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Trump Issues Warning to North Korea; Democrats Win Virginia and New Jersey Governors; New Details on Texas Church Shooter; Trump Asia Trip; U.K. Parliament Plagued by Scandal; Abu Dhabi Opens New Louvre Museum. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 08, 2017 - 00:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: "Do not try us" -- President Trump issues a stark warning to Kim Jong-Un during an address to South Korea's national assembly.

It's been one year since the U.S. elected Donald Trump. To mark the occasion Americans vote Democrat in key governor races on Tuesday.

And troubled past -- new details about how the Texas church gunman once escaped a mental health facility and snuck firearms onto his Air Force base. So how was he able to purchase guns?

Hello and welcome to our viewers, joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

And this is CNN NEWSROOM.

U.S. President Donald Trump is now on his way to Beijing after delivering a speech filled with vivid imagery to South Korea's national assembly. He praised Seoul's accomplishments over the past seven decades while condemning the suffering under the North's oppressive regime.

He emphasized America does not seek conflict but will not run away from it either. He urged China and Russia to step up their efforts to halt Pyongyang's nuclear program.

And he issued another stark warning to Kim Jong-Un.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The regime has interpreted America's past restraint as weakness. This would be a fatal miscalculation. This is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past.

Today, I hope I speak not only for our countries but for all civilized nations when I say to the North, do not underestimate us. And do not try us.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: For more on this, we have Matt Rivers in Beijing, Will Ripley, the only U.S. network reporter in Pyongyang, and Paula Hancocks on the phone after a busy day in Seoul. Good to have you all with us.

So let's start with Paula Hancocks in Seoul as we said. And Paula -- we just heard President Trump warn North Korea not to misinterpret past restraint by the U.S. as weakness. Do not underestimate us. Do not try us, he said. Strong words from President Trump.

We'll get North Korea's response, of course, from Will Ripley in just a moment. But first, what was the reaction to his speech in Seoul and how was he received overall?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well Rosemary -- certainly within the national assembly itself, there was a rising applause, there was a standing ovation after the 35-minute speech. But obviously it was a very receptive audience with a standing ovation as he walked in as well.

But it's a very different tone that he struck in this speech. Certainly some people are expressing fears that (INAUDIBLE) it was fairly measured in the fact that there were no off-the-cuff remarks. It was very much sticking to the script. And there were no overt threats to North Korea.

But what they've done with this speech from President Trump instead is really show the stark contrast between North and South Korea highlighting the human rights grievances (ph) of North Korea highlighting the devastating impact that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and his father and grandfather have had on the people of North Korea.

And what President Trump then did is time that into questioning why any other country in the world would allow this to happen. So this was really a message to China and Russia as well calling both of them out asking why they're not doing more to downgrade diplomatic ties with North Korea, to stop trade with North Korea.

So certainly within the chamber itself it was very well received but there were certainly some protesters outside -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Paula -- just stand by if you will. We'll come back to you in a moment.

I do want to turn to Will Ripley now in Pyongyang. And Will how is the North Korean leadership responding to President Trump's tough words and warnings?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We spoke with two government officials Rosemary just after President Trump's speech and they reiterated a statement that they gave to us about an hour before he spoke and I'll read you a portion of it. It says quote, "We don't care about what that mad dog may utter because we've all --

[00:04:56] CHURCH: All right. Unfortunately we have lost Will. We'll still try and get ahold of him. And while we try to do that, let's go to Matt Rivers.

Of course, Matt -- you're in Beijing there, Mr. Trump's next stop on his Asia trip where he will clearly focus on North Korea and the role he wants China to play in pressuring that rogue regime. How diplomatic does he need to be on that issue and how forthcoming will China be given they already know what he's going to say -- they heard what he said in Seoul.

MATT RIVERS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting -- Rosemary. We've kind of been in a bit of a stalemate really between China and the United States since Donald Trump came into power. We've known that both sides have staked out their positions on North Korea.

Donald Trump extremely consistent in saying that he wants China to do more to solve this ongoing crisis and China says it's doing enough already and that it won't cross a certain line.

