space. We don't have confirmation in dependence of North Korea that the satellite actually entered orbit.

So, this is the clearly a very happy day for Kim Jong-un, a very worrying day for the rest of the world as you say. Many countries believing that this satellite launched is not peaceful as Pyongyang claims it is. It is rather a cover up, a front for a ballistic missile test.

And so, what we are hearing condemnation from around the world from Tokyo, from Seoul, from Washington, many other countries luckily to weigh into this as well. Natalie.

ALLEN: Yes. And everyone of course, accustomed it to the testing and the posturing on the part of North Korea.

But, this, though, Paula, the turning of comes as what? One month after its alleged testing of the H-bomb, is that right?

HANCOCKS: That's right, yes. January 6th was when they have that nuclear test. And an international community is still working at the U.N. sanctions to that. There's no consensus on how strong those sanctions should be at this point.

One interesting point as well, just in the last hour, we've heard from the South Korean defense ministry and from U.S. forces in Korea saying that they are now going to officially discuss whether or not a missile defense system, a particular missile defense system called THAAD, should be deployed to South Korea.

Now, this particular system is one that that worries China. China is concerned that it could interfere with its own systems, it could be used to spy on them with the radar facilities that it has, and it has long been a contentious issue.

South Korea and the U.S. here are constantly saying they are not discussing yet to try and placate fears in the region, but they are now saying that that's been such a strong provocation from North Korea that they have no choice but to discuss it.

The U.S. is saying that it would be focused solely on North Korea and contribute to a layout missile defense that (ph) from U.S. forces in Korea.

So, this is an interesting development, one that will worry China. Potentially, it will worry China more than this satellite launch itself. It is a missile defense system that they desperately do not want on the Korean Peninsula.

ALLEN: All right. We thank you, Paula Hancocks, from Seoul.

So, let's go to China now, Alexandra Field is there in Beijing. And Beijing has had a response to this latest action by North Korea. Alexandra.

ALEXANRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're right, Natalie. Officials in Beijing are in increasingly precarious position there. They have put out this public statement saying that they express the -- that they regret the use of ballistic missile technology carried out by North Korea. At the same time, they said they are calling forth restraint and calm from all parties and that they believe that dialogue, negotiation, consultation is the path forward.

But privately, officials in Beijing have to be rankled by this move. It comes on the eve of the most important holiday here in Beijing, the Lunar New Year.

[02:05:03] It also comes after a senior official was dispatch to Pyongyang recently to call for some restraint from North Korea, and it comes just a month, as you pointed out, after that reported H-bomb test, the test before which the North Korean government did not warned or give any notice to Beijing.

China is historically the closest ally to North Korea. That means that the international community has put a lot of pressure on Beijing to use the leverage that they have because of the trade relationships, because of the economic relationships. There has been pressure on Beijing to support sanctions that would further choke off the North Korean economy.

U.S. officials leave it back with force, those in North Korea to begin to cooperate. But, Beijing is weighing its own interest in the region. They do not want to destabilize their neighboring country. They don't want to invite a crisis add its border where you could have in influx of refugees.

So at this point, Beijing has continued to say that they're should not be sanctioned just for sanction's sake instead they have turned this around on the U.S and said that this recent provocations from Pyongyang are designed to get the attention of the Americans, and that it's the U.S. that needs to get to the table with North Korea so that negotiations could be had and that this can be worked out diplomatically rather than through more sanctions. Natalie.

ALLEN: Yes. At the same time, though, Alexandra, we are hearing that there very well could be more sanctions. And isn't it true that we could see Chinese business institutions hit by U.S. sanctions those, I guess, that do business with North Korea?

FIELD: Well, yes. As you pointed out before, we're talking about the H-bomb, the reported H-bomb test that happened about a month ago. There were still discussions of what kind of sanctions should be imposed on North Korea as a result to that, and then there's a question of whether or not those sanctions would impact Beijing's operations within North Korea.

Again, these are two countries that share a border. Beijing is the primary trade partner for North Korea.

So, there is talk about whether or not there could be a hit to Beijing's interest in North Korea. But, this is much bigger than really in economic question for Beijing or for China. They've got to look at this from the perspective of the geopolitics here, their own security and the risks of destabilizing the regime next door. That said, we have seen a cooling of the relationship between North Korea and China. Kim Jong-un has been in power for four years now. He has never met with President Xi Jinping. This is somewhat of a departure from Kim Jong-un's predecessor, Kim Jong-il his father, who did have some favor relationship with Chinese officials, at least had several meetings with Senior Chinese officials despite any aggression toward other countries or refusal to fall inline with sanctions against the country.

