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American in Custody in North Korea; Russia Launches Retaliatory Airstrikes; Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) is Interviewed about Ukraine. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 18, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:13]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, a U.S. soldier detained by North Korea, taken into custody right at the border. We are working our sources and have the latest from U.S. officials.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Missiles rain down on the city of Odessa. Russia's response to Ukraine's attack on a key bridge. And now, for the first time in weeks, Wagner mercenary troops spotted after launching a serious challenge against Russia's President Vladimir Putin. We're live in Ukraine with the developments.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The most important day of the classified documents case yet, and maybe the most important decision could be coming, when Donald Trump's trial will start.

I'm Kate Bolduan,, with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning. We learned just a short time ago that a U.S. national was detained by North Korea. It is believed the man is a U.S. soldier. That is according to an American official.

Now, according to the United Nations' command, the man was on tour of a joint security area when he crossed the military demarcation line, right on the border. We'll get a map at some point to show you where it is. Right on the border between North and South Korean, the Demilitarized Zone. He crossed the border into North Korean territory, it is believed, when he was taken into custody.

We have team coverage. We're joined from the State Department, from the White House. We have our military analyst available.

First, though, let's go to CNN's Will Ripley, who has been to North Korea so many times.

Will, give us a sense of what happened.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a very interesting location, John, because Panmunjom is basically a series of buildings that straddle the border between North and South Korea, in an area known as the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone. Half the buildings in the North, half the buildings in the South.

It's like a tourist attraction. There are gift shops on the North Korean side and the South Korean side. You can get souvenirs. People go and, yes, they see armed soldiers and sniper towers and there are still mines in the woods, so it can be a pretty dangerous area.

But a lot of people cross through without incident every single day that it's open. And it's open for much of the year on the South Korean side, although the pandemic obviously, you know, has thrown a wrench in some of that, and certainly it does on the North as well.

So, this would have been a pretty routine type of, you know, tour showing these service members This is what North Korea looks like. They're standing very close to North Korea. But it certainly doesn't happen - or it doesn't frequently happen that somebody would actually step out of their group and actually take that walk across the military demarcation line. It's the line that President Trump crossed when he technically became the first sitting U.S. president to cross into North Korean soil when he was having some impromptu discussions with Kim Jong-un at the DMZ.

And this - if indeed this is a service member who has attempted to defect to North Korea, John, it actually wouldn't be the first time. We know of at least six U.S. service men who have defected to North Korea.

But the last time it happened was more than 40 years ago, back in 1982. It's a very different time now. North Korea is a nuclear-armed nation. They've been conducting lots of launches, trying to get the attention of the United States through their missile testing and the Biden administration has not reached out at all.

But now, John, interestingly, this American in North Korean custody may be an opportunity for the North Koreans to engage that they did not have until this person apparently decided to make those steps across the demarcation line into North Korea.

BERMAN: Will, just to be clear, we don't know why he crossed the line, if indeed he did, in fact, cross the line, but how easy is it? I mean, when you were on tour there, how close is the North Korean side and how big of a step is it to simply, you know, go across like that?

RIPLEY: You know, it's funny, I've actually only done the tour on the North Korean side. I've never - I signed up for the South Korean tour once and then they cancelled the tour, so I didn't actually get to do it. So I -- from the North Korean side, I can tell you, it's a bit of a distance.

You might have to -- if you were trying to get over there in a matter of seconds, you might have to do a little bit of a jog to get across. Maybe it would take you five or 10 seconds if you're walking briskly. But it's not a very long distance. It's not a very difficult thing to cross.

As you can see in the video there, those blue buildings. There's a nice gap in the middle and somebody could just walk right through if that's what they wanted to do. But very few people do that.

And, obviously, when North Koreans attempt to do the crossing, sometimes they're even fired at by other North Korean soldiers. There have actually been incidents of bullets flying in this area with North Korean defectors. Obviously, we don't believe that there were any shots fired in this case of somebody actually walking from South to North, but it's pretty rare, as I said, a service member, it hasn't happened in decades.