But you heard Paula allude to it there when she spoke just a minute ago saying that in Donald Trump's speech in South Korea, excuse me, he kind of took a different tack that I thought was interesting.

And though we haven't really heard in the China calculation before he really brought up human rights and the fact that it's a fact that North Korea's government has made life for the people there incredibly worse. He brought up the starvation, the famine. And he almost played to the morality of the Chinese government. How could you continue to prop up a country like North Korea when they do this to their own people, when they enslave their own people, when they send them to forced labor camps?

And that was a kind of an interesting angle and I'm wondering, and we don't know this yet, but I'm wondering if that's one of the angles that Donald Trump is going to take when he has these negotiations with Xi Jinping.

Obviously, he's talked about trade between the United States and China using punitive trade measures to maybe get China to push more on North Korea. But the human rights angle there will be interesting to see how that plays into this very high stakes diplomacy that Donald Trump will be engaged in when he lands here in Beijing in just a couple of hours.

CHURCH: All right.

We do have Will Ripley back. Will -- you were just giving us the reaction there from North Korea. Just continue on from where you left off there.

RIPLEY: All right. I'm not sure how much you heard so I will just start from the beginning that we did speak with two North Korean officials just after President Trump's speech.

They reiterated a statement that they gave to us about an hour before he spoke where they were really trying to downplay the significance and the impact of his words. I'll read you a brief quote. It says, "We don't care about what that

mad dog may utter" -- referring to President Trump. They say, "We've already heard enough."

And they also said and I thought this was significant that the situation currently on the Korean Peninsula, they say is the most tense that it has been since the end of the Korean War in 1953. And that's a pretty dramatic statement to come from the North Koreans given that there have been moments over the decades where there has been extraordinarily high levels of tension, even, you know, small skirmishes -- military skirmishes between the two sides.

They're saying that the situation right now with the United States and President Trump is even worse than what we've seen in the past. So it shows how serious they take the President's rhetoric leading up to this speech in Seoul even as they try to downplay the significance of the speech itself.

And you also heard President Trump talk about the three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups in the waters off the Korean Peninsula along with all of the ships that accompany them. There's a ballistic missile submarine in the region.

And while President said that this will bring peace through stability, North Koreans say it only gives them motivation to bolster their nuclear defenses. They say that having nuclear weapons will also bring peace and stability to the region by stopping the United States from taking preemptive military action.

So you can see how the two sides have very different views about the North Korean nuclear program, the North Koreans think they are essential to their regime's survival. What we don't have yet, Rosemary, and we're hoping to get, we've asked for it, is a response to the lengthy allegations of human rights abuses and really a pointed attack by President Trump on the North Korean system at large because what the North Koreans have told me in the past is they acknowledge that there are many people in this country who suffer economically.

There are a lot of very poor people certainly here in the showpiece capital of Pyongyang. You're seeing the best that North Korea has to offer. But I've traveled in the rural areas and you see a striking lack of infrastructure. Things like clean water and electricity and nutritious food are hard to come by for many millions of North Koreans.

But they don't blame their system or their leadership for that, they say. They blame the United States in the years of economic pressure being put on this country. They say it cripples them from being able to develop to their full potential.

But of course, you can't argue with the argument that there are no dissenting voices allowed here in North Korea. There are no dissenting views. It is an authoritarian regime where anybody who speaks out against it, well that's simply not tolerated.

So we look forward to a more official response to North Korea to that lengthy case about human rights that President Trump made in Seoul.

CHURCH: And Will, while we have you there, just in case -- I don't want to lose you. But I did want to ask about the trip that President Trump was going to make to the DMZ. It didn't happen in the end because of bad weather. It had to be cancelled.

[00:10:05] If he had taken that trip, how much of a provocation would that have been?

RIPLEY: It would have depended a lot on what President Trump said when he arrived there. I think the North Koreans do understand that President Trump in many ways is about the optics and the drama.

The fact that instead of driving to the DMZ which is a relatively short drive from Seoul to get to the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea he wanted to arrive on his helicopter, on Marine One and have a dramatic photo-op arrival which, of course, was, befuddled because of very heavy fog not only at the DMZ but also here in Pyongyang early this morning.