ALLEN: Yeah. And somewhat that Kim Jong-un perhaps does not respect any red lines and continues to cross however he chooses. A little bit different perhaps from his father and grandfather.

We thank you for your reporting out. Alexandra Field, for us there in Beijing.

And again, at the biggest holiday of the year for the people in China, this occurs next door in North Korea.

Well, China as we mentioned, has resisted toughening international sanctions on North Korea. But in the face of such a direct insult, could that change now?

Mike Chinoy is a senior fellow with the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. And earlier, I asked him, what this launch means for relations between Beijing and Pyongyang.

MIKE CHINOY, SENIOR FELLOW, U.S.-CHINA INSTITUTE, USC: This is really a poke in the eye of the Chinese by the North Koreans. They did this launch the day before the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year, a time when everything in China shuts down.

And so, it's really a kind of an egregious slap in the face at the Chinese to do this in this way, disrupting the Chinese military and the diplomatic apparatus, at a time when everybody try to get some time off. And it comes after the nuclear test, which was done over strong Chinese warnings as well.

I think what it shows is that Kim Jong-un has -- the North Korean leader, has calculated that he can really push the Chinese and test their patience because in the end it's -- it appears that however provocative North Korea's behavior, the Chinese are more concerned about the possible consequences of sanctions in terms of generating instability in North Korea and they're not going to go along with it. So, in effect, he can get away with it.

ALLEN: Again, that was our former Asia Editor for CNN, Mike Chinoy, he's now with the U.S.-China Institute at USC.

He also said this rocket launch may give the U.S. and South Korea more ammunition in getting China's support for stronger sanctions.

The U.S. Republican Presidential Candidate, Ted Cruz was quick to use North Korea's missile launch to slam the Obama administration.

[02:10:03] During Saturday night's debate in New Hampshire, Cruz argued the recent nuclear deal with Iran would lead to a similar outcome from the capital of Iran, Tehran, that we just saw from Pyongyang. Cruz says the U.S. needs missile defense, which we've just been talking about, to protect against North Korea. And he was then asked whether he would preemptively strike the North.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: At this point, I'm not going to speculate on that without the intelligence briefing that any commander in chief would have, knowing what exactly is there. One of the real problems is ...

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS: Senator Cruz, let me tell you this, you have talked tough about the Mideast. Do you haven't gotten those intelligence briefings about that? Why not tell us whether you would preemptively strike a missile on a launch pad that threatens the U.S.

CRUZ: Actually, with respect to haven't gotten the intelligence briefings on the Mideast. Those have been going on for many years. I haven't gotten the intelligence briefing tonight on what North Korea is doing because I'm here in New Hampshire. And when you're responding to an immediate incident, you need to know the intelligence of what's occurring.

But what I was saying, look, it is qualitatively different dealing with a country once they have nuclear weapons. It's why you prevent them from getting nuclear weapons in the first place, because your hands are somewhat tied once they have nukes.

It's why this Iranian nuclear deal is so catastrophic and it's why I pledge, on the very first day in office, to rip to shreds this Iranian nuclear deal so we're not sitting here in five years wondering what to do about an Iranian missile launch when they have nuclear weapons. The stakes are too high for that.

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ALLEN: And that was the last Republican debate before the primary on Tuesday.

At the latest CNN/WMUR poll says Donald Trump coming up on top of his Republican rivals in New Hampshire, holding an 11-point lead over Marco Rubio ahead of Tuesday's primary. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is leading Hillary Clinton by a two to one margin.

Return to Taiwan now, where more than 70 people remain unaccounted for after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake. Emergency crews are still digging to the debris looking for survivors if they pull back and a boy out there from the rubble. At least 20 people have been killed including a baby who is a 10 days old, the baby girl.

And there is this surveillance video that it shows the exact moment the earthquake hits. Smoke rises and then if you see here, really fast splashes chunks of cement been crashing it down. And they continue to look for possibly any more survivors. We'll keep post on that story from Taiwan.

Thank you for watching. CNN Marketplace Africa is coming up next.

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