BERMAN: All right, Will Ripley, stand by for us for a moment.

Priscilla Alvarez at the White House.

[09:05:02]

What are you hearing from there this morning?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: This is a situation, John, that the White House is closely monitoring and trying to wrap their arms around. As you heard there, there's limited communication with North Korea. So, this is a situation in which U.S. officials are talking to their allies and really leaning on them as they try to gather more information about the circumstances in which this U.S. national, which was on this tour, crossed into North Korea and is now believed to be detained.

Now, again, it is a complicated relationship that is - that the U.S. has with North Korea. And one in which the U.S. has tried to reach out in the past on issues like denuclearization and not received a response. But we do have a sense, a little bit, about what communication they do have from National Security Spokesman John Kirby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: Look, we have channels to be able to communicate with Pyongyang. We don't have, as you know, Katelin, we don't have an embassy there. We don't have direct diplomatic relations. But there are ways to pass communications back and forth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So, as you heard there, there are ways for them to pass communication back and forth. But without those diplomatic relations, it makes it all the more difficult and makes this a very tenuous situation.

But I will also add, this has been a White House that has made detained Americans a priority. President Biden spoke to it just last week when he was in Finland, saying that they -- he would do all he can, the administration would do all they can, for detained Americans.

I have reached out to the White House for more comment on this situation. They have not yet weighed in.

John.

BERMAN: Priscilla, any sense that the president has been notified yet of this incident?

ALVAREZ: We are asking those questions. The White House has not confirmed that's been the case. But you can imagine, in a situation like this, when there is a detained American, that the president would be well aware of it.

BERMAN: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, at the White House, stand by.

Kylie Atwood now at the State Department.

Obviously relations at the diplomatic level with North Korea are more or less nonexistent. What is the view from there this morning?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And because of that, that makes a moment like this even more challenging, even more complicated for U.S. officials, right, John? If you reflect back on the Trump administration, there was pretty regular contact between U.S. officials and North Korean officials as they were setting up those summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.

So, we know that there are ways for the U.S. to send the signals, to send contacts to North Korea. But our understanding is that those haven't been hot channels that have been active over the course of the last few years, with U.S. officials saying they haven't received substantive responses from the North Korean side as they have reached out to engage, saying that there would be no preconditions. They wouldn't be asking North Korea to do anything to partake in initial conversations. But the North Koreans just haven't done so.

And even in this incident, we're still waiting to learn more details. You know, all we know right now is that according to the U.N. command, which preserves the stability of the Korean peninsula, this American crossed over the demarcation line from South Korea to North Korea, and did so without authorization.

So, we're waiting to learn a little bit more about what that means. You know, was the person aggressively crossing over. As we have heard from experts, and I myself have been to the area, it's pretty hard to cross over in an accidental way because these tours are not done to be provocative. These tours are done to show off what the United Nations has been able to do, to maintain stability between South Korea and North Korea. So, we're waiting to hear a little bit more about just how all of this went down.

But we should note that there are not, before this incident, any known Americans who were detained by North Korea at this time. The last Americans who were released from North Korea were released in 2018, three Americans, and then, of course, after that we saw that there were multiple summits between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, which obviously didn't deliver any results on denuclearization, but it was the first time that we saw such high-level engagement between the two sides. BERMAN: Kylie Atwood, let me just ask and put a fine point on it

because there is still so much we don't know. Were do not know at this point if this U.S. soldier willingly, decisively, walked across the border, on purpose, or whether it was some kind of accident, correct?

ATWOOD: That's right.

BERMAN: All right, that is very important to know, at this point, to determine, I think, the posture of both countries as we move forward over the next several hours.

I want to bring in retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

You, obviously, have been near there, General. You know what it's like to be a serviceman on duty and also on tour there. Give us your perspective.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, I've been there, John. In 1999 I was commanding a brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division. We took a group of soldiers up there to do exactly what happened here, it was a tour, to see what we were defending.