It was very foggy. Look, had he gone to that highly sensitive location and made an off-the-cuff remark, an insult it certainly would have upset the North Koreans.

But in some ways this pointed attack on their system and those direct, you know, threatening words directly to North Korea's leader Kim Jong- Un, could be even more infuriating to the North Koreans.

But they are insisting that the President's speech, they say, is unimportant to them. That his words -- and he said a lot of things in the month leading up to this trip are even less important to them than the actions of the United States and those joint military exercises, large-scale naval drills that are due to kick off in the coming days.

CHURCH: Ok. Let's go back to Paula, there in Seoul because, you know, we talked about this trip to the DMZ. He could have gone there if he'd wanted to. But what was the reaction there in Seoul to first his surprise saying that he wanted to go there because that has sort of been a trip option that had been crossed out. They scratched it at one point.

But what was the response there in Seoul -- Paula, first to him wanting to go there and then to its cancellation?

HANCOCKS: To be honest, Rosemary -- I think look, the response was stronger when there was an announcement that he wouldn't be going. It hadn't really occurred to many people inside Korea that the U.S. President who is such a fan of optics and headlines would not have gone to the border with North Korea.

It's something that we know that previous U.S. presidents have done. We know that President Obama went to one of these (INAUDIBLE) points and was able to look out over North Korea. Many presidents have done it.

So I think there was a huge amount of surprise that he wasn't going to do it. There was some suspicion that he may try and do it. So yes, but he wasn't very much surprised this morning when it was discovered that he had made an attempt to see the DMZ, quite frankly because the surprise was here when the initial announcement came that he wouldn't.

Now, of course, they did announce that they thought it was a bit of a cliche. They had to butt heads on with the Trump administration saying that actually they do realize that it is a very symbolic statement to have a U.S. president standing close to the border and looking over North Korea.

But of course, in this case it simply wasn't going to happen, scuttled by the weather.

CHURCH: All right. And Matt -- we go to you finally. And as we mentioned, the next stop for President Trump is Beijing. What is expected to come out of Mr. Trump's visit to China overall and what message does Beijing want to send?

RIVERS: Well, there's going to be two topics that really going to front and center when President Trump comes here to Beijing. Of course, the obvious one is North Korea. We talked about that a little bit earlier what both sides want out of that.

The Trump administration is going to want some sort of deliverable to go back home with saying we are getting China to do what we want them to do when it comes to North Korea.

And the other thing that's going to be high on the agenda is trade. It's one thing that the President has come back on over and over again calling trade with China unfair, saying the trade deficit between the United States and China must come down in favor of the United States.

And so both sides are going to want to show be able to show that they are making progress when it comes to bilateral trade and something they can show to their political bases.

But it is interesting that the optics of all this -- we know that President Trump will be having dinner inside the Forbidden City. That's the old imperial palace here in Beijing. No U.S. President has ever done that before.

And so really, what we're seeing from the Chinese side is an attempt to woo President Trump with the optics, the grand optics of a very special state visit. Of course, it's going to be the show of strength with the troops on Tiananmen Square.

He's going to get a very official state visit and an honor that no other U.S. president's had before. So the Chinese clearly know that they have to engage in some optics when it comes to diplomacy.

CHURCH: All right. We thank Will Ripley in Pyongyang, Matt Rivers there in Beijing, and Paula Hancocks on the phone joining us from Seoul. Many thanks to all the three of you.

We turn to U.S. politics now. And voters in two U.S. States are venting their disapproval of President Trump electing Democrats as the next governors of Virginia and New Jersey.

First Virginia, where Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam will take over the state's top office; Democrats also won lieutenant governor and attorney general.

[00:15:05] Northam beat Republican lobbyist Ed Gillespie who supported President Trump during the campaign. Gillespie promised he would keep confederate statues in Virginia and fight against sanctuary cities for immigrants.

