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CNN Indonesia: Flight Recorders Believed Recovered in Lion Air Crash; No-Fly Zone over Korean DMZ Takes Effect Thursday; Istanbul's Chief Prosecutor Says Jamal Khashoggi Was Strangled and Dismembered; Yemen's Humanitarian Crisis; Trump Focusing on Immigration on Campaign Trail as Caravan of Migrants Heads to U.S. through Mexico. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 01, 2018 - 00:00   ET

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


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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The Istanbul prosecutor reveals gruesome details about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The pressure grows for the Saudi-led coalition to stop fighting in Yemen. This as UNICEF calls the conflict in Yemen a living hell for children.

Plus U.S. president Trump doubles down on his push to end birthright citizenship as he criss-crosses the country ahead of the midterms.

Hello, everyone, thank you for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church here in Atlanta. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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CHURCH: Gruesome new details have emerged about exactly when and how Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed. Turkey's chief prosecutor says he was strangled immediately on entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. His body was then dismembered. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh has the unsettling details.

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the first official statement from Turkey on their investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. A statement coming from the chief prosecutor for Istanbul, who has been overseeing the criminal investigation.

According to the statement, they say, on October 2nd, Jamal Khashoggi entered the building, the Saudi consulate here, and he was immediately strangled to death, his body dismembered and destroyed. Unclear what they mean by destroyed.

They say it was a premeditated act, something we heard from Turkish officials before. Even Saudi Arabia, after its changing narrative, coming out a few days ago and also saying that it was premeditated murder.

There's still some key questions that remain unanswered, that Turkey is seeking the answers to and that is where is the body of Jamal Khashoggi and who issued the orders to the hit squad that killed him?

They were hoping to get these answers from the Saudi chief prosecutor who is here for a visit. He met with Istanbul's chief prosecutor. But it doesn't seem like that visit went as Turkey would have liked it to. They say, according to one senior Turkish official we spoke to, it seemed the Saudi side was more interested in finding out what evidence Turkey had than real genuine cooperation in this case.

One key thing Turkey really wants is the extradition. They say they're continuing to call for the extradition of the 18 individuals who were arrested in Saudi Arabia for their links to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. They want them extradited to face justice in Turkey. Something that has been dismissed by the Saudi foreign minister, saying that they are Saudi nationals and that they will be -- they seek justice in Saudi Arabia.

But according to the statement from the chief prosecutor here in Istanbul, he says the Saudis have invited the Turkish prosecutor to Saudi Arabia, asking them to bring along the evidence that Turkey has and that they could have a joint interrogation of those suspects -- Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Istanbul.

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CHURCH: There's no question Jamal Khashoggi's killing has tarnished Saudi Arabia's image. Now U.S. officials believe they're in a unique position where they can leverage the Saudis' weakness to finally push for an end to Yemen's brutal civil war.

Trump was asked Wednesday whether he felt betrayed by the Saudis and this was his response.

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TRUMP: I just hope that it all works out. We have a lot of facts. We have a lot of things that we've been looking at. They haven't betrayed me, I mean, maybe they betrayed themselves. We'll have to see how it all turns out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Top U.S. officials are demanding a cease-fire by all sides in the Yemen war in the next 30 days. A Houthi leader in Yemen finds that call disingenuous. He says the Americans are the ones backing the Saudis in this conflict --

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CHURCH: -- and if they want the war to stop, it's up to them.

Saudi Arabia's coalition has been fighting the Houthi rebels backed by Iran for almost four years now ever since the Houthis overthrew the government. In that time, thousands have been killed; more than 2 million people are displaced and millions more are on the brink of starvation. We get the latest now from CNN's Sam Kiley.

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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The United States demands that within 30 days there's a cease-fire and the commencement of peace talks over the Yemen has blindsided many of the belligerents there.

There's been no official response from the Houthis backed by Iran, nor has there been this official response from the Saudi-backed coalition; rather, though, there has been a warm embrace for the idea from the United Nations. Marti Griffiths, the United Nations envoy there, has endorsed it, as has former foreign secretary David Miliband and the British government, a critical element in all of this, this very complex puzzle across the Arabian Peninsula because, of course, the United States and the United Kingdom are the two biggest backers in terms of arms supplies to the Saudi-led coalition.