[09:10:03]

The reason those buildings are blue is this is a U.N. command post. This is not a U.S. command post. There are South Koreans, Canadians, other forces there. It's mostly guarded by U.S. forces, military policemen. But these are the best of the best.

And the same is true on the other side, that the North Korea soldiers that are there are all chosen for their height, their strapness (ph). They're all over six foot tall. This -- you don't mess around when you go to Panmunjom in this site.

This site is on a post named Camp Bonifas. Art Bonifas was an instructor and water polo coach of mine at West Point who was killed in an axe cutting incident in 1976. The post is named after him when he was killed by North Korean soldiers. They take their job seriously.

And, again, you just brought up some very good points about what was this person doing to cross over the border. Was it accidental? Was it purposeful? Was it a defection? We don't know. But it's not hard, if you're on a tour, you see the demarcation line. It's a couple of yards in front of you. Just like President Trump walked up to it and crossed over it. But there is a step that you have to cross over. You know the difference because it's painted a different color on the north and the south side.

So, you know, depending on what we learn in the next couple of hours about what happened, you know, I would tend to speculate one way or another that this was someone doing something stupid and going across the border when they shouldn't have been because you're warned before you take the tour, do not go anywhere near any of the contentious points in the area.

BERMAN: Do not go anywhere near the contentious points. And, Will Ripley, let me just put this back to you, where we started.

Given how uncertain it is, how this U.S. soldier got to the other side of the border, how does it change the posture of what happens next? You've seen Americans in detention there before. If he walked over voluntarily, if he knew what he was doing, versus if it was all some terrible accident, how does that change the next few steps here?

RIPLEY: Well, step one is they probably take him to some sort of holding facility that's not a prison. He could actually be at one of North Korea's empty old Soviet chic I call them hotels. In fact, that's where the Americans that we interviewed during our first trip to North Korea back in 2014 were being held. They're held in the hotel as charges are potentially compiled against them.

In this case, I don't know clearly what North Korea would charge this American with, if he would - if there would even be a trial, or if they would assess that this is some sort of a - you know, in the past they'd use words like mental case to talk about people that crossed into North Korea and asked for refuge, particularly Americans.

It's not something that happens very often. But the North Koreans, certainly it's not something that they - that they welcome or something that they encourage. They don't want people illegally crossing into their country and creating a burden financially for them in terms of providing food, medical care, and any other kind of things that this - that this person will now need while in North Korean custody.

The North Koreans will, you know, they'll have a bill. And when the United States wants that person handed back over, the North Koreans will present the bill and say, well first you've got to pay what's due because they have very limited resources.

But the conditions will be probably isolation. You know, no television, no radio. Maybe some books in Korean. I'm not even sure if they'd be in English. Sitting in kind of a plain room. If he ends up going to a prison, it's going to be - it's basically going to feel like this own private prison where he only sees the guards that are in charge of keeping tabs on him.

They keep American and western prisoners in these kind of isolation prisons where they go out and for eight hours a day they move rocks around in - you know, in a yard, or they dig holes or they do some sort of manual labor, eight hours a day, six days a week. They get three square meals a day. Certainly very different conditions for an American detained in North Korean, John, than would be for a North Korean who had to go to one of the nation's infamous and notorious labor camps.

BERMAN: All right, Will Ripley, Priscilla Alvarez, General Hertling, Kylie Atwood, she ran off to do some more reporting, thank you all. We are waiting to hear official word from the North Koreans. We are waiting to hear official statements from the U.S. as well.

Much more coming up on this. Thank you all. We'll be back with you very soon. Sara.

SIDNER: The lesson is, you do not mess around with that demarcation line.

All right, this morning, large convoys of Wagner mercenary troops are on the move, spotted for the first time since they tried to overthrow Vladimir Putin's government, as Russia retaliates.

Watch.

(VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Overnight, Russia unloading a series of missiles on the port city of Odessa. This in direct response to Ukraine's recent bridge attack. The strikes lighting up the sky, as you saw there, as air raid sirens blared. Ukrainian forces say they intercepted six cruise missiles and 36 Shaded drones.