In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy will move into the governor's mansion replacing hugely unpopular Republican Chris Christie. Murphy is a former Goldman Sachs executive and formerly U.S. ambassador to Germany. His main rival was Republican Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno who was dragged down by Christie's dismal approval ratings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MURPHY (D), NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR-ELECT: With Donald Trump in the White House, Jeff Sessions as attorney general, polluters running the EPA, zealots heading the Department of Education, and Steve Bannon holding Republicans in Congress hostage, governors will have never mattered more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Two other elections of note -- Utah Republican John Curtis will head to Washington replacing retiring Congressman Jason Chaffetz; and Democrat Bill de Blasio won a second term as New York City mayor.

Well, the Texas church shooter had a violent past; he once threatened military commanders and escaped from a mental health facility. So why was he still able to obtain guns legally? That is next.

Plus, we will speak with a long-time Texas journalist about the local gun culture and how gun violence is changing people's sense of security.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Well, the violent past of the Texas church shooter should have prevented him from obtaining guns legally. In 2012, Devin Kelley escaped from a mental health facility after threatening military commanders, according to a police report obtained by a CNN affiliate.

Now, he also passed gun purchasing background checks and that's because the U.S. Air Force failed to report his domestic assault conviction.

President Donald Trump is blaming the shooting on a mental health problem. He says stricter gun laws would not have prevented the massacre. The shooter had attended the church where he killed 25 people and an unborn child. But the pastor, whose 14-year-old daughter was among those killed warned he did not want Kelley at his church.

Details now from Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Prior to pleading guilty to assaulting his wife and child in 2012, CNN has learned Devin Kelley, the gunman who opened fire on this Texas church briefly escaped from a mental health facility in New Mexico where he was being held.

This 2012 police report shows that while Kelley was still in the Air Force he was institutionalized after threatening his commanding officers and trying to sneak guns onto Holloman Air Force Base where he was stationed.

[00:25:03] Police later found the then 21-year-old at a bus station nearby. He was later convicted on the assault charges.

Now, investigators want to know if a history of mental illness, a seething anger for his in-laws or both led to his rampage.

JOE TACKITT, WILSON COUNTY TEXAS SHERIFF: He was thinking that his mother-in-law was in the church probably and, you know, that's who he was targeting. But I mean, as you know, all the other lives that he took and all the people that he injured, I mean it's senseless.

TODD: Officials say Kelley's mother-in-law was not at church on Sunday although his wife's grandmother was. She was killed.

Investigators say Kelley was familiar with the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and had attended activities there. His behavior had raised red flags for the church's pastor.

TACKITT: He did know him. He did not want him at his church.

TODD: Why not?

TACKITT: He said because he just thought he was not a good person to be around.

TODD: Was there anything specific you can say about what he said?

TACKITT: No. He just said he didn't think he was a good person and he just didn't want him around his church. But he said, how do I run him away from my church?

TODD: Records obtained by CNN show even more reasons to be concerned. Court documents show Kelley was the subject of a sexual assault investigation in 2013 although charges were never filed.

And in a separate 2014 incident, Kelley was accused of abusing his then girlfriend who later became his wife. Records say Kelley's girlfriend texted one of her friends saying her arms were red and that Kelley told her to pack a bag.

MARK REYNOLDS, COMAL COUNTY SHERIFF: Apparently they talked to the female that's supposed to be, you know, the subject of the abuse and you know, she's saying, you know, she's not a victim.

TODD: Friends say Kelley also began going after them online in recent months.

CHRISTOPHER LONGORIA, CLASSMATE OF SHOOTER: Picking on a lot of other students, picked on me for losing weight. Also just, you know, anti- God. You know, preaching his beliefs of atheism, watched gun violence videos.

TODD: A source telling CNN that Kelley had also become fixated on mass shootings judging by indications in his social media accounts. All of this raising sharp concerns about how a 26-year-old with a history of violence and threats was able to buy multiple guns and why the Air Force did not notify the federal criminal database used for background purchases of his criminal history.

CHRISTOPHER COMBS, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Unfortunately this has happened in the past from a number of agencies. Nothing is perfect.