Now what the Americans have not done is to threaten to put any kind of pressure, particularly on the Saudi-led coalition, to dial down the level of violence. But they do acknowledge that this has now come to a point at which the international community really cannot tolerate the danger of 12 million people being threatened with famine.

It also comes at a time following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, "The Washington Post" columnist, in which the Trump administration's relationship with Saudi Arabia and therefore, by extension, Saudi Arabia's prosecution of this war in Yemen, is highly toxic inside the U.S. Congress.

Whatever the outcome of the midterm elections, it is likely, indeed it is almost certain that there will be increased pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to get tough on the Saudi-led coalition because it is at the feet of the Saudis that a good deal of the blame is being laid for what has become a humanitarian catastrophe wrapped around an increasingly complex war in which there are clearly no likely winners.

That is why perhaps ultimately the various sides will agree to join a peace process, because, from the Houthi perspective, they're dug in. They're not going anywhere. They're not being driven from their positions. But they're surrounded and they do face a humanitarian catastrophe.

From the Saudi-led position, they are getting nowhere in their attempts to dislodge the Houthis but they're losing international capital and coming under increasing pressure from their own populations as to why on Earth they're involved in this war. So ultimately, possibly off the back or an ironic side effect of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, there could be a positive outcome ultimately for the Yemen -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: Geert Cappelaere is the regional director at UNICEF Middle East and North Africa and he joins us now on the line from Hudaydah in Yemen.

Thank you, sir, for being with us.

GEERT CAPPELAERE, UNICEF: (INAUDIBLE).

CHURCH: I do want to start with this question. I want to find out from you how successful you think the United States might be in using the murder of Jamal Khashoggi as leverage to get Saudi Arabia to end this war in Yemen?

CAPPELAERE: Well, I can only speak for the millions of Yemeni children, and Yemen children who are in a situation that no single mother, no single father wants to find their children.

Yemen today is probably one of the worst places to be a child. (INAUDIBLE) one child in every 10 minutes, a child under the age of 5 dies from (INAUDIBLE) why (INAUDIBLE) prevented today is to a big extent because of this brutal war on children that has been raging throughout the country for years.

(INAUDIBLE) compounded (ph) with a further deteriorating economic crisis and that war, therefore, needs to stop. All parties need to start (INAUDIBLE) of the millions of children at the center and not any other interests.

CHURCH: And at this point, we know that the United States is eager to do just that, to bring an end to this war in Yemen. And it appears, by looking at --

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CHURCH: -- what is happening now, that they intend to use leverage from the death of Jamal Khashoggi.

Do you think that they may be successful in doing that at this point, in basically pushing Saudi Arabia to move toward an end to this war?

CAPPELAERE: Yes, it's incredibly sad, the dire situation in which millions of Yemeni children find themselves. It's not the (INAUDIBLE) for the parties to stop this brutal war. It is really -- it would be sad that there would be the need for more regions for the parties to come together and look for a peaceful solution.

It is simply unacceptable in today's world that millions of Yemeni children are suffering severe malnutrition (ph) , that millions of Yemeni children are prevented from going to school, millions of Yemeni children are not able to access vital health services.

We don't need to ask them, why is that not enough for this brutal war to stop?

CHURCH: Let's hope that efforts to move Saudi Arabia in that direction to end the war in Yemen are successful. Geert Cappelaere, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

Well, search teams in Indonesia may be getting closer to finding out why an almost new jetliner plunged into the sea, killing all 189 people onboard. But strong currents are holding up the search for the plane's flight recorders as families grieve for loved ones lost in the waters of Jakarta. Our Will Ripley joins us now from Hong Kong with more on Lion Air Flight 610.

Will, what is the very latest information you have on the investigation into the cause of this plane crash and the effort to find those black boxes?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rosemary. Just minutes ago, our Indonesia affiliate, CNN Indonesia, broadcast footage of search crews pulling a box out of the water, a box that is being reported in Indonesia as possibly being the so-called black boxes, the flight data recorder and/or cockpit voice recorder.

However, Indonesia search and rescue agency is not officially confirming that they have found the black boxes yet. They need to assess what was taken out of the water, have a look at it. But we could get confirmation really anytime now as to whether or not indeed they have succeeded in this one critical, perhaps the most critical task, in terms of the investigation and figuring out what actually happened to Flight 610, which is recovering the so-called black boxes and then starting to analyze the data on them with the assistance, by the way, of investigators from Boeing as well as investigators from around the world, who are in Indonesia assisting with this effort.