[09:15:02]

That Russian launch from the Black Sea and Crimea. The explosions came 24 hours after Ukraine attacked Putin's prized bridge that connects Russia to Crimea and after Putin terminated a crucial gain deal. The port city of Odessa, the direct route for grain to leave Ukraine and feed other nations around the world.

Also raising alarm this morning is the convoy of Wagner mercenaries. One hundred and fifteen new vehicles seen arriving at a vacant military base in Belarus. More than 200 more reportedly en route. Why are they there? What will they do? And what does this signal about their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has not been seen in public since his failed insurrection against the Putin regime.

We begin with CNN's Alex Marquardt, who is on the scene in Odessa.

Alex, what can you tell us now? Give us a sense of the damage, if there is any there, in Odessa from those strikes.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, there certainly has been some damage, Sara. Thankfully, no one was killed. One man, we understand, was hurt. Parts of the port, the critical and famous Port of Odessa were damaged, as well as buildings outside of it.

This was a major strike, revenge, Russia's military said, for the Ukrainian strike against the Kerch Bridge yesterday. It happened, as you noted, just shy of 24 hours after that attack, at 2:00 here in the morning local time when a local military official announced that the city was under assault. And we saw that very clearly with our own eyes from our hotel. We saw those red tracers being fired up into the sky, hundreds of them. We saw Ukrainian spotlights around the area of the port looking for drones in the sky. We heard the air defenses going off and we saw what appeared to be a drone or something else on fire streaking behind us. And then we heard, Sara, that there were at least four to six caliber

missiles, these Russian cruise missiles, fired from the Black Sea heading towards Odessa. And we heard some very large impacts. You just played one of them. That was shot from our photojournalist Scott McWhinnie from our window. Extremely loud. So loud that it set off a car alarm on our street.

Now, the Ukrainians say that those missiles were intercepted and destroyed, but they certainly made an impact. Russia not hiding the fact that this was in response to that Kerch Bridge attack and saying that they're still weighing other options that they could carry out in revenge.

Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, I've been to Odessa. It's a really important place. It's got the port there, of course, so it's strategic. And we're watching one of those missiles over and over again. We're reracking the video to show you what it looked like in the night sky.

Alex, I want to talk to you about Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Right now she is in Ukraine and delivering a message to both Ukraine and Putin this morning. What's that message?

MARQUARDT: Yes, she is, Sara. She arrived here in Odessa this morning, just hours after that critical grain deal expired at midnight last night. Now, Russia had indicated that they were going to pull out. And, in fact, they did. They said it was not in connection with the attack on the bridge. They had aired their grievances for some time.

The Russians pulling out received global condemnation from world leaders, including the U.N. secretary-general, the U.S. secretary of state. And we did have about exclusive interview with the head of USAID, Samantha Power, earlier today. She told me that what Putin is doing it playing roulette with the hungriest people in the world. And she called it deeply disturbing.

Here's a little bit more of what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA POWER, USAID ADMINISTRATOR: The whole world needs to raise its voice, particularly the global south, countries in the global south, to say that it's unacceptable to hold hostage the hungriest people in the world because of some power play and aggression carried out by Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So, Sara, she does not buy the Russian argument that Russia has not been able to export what it wants to, fertilizer and other food. And she is hoping that Russia could come back to the grain deal from that pressure around the world, particularly countries that Russia is close to in the global south. And very notably, Sara, Power announced that the U.S. is offering another $250 million, a quarter billion dollars, in aid to Ukraine, to support Ukrainian farmers and the agricultural sector.

Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, what people may not know is that both Ukraine and Russia, they put out about 20 percent of the world's grain.

MARQUARDT: Right.

SIDNER: And so it's hugely important and it will bring prices up and it will cause food insecurities in countries that are having difficulties.

Alex Marquardt, thank you to you. Thank you to Scott McWhinnie as well for getting that incredible video. We appreciate it.

[09:20:01]

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, and joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington. He is the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thank you so much for being here.