TODD: Another point of frustration for investigators, an FBI special agent here says they have the shooter's cell phone but they can't yet crack it. They can't access the content of the phone because of encryption and other technology. But one official here says emphatically we will get into that phone.

Brian Todd, CNN -- Sutherland Springs, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Long-time Texas journalist, James Moore, wrote an opinion piece for CNN.com and in it he said he used to associate the town of Sutherland Springs with wild flowers and Texas history. A gunman he said, changed that forever.

James Moore joins me now to talk more about the impact of that horrifying day. Thank you so much for being with us.

You wrote that Sutherland Springs has been changed forever. Talk to us about how this event has altered the church, the town and the people. And do you think they can ever recover from this horror?

JAMES MOORE, JOURNALIST: I don't think it's just Sutherland Springs that has been changed by this -- Rosemary. I think it is our entire country because prior to this we sort of had this sort of sense of naivete maybe that we were safe in these small towns and these little places, in our churches, our synagogues and our mosques.

But if somebody can come into a remote place and even though it's only 30 miles east of San Antonio, it feels much more remote. It's on the edge of the Texas brush country.

If someone can come in there and do this kind of thing in this community it means that none of us is safe anywhere. And consequently, what that means for the city of Sutherland Springs is that it changes dramatically. It will never be the same.

We can expect that church to probably be razed. Who knows if spiritually these folks are strong enough to go back and recondition it and continue to worship there after 10 percent of the town gets shot in one day. It's hard to know what will happen.

But I do know that it has transformed other places that have recovered. But this seems to me completely different because of the sort of horrifying scope of what has happened and the location where it's happened.

I'm telling you, if you've ever been in south Texas in the springtime, it's a sea of wild flowers, Indian paintbrushes, blue bonnets and they grow all along the highway and in the pastures.

[00:25:06] And riding through there as I mentioned in the piece on a motorcycle, it's a fantastic experience. It's beautiful, it's idyllic.

And now, when you have to think about this little place in completely different way and it's -- it's obviously very disturbing on a number of levels.

CHURCH: And as you say, it is hard to know what will happen to the church and the town although these people do appear particularly resilient, don't they? And their faith is so strong.

But you appear to place a considerable amount of blame on Texas Governor Gregg Abbott for pushing the people of that state to purchase more guns. Is he the one to blame here or is it bigger than that? Given the Air Force failed to report the shooter's domestic abuse convictions to the national database essentially allowing a mentally ill man to purchase guns?

MOORE: Well, we have a number of problems. First of all, is our governor is culpable in this. He's not alone of course but he does have some of the blame for what happened down there.

He was, I think I mentioned that he was promoting the Texas buy more guns in California and he was embarrassed. That was his word that he was embarrassed that Texas wasn't buying more. And it was less than six months later that this young man took him up on his demand that we buy more guns and he bought one.

Now, the Air Force did not report him to the National Crime Information computer. But even if they had, Rosemary, it would have made no difference in Texas. He could have gone to any one of a number of gun shows that are held every weekend in the state of Texas, walked in, shown his ID and bought the very same weapon and walked out with no waiting period whatsoever.

He could have done the same thing because we don't like to restrict the sales at gun shows. There's no cooling off period, there's no waiting period. You walk in with your ID. So we have a cultural problem in this country. And in Texas it does

seem to be a bit more manifest than the rest of the country. But the question is not so much about doing anything to make guns go away because that's never going to happen in our country and it certainly isn't going to happen in Texas.

But what we do need is better reporting. We need the national computer systems talking to the mental health data systems, talking the local crime databases whose criminal records should preclude them from this.

This obviously isn't done efficiently and we need laws that address that. And we need laws that make it much more difficult for a crazy person to get their hands on a deadly weapon.

It's not like that now in our country. And I'm hoping personally that this event will make us all sort of stand up and say, we're done with this.

CHURCH: Still so much more to be done to stop these mass shooting. And there are so very many of them.

James Moore -- thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

MOORE: My pleasure.

CHURCH: And we'll take a short break here but when we come back, the U.S. President moving on to the next stop on his Asia tour where the diplomacy will be delicate. His message to North Korea -- ahead.