And of course, if this does prove to be the case, that the black boxes have been found, that also brings searchers one step closer to finding the body of the aircraft, which is believed to contain the remains of the majority of the passengers. There were 181 passengers along with eight crew members on this doomed 737 Max that plunged into the Java Sea early Monday morning.

Nobody really knows what happened yet. We're starting to piece together a narrative of a plane that had perhaps some very serious technical issues the night before this fateful flight, issues that Lion Air said were repaired but that clearly were not, according to investigators in Indonesia who ordered that the technical director of Lion Air be fired from his job.

And now he's under investigation, along with technicians from the airline itself. So we could have some fairly significant news developing, Rosemary, in the coming hours here, if, indeed, it is confirmed that the black boxes have been found.

Then family members who are in Jakarta are anxiously hoping that the remains of their loved ones, believed to be on the plane, will be recovered. But it is a tricky situation. There's strong currents underwater and the wreckage is believed to be located in the area with a number of underwater oil pipelines. So difficult work ahead but we could have potentially a very promising development into this investing and we'll certainly let you know when we get official confirmation from the Indonesia government. CHURCH: That is very significant, understand there that something was pulled out of the waters there. We will wait for their confirmation. Our Will Ripley, bringing us that very important development and we'll continue to keep an eye on that. Thank you so much.

We'll take a very short break here. But with just days before the midterms, President Trump is kicking off a serious campaign blitz and doubling down on a controversial promise to eliminate citizenship for many people. We're back in just a moment.

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CHURCH: President Trump sending mixed signals in the final days before the midterm elections. He's been calling for unity across the United States but he's also sending messages of fear and division.

Just hours ago, he posted this political ad on his Twitter account. It highlights a Hispanic man, bragging about killing police officers during a courtroom appearance. That ad says, "Democrats want to allow more people like him into the country. Take a look.

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CHURCH: That ad part of the president's overall strategy to focus on immigration in the final days before the U.S. midterm elections. It is an issue that is riling up his base but upsetting his political opponents.

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TOM PEREZ, DNC CHAIRMAN: This is distracting, divisive Donald at his worst. This is fearmongering. They have to distract. They have to fearmonger. And his dog whistle of all dog whistles is immigration. This has been Donald Trump's playbook for so long.

And you know what, when they go low, we go vote.

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CHURCH: While Trump continues his last-minute campaigning for Republican candidates, some in his party are expressing concern that he may be hurting and not helping their chances on Election Day. Our Jim Acosta explains.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You don't need a constitutional amendment for birthright citizenship. I may very well do it by executive order. JIM ACOSTA, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Less than one week before the midterm elections, President Trump has picked a new fight, this time with a top leader in his own party, House Speaker Paul Ryan.

The battle: over the president's pledge to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. with an executive order, something Ryan says Mr. Trump can't do, because it's in the Constitution.

The president tweeted, "Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the majority rather than giving his opinions on birthright citizenship, something he knows nothing about."

That was in response to the speaker saying, hold on.

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REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Well, you obviously cannot do that. You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order.

ACOSTA: A senior GOP aide jumped to Ryan's defense telling CNN, "This is a great way to screw up the message a week before the election, first the birthright comment itself and now attacking the top Republican in Congress, who is trying to save our majority."

TRUMP: No. Not fearmongering at all. Immigration is a very important subject.

ACOSTA: Top White House officials like Kellyanne Conway insist the birthright issue is an open question.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO DONALD TRUMP: There are constitutional scholars who say the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted and actually the Supreme Court has never given a solid opinion on this.

ACOSTA: But Conway's husband, George Conway, a prominent D.C. lawyer, disagrees, writing in a "Washington Post" op-ed what countless legal scholars have already stated, "Such a move would be unconstitutional and would certainly be challenged. And the challengers would undoubtedly win."

The White House fixation on immigration is the October no surprise, with the president touting his move to send U.S. troops to the border to halt the caravan of migrants who are still weeks away.

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TRUMP: As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out. We have about 5,000 to 8,000. We'll go up to anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 military personnel on top of Border Patrol, ICE and everybody else at the border.

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ACOSTA: The president is lobbing more insults one day after his trip to Pittsburgh, where he visited the scene of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, accusing the media of hyping the demonstrations against his trip, tweeting, "Melania and I were treated very nicely yesterday in Pittsburgh. We were treated so warmly. Small protest was not seen by us, staged far away. The fake news stories were just the opposite. Disgraceful."

Campaigning with Democrats, former vice president Joe Biden says it's time for the president to stop demonizing his adversaries.

JOE BIDEN (D), FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need to recognize that words matter.

We have to understand that our opponents are not our enemies. They are our opponents. The press is not the enemy of the American people.

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CHURCH: Joining me now to talk more about all of this is White House correspondent for "The New York Times" and CNN political analyst Michael Shear.

Thank you for being with us.

MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. Always happy to do it.

CHURCH: Let's start with President Trump's plan to end birthright citizenship in the United States. He said he may very well do this by executive order. Most legal experts say that's unconstitutional and can't be done.

What are the politics behind this suggestion to end birthright citizenship and do you think he has any intention of following through with this beyond the midterms?

SHEAR: I think there's two ways to look at this. If you only look in one way, you're coming up short. It is very true this is a political gambit by this White House and president. He understands or he believes in any event that a really hard line on immigration and stoking the fear among people about others coming from the outside and threatening their way of life, he thinks that's a good political issue ahead of the election.

He wants to do everything that he can to stoke those fears. And the birthright citizenship piece is a way to do that, to basically say what you should be afraid of is people who are coming here and having babies and staying here and affecting your way of life.

But I think it is important that people not lose sight of the fact that this is a president that wants to fundamentally change the way this country deals with people outside of its borders.

It really -- this is a president and a group of people around the president that want to shut down immigration to the greatest extent possible, not just illegal immigration but also to reduce the number of legal immigrants that are coming to the United States.

So while I think it is mostly a political ploy, I don't think he thinks he could really do this, despite what he says. The legal -- weight of legal opinion is just vastly on the other side. But don't underestimate the fact that he may actually try it, because this is a president that has wanted to radically alter immigration policy in the United States, regardless of the political impact.

So I think -- I think you got to look at it in both ways.

CHURCH: Right. So let's look at the exact wording of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Here's what it says in part.

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States."

Legal experts say it is very clear, when you look at that wording, that all people born in the United States are citizens of the United States. Then the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, agrees.

But president Trump and his legal advisors argue that a person in the U.S. illegally is not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Therefore, the 14th Amendment --

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CHURCH: -- does not apply to them or protect them in any way.

Is that legal argument likely to gain any traction at all?

SHEAR: Well, I think you can never say never because ultimately that's what the Supreme Court does. It tests legal theories like that. Until the Supreme Court has specifically ruled on that in a very fundamental way, you can't say 100 percent that it can't happen.

That said, the vast majority of the legal scholars on the Left, on the Right, everybody out there that has looked at this, not just in the last couple of days since the president brought it up, but for years and decades have come to the conclusion that that phrase, the "subject to the jurisdiction" phrase really was only meant to apply to a very small group of people, the children of diplomats who are living here in the United States from other countries.

That's the kind of thing that was meant to carve out a very small exception for, not for anybody who is coming here and living here, temporarily or on a visa of some kind. I think, you know, I'm not a lawyer. But when you talk to a legal community, they think the president does not have a leg to stand on.

CHURCH: While this plays out, Trump is also focusing on the caravan of migrants still weeks away from the United States. Mr. Trump now says he will send up to 15,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with people he calls invaders.

What are the politics behind Mr. Trump's use of the word "invaders" and "invasion" and what cost will it be to the U.S. to send these troops to the border weeks before these migrants even arrive? SHEAR: I think from the cost aspect, there's definitely some cost to moving the resources of the United States military from one place to another. Obviously you're already paying them. You own the equipment. It's not an overwhelming cost probably.

I think the bigger cost is the political one, which is that he is -- as I said before, stoking these fears and appealing to a very narrow segment of the American population. Most of the people in the country are not probably swayed very much by the idea that the president uses this really inflammatory language, "invasion;" he has in the past used -- described people coming across the southern border as "vomit."