[00:28:11] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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[00:30:10] CHURCH (voice-over): Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. This is CNN NEWSROOM. Let's update you on the news this hour.

(HEADLINES)

CHURCH: That push on China as well as Russia came during President Trump's speech to South Korea's national assembly. He listed a number of North Korea's human rights abuses while praising Seoul's prosperity. Mr. Trump warned Pyongyang not to underestimate America's strength or resolve when threatened. He said that would be a fatal miscalculation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I come here to this peninsula to deliver this message directly to the leader of the North Korean dictatorship. The weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face. North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned. It is a hell that no person deserves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Let's go now to Daniel Lynch for more on President Trump's speech, he is a professor at City University of Hong Kong. Thank you so much for joining us.

DANIEL LYNCH, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: Good to be here, Rosemary.

CHURCH: It was a more disciplined president Trump that we saw address South Korea's national assembly.

What did you think of his tough words and his warning to North Korea?

Were they the words the region needed to hear at this time?

LYNCH: Those words I think were fairly predictable. I think the speech wasn't really remarkable in this context except actually for that last quotation you played, saying North Korea is not the paradise that Kim Jong-un's grandfather, Kim Il-sung, imagined and hoped it would be.

I thought that's interesting because it's kind of a signal maybe to China itself, where he goes later today, because for many years and decades actually, successive Chinese leaders have been trying to convince successive North Korean leaders to pursue, reform an opening like China has done so successfully.

But North Korea has always refused and I think China's really disappointed in that. And I think this probably was a signal in some ways to China that we share certain common perspectives on the Korean Peninsula, on North Korea itself, that could be the basis for future cooperation, further cooperation moving ahead.

CHURCH: I do want to get to China in just a moment but I wanted to ask you President Trump warned North Korea that his administration was very different to those in the past, a clear warning that past restraint might not be used this time if pushed too far.

But North Korea's response was to thumb its nose at the president.

How should Mr. Trump respond to being called a mad dog, a clear provocation there?

LYNCH: How should he respond? He should respond with restraint. How he will respond, that's anyone's guess; it's hard to say.

But there were certain aspects of that speech, too, that suggested maybe, maybe, I mean, it's hard to parse a speech right after it's been delivered, but maybe the United States might be willing to countenance maintaining the status quo. I'll have to read closely to make sure.

But he said any further provocations won't be tolerated and any further additional threats. So I'm not sure where we should go with that yet. But I don't think it was entirely a hard line speech in that regard. So he did allow room for we can talk about this. He also said that the United States --

[00:35:00]

LYNCH: insists on a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula but I don't know. It wasn't quite as harsh as it might have been, I think.

CHURCH: As we were talking there, President Trump visiting China next and that's where he will call on Beijing again to do more to pressure North Korea's rogue regime. He raised that very same issue during his address to South Korea's national assembly.

How is China likely to respond?

And how diplomatic does Mr. Trump need to be on this issue to get what he wants?

LYNCH: He needs to be diplomatic anywhere he goes, maybe especially with China. But I think it's really important to understand for context here that, unlike Russia, China actually decided last year that it would not take advantage of the kind of unstable nature of Trump's foreign policy, somewhat chaotic and disorganized nature of Trump foreign policy.

They decided not to bait Trump as it might have done, take advantage of this, try to get him to do something he might regret. China I think under Xi Jinping in particular sees core national security interests in common with the United states; there are big differences, too, over the South China Sea, for example. But I think China under Xi Jinping has decided it will work with the Trump administration, it doesn't want to make things worse for the Trump administration.

And so within that context, I think Xi will try to be forthcoming to the extent he can. He won't cut off all the flow of all goods to North Korea. He's not going to cut off the flow of all food, energy and so on like that.

But he may be willing to take a number of small steps or just reassure President Trump that he doesn't want to see a continued nuclear North Korea.

CHURCH: All right, Daniel Lynch, thank you so much. We appreciate your analysis and perspective. Thanks for being with us.

LYNCH: Thank you.