He uses this very intense language. But it is designed to appeal to his core supporters and to make sure his core supporters are riled up and come to the voting booth. That's really what he's trying to do, not to broaden a message for the entire country.

So it's a very niche political attempt to use an issue, to scare a certain segment of the population.

CHURCH: Well the midterms are less than a week away. We will see what impact all of these issues have on the outcome. Michael Shear, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

SHEAR: Absolutely.

CHURCH: We'll take a short break and then go live to Indonesia. The latest on the search for the Lion Air flight recorders. Stay with us. Back in a moment.

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[00:30:00] CHURCH: And we are following breaking news out of Indonesia. Search and rescue officials believe they have found the flight recorders of Lion Air Flight 610. That is according to CNN Indonesia, and our Ivan Watson joins us now, on the line, from Jakarta. So, Ivan, what are you learning about the possibility of these black boxes having been found?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (through telephone): Well, we certainly know that the authorities were very confident that they were hearing the beacon from the digital flight recorder and that they would probably be able to locate it when they broke today, when they could use a submersible and divers to try to reach it.

The seabed believed to be at a depth of about 35 meters, beneath the surface. And now, we've seen interviews on Indonesian television, Kompas T.V., for example, of a Sergeant Hendra, a navy diver, claimed that he had, in fact, found the black box, covered by mud, under the sea.

And that it is now been transported to the Baruna Jaya ship, one of the (INAUDIBLE) of ships, boats, helicopters, that have been involved in this search, over the course of the last several days.

That has not yet been confirmed by authorities, in the capital, who say, you know, he is not authorized to be able to make this kind of a statement. But it does certainly seem like divers believe that they have found one of these very important devices, which will hopefully yield some more information about why this brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed into the sea on Monday, with 189 passengers and crew onboard.

CHURCH: So, Ivan, just to go over that again. If there is a box that has been retrieved, it's just one black box and we don't know which one that is. And again, we have to say, this has not been officially confirmed in any way.

WATSON: No. But, clearly, we're seeing pictures from the T.V. crews that are out on the boats, of them hoisting up something, in some kind of a plastic container. And we're hearing from one of the divers saying he believes this is what it is.

But, of course, you want authorities to double, triple check. That is, the diver qualified to know what a black box exactly is. But they were -- I spoke with the head of search and rescue who -- we can see him in orange, on your screen right now. And he was very, very confident that this would be found today.

And one step further, very confident that if there is a large part of the plane that is still somewhat intact, some fuselage, which is what they've also been searching for, that that is something that they'd be able to locate today, as well, after the sun rose, when the divers, when the submersibles would go down, when they could anchor one of the main ships, to help better deal with the underwater currents.

And then he was quite confident that he had gotten authorization to bring in a heavy sea crane to pull up that fuselage, pull it up from the ocean depths and recover it, where he also believes that bodies of the victims, many of them, could be located.

That's another question that we'll be waiting to hear right now. Do they think they've found that? And from what we've heard from the energy, with this Sergeant Hendra, from the navy, he indicated that the device that he think he has found, that he is identifying is a black box, was covered by mud, under the sea, suggesting that this is -- that it settled, somewhat, after the terrible accident on Monday.

CHURCH: All right. Ivan Watson, joining us there, live, on line, from Jakarta, with this development. That it looks like the black box -- one of the black boxes has been retrieved. We're not getting official confirmation of that.

But certainly, we're getting some visuals there, and one of the divers has said that it is indeed a black box. Many thanks to you, Ivan, we will let you get back to following this story, and any confirmation you can bring to us.

[00:35:08] But let's bring in now, CNN Aviation Analyst, Mary Schiavo, who is also the Former Inspector General of the U.S. Transportation Department. And she joins us live via Skype, from Dubai. Good to have you with us.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST (via Skype): Thank you. Good to be with you.

CHURCH: So, you would've seen those pictures. That plastic container, much fanfare as that was being brought out of the water. We understand that the diver has said that this was indeed one of the black boxes. But there was reluctance on the part of Indonesian authorities to confirm that is, indeed, the case. Why would they be reluctant at this point, when we're seeing these sorts of visuals?

SCHIAVO: I think because so much is riding -- is hanging on, finding these black boxes. They also have to consider the hundreds of family members that are waiting, as well. And there are international conventions and rules on how you treat the families and the information provided to the families. And the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization also say that you keep the families briefed.