CHURCH: We turn to the United Kingdom and the British government has been wracked with nonstop disasters over the last few weeks and it's all serving to undermine the already fragile leadership of Prime Minister Theresa May.

And Diana Magnay reports now from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two weeks into a sexual harassment scandal, which shows no signs of abating, Westminster on Tuesday was shocked by news of a death. Welsh assembly member Carl Sargeant was found dead at his home in North Wales just days after he was suspended from the Labour Party following undisclosed allegations of improper conduct.

Police are not treating his death as suspicious.

A terrible turn in a bitter few weeks for British politics, which has seen MPs from across the party suspended. Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon stepped down after admitting his past behavior towards women had fallen short. And the prime minister's right hand man, Damian Green, under investigation for unwanted sexual advances, allegations he vigorously denies.

As if the growing scandal weren't enough already, there are new questions over the conduct of two other key ministers. The international development secretary Priti Patel under scrutiny for failing to disclose in advance a series of meetings with Israeli officials while she was on holiday in Israel. Patel had apologized for not following usual procedures in reporting those meetings.

The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson also facing criticism for adding to the fuel of fire of Iranian suspicions about a jailed British Iranian woman. Iran apparently using his comments to haul Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe back before a judge over the weekend, her family now concerned her 5-year jail term will be extended.

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER: The U.K. government has no doubt that she was on holiday in Iran when she was arrested last year and that was the sole purpose of her visit. My point was that I disagreed with the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime, not that I wanted to lend any credence to Iranian allegations that Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been engaged in such activity.

MAGNAY (voice-over): It could hardly get worse for Britain's prime minister, her parliamentary majority stripped away in June's catastrophic election, her government fractured by Brexit, now accused of being too weak even to sack those ministers who defy her.

Perhaps all that's keeping her in power is that, at this stage at least, there seem to be no cabinet ministers prepared to take on her Brexit vote -- Diana Magnay, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: We'll take a short break. But after 10 years of hundreds of millions of dollars, a new Louvre museum is about to open in Abu Dhabi. A sneak preview when we return.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:00] (MUSIC PLAYING)

CHURCH: Art lovers rejoice, a new Louvre museum is opening in Abu Dhabi on Saturday with more than 600 works of art. The UAE hopes it will be a crown jewel for the Middle East art scene. Our Becky Anderson has a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's taken 10 years and hundreds of millions of dollars. But now the UAE finally has a world class museum to call its own. The new Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opens this week.

Why did Abu Dhabi want to bring the Louvre, why here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We felt that we really wanted to create something for the world. It's a new museum that connects us together. And I think the beauty with this museum is that it will talk to everybody.

ANDERSON (voice-over): The first artwork visitors see may just be the building itself, designed by award-winning French architect Jean Nouvel (ph), its centerpiece steel dome shades the 23 galleries below, creating this so-called rain of light.

JEAN NOUVEL, ARCHITECT: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wanted to create the museum belonging to this civilization, belonging to this country, belonging to history and (INAUDIBLE).

ANDERSON (voice-over): Inside, the Louvre Abu Dhabi has over 600 artworks on display from ancient Egyptian artifacts to Vincent Van Gogh. Even this portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, its first appearance outside of Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amassing the collection that the Louvre Abu Dhabi has to this point in the amount of time that they have is remarkable.

ANDERSON (voice-over): The Louvre Abu Dhabi is the result of an intergovernmental deal made between France and the UAE in 2007. The brand name alone sold for an estimated $520 million on loan for 30 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is 6,500 B.C.E. This is on loan from our partners at the Jordanian National Museum.

ANDERSON (voice-over): But for decision makers here, it's not about the money

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here, remarks of costs and of delays, I think first and foremost, we made sure that, when we have the first visitor entering this museum, he is going to see something of fantastic quality. That's what's important. But what's the most important thing is culture is here to stay. So the winner here is culture

ANDERSON (voice-over): Next up, they say, are two more museums just over the horizon, including a future Guggenheim -- Becky Anderson, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

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CHURCH: Stunning structure there.

Thanks so much for joining us, I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me nice to meet you on Twitter. "WORLD SPORT" is up next. You're watching CNN.