So, they want to be sure before they say anything publicly, because they will be briefing investigators, family members, governments, participants in the investigation, et cetera. But, they'll probably want to do that before they confirm to the media.

CHURCH: But when you see these images, what's your sense of what's happening here?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think they have. And I think they're probably, you know, pretty confident that they have it. I couldn't see all the images here, where I am, in Dubai. But, the -- what's going to happen next, of course, is whichever one that they have, is they have some work to be done before they can even confirm that it is a black box that still has its data.

It should, because it's a new plane. It has a very new black box that has 1,000 to 3,000 parameters of flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, both are the latest technology. And it could clearly survive any underwater situations. They can survive underwater for months, and sometimes, years.

So, I have no doubt that they will be readable and they will get good data off of them. The, you know, the problem -- not problem, but the thing that takes time is interpreting the data. While they might immediately have some indication of what happened from the cockpit voice recorder, hearing the voices of the pilots as to what was going around and what they were fighting (INAUDIBLE) remember.

They had tell, to ask your traffic control for permission to turn back, but they didn't have time thereafter, to make a mayday call, a call to make when you are in fear of losing your aircraft, when you have to alert someone that you are in dire situation. They had no time for that.

Yet, we know from flight data -- from Flightradar, they seemed that they were fighting to hold control of that aircraft, probably for eight minutes. So, they were very busy in that cockpit, and the cockpit voice recorder will, obviously, hold the verbal record of what was occurring and other sounds, as well.

CHURCH: Mary, how long do you think it will be before they get some information that can indicate what the cause of this crash was?

SCHIAVO: Well, it depends on -- in some cases, it depends on the quality of their recorder labs. You know, people think that the black box is just -- you know, there's one black box. There isn't. There are really very many variations of the black box. And if they have the current -- a current state-of-the-art facility, they can download the data and interpret it right here.

But by coincidence, I'm in Dubai, at the International Society of the Air Safety Investigators, the people from around the world who investigate aircrafts. There's a great divergence on the ability and skills of different people around the world to read and interpret it.

But, there's also a cooperation convention that Indonesians can call on, literally, any air crash investigative body from around the world, and they will respond.

So, they have the world waiting to help them. But it usually takes for the cockpit voice recorder, a day or two, to get it down. They have to do a transcript. They do not release the actual recordings. They'll only release transcript out of --out of concern for the families of the pilots.

And then for the flight data recorder, they'll have the data. But it can take a couple of weeks to get a good idea of what was going on with that many parameters on a new Boeing, like I said, with 1,000 to 3,000 separate lines of information of, literally, everything going on, in the plane, mechanically.

CHURCH: All right. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

CHURCH: And we'll take a short break here. We're back in a moment.

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[00:40:00] CHURCH: Slowly but surely, North and South Korea are demilitarizing what's long been considered one of the most dangerous borders on earth. They have already removed all weapons and ammunition from the joint security area, the spot where soldiers, from both sides, have long stood face to face, guns, at the ready, the next step, a no-fly zone over the DMZ that takes effect on Thursday.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now, live from Seoul, with more on this. So, Paula, is this one step closer to the signing of a formal and official peace declaration, and if it is, then, how does the United States feel about that?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, this is certainly what North and South Korea would like, that this is the steppingstone to be able to declare the end of the Korean War. But it's one step before that.

It's part of the military agreement that was signed or agreed to, by the two leaders, Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un, just last month, in Pyongyang, in the North Korean capital, at their third summit. And what it means is, as of today, November 1st, all hostile activities will cease between the two Koreas.

It includes this no-fly zone that you've mentioned. It is up to 40 kilometres from the MDL, this is the military demarcation line which is between North and South Korea. So, that will be for drones, for helicopters, for any kind of aircraft, not for commercial aircraft, though.

They've also said that they're not going to have any kind of field training or live fire drills, up to about five kilometres, from this MDL. So, it's really just ratifying that agreement from last month.

CHURCH: All right. Paula Hancocks, bring us up-to-date on that story from Seoul, in South Korea. And thanks so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Rosemary Church. "WORLD SPORT" is up next. Then I'll be back with another hour of news from around the world. You're watching CNN. Stay with us.

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