We're going to get to Ukraine in a second. But first, what -- have you heard anything about this unfolding situation that we're covering right now of an American in North Korean custody after crossing over the demarcation line?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): No more than what you've reported. But, obviously, it's a huge diplomatic problem. You know, trying to figure out why he went across the border is going to be the step one. But regardless of why, this creates a significant diplomatic problem between North Korea and the U.S. And as has been noted, we have not been in communication. So, the first step is going to be re- establishing those communications. But if a, you know, a U.S. soldier is in North Korean custody, we need to do what we can to get him back.

BOLDUAN: Do you -- is it your understanding, I'm not sure if you've yet been briefed -- obviously, it's unfolding as we speak -- that it is a U.S. soldier? Our reporting is it's believed to be. I'm just seeing, kind of, if you've gotten any granular detail on that?

SMITH: I have not. That's what I've seen reported.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Yes. OK. So, much more to come on that and we'd love to get your take once you do have the briefing on this.

But I do -- back to Ukraine. The Kerch Bridge attacked. Ukraine claims responsibility. Russia now retaliating. What do you see in this slow slog of this counteroffensive so far and in this moment?

SMITH: This is a very difficult situation. I mean Russia has taken territory from Ukraine. Ukraine's trying it to get it back. But Russia's been dug in for a year now and they have, you know, really destroyed the territory that they've taken over. There are mines everywhere. There are tank traps everywhere. It's going to be difficult for Ukraine to take it. And Ukraine's trying to do in attacking the bridge is break off supply lines and limit the ability of Russia to resupply their soldiers who are on that front line. But this is a very difficult situation.

It also points out what Russia is doing and how it's impacting the world. It impacts, as you've reported, the food going to the world and now Russia has cut off the grain coming out of Ukraine. It's imperative that the rest of world, China as well, put pressure on Russia to stop this war and at a minimum allow the world to be fed, allow the grain to come out of Ukraine. I hope this wakes the rest of the world up a little bit to just what Russia is doing and how devastating it is, not just for Ukraine, but for the rest of the world.

BOLDUAN: You've previously said that if U.S. cluster munitions could bring the war to a conclusion sooner, that you would be supportive of sending it to Ukraine. We know that the - that the munitions have been sent to Ukraine. Do you think these bombs will have that impact of turning the tide?

SMITH: Well, actually two things. One, yes, obviously if it can bring the war to a conclusion sooner, that's good. But even if it just allows Ukraine to continue to defend itself, that, too, is a positive. And the bottom line is, we have been running out of excess munitions for Ukraine. This is what we had in order to allow them aid to continue to defend themselves because the attack isn't over as we've seen in Odessa. The Russians continue to attack all across Ukraine. Ukraine needs to be in a position to defense itself.

But, also, Russia is brutally occupying significant portions of sovereign Ukraine. These munitions are going to be critical in giving Ukrainians a chance to get their territory back and win this war.

BOLDUAN: On the role of Congress in all of this, the NDAA, the massive defense policy and funding bill, you coauthored the original bill coming out of committee. We now know that it's a very -- a different and modified and amended version passed through on a very - on a partisan basis through the House. Now, the process will continue, as you well know, and many of our viewers do. The Senate will do - will work its will, and this eventually is likely then to get hashed out in conference - in conference committee.

Even though this bill came out of committee with bipartisan support, where you are now in this divided partisan Congress, do you see a chance that this is a year when Congress actually fails to pass the NDAA?

SMITH: There's absolutely that risk. Look, you're right, this bill is going to change. The Senate is passing their version this week or next, as I understand it. We'll go into conference committee. What the Republicans passed off the floor will not pass. The only question is the extreme right-wing Republicans who put in the language that, you know, attacks a women's right to reproductive health care, that goes after the ability to have a truly diverse and representative military, that goes after the trans community, when we take those provisions out, will the House Republicans allow the bill to come back to the floor. Will Kevin McCarthy go with the overwhelming majority of the House, or will he go with those couple dozen right-wing extremists who took the process hostage?

Look, you strip that stuff out, we've got 360, 370 votes for this bill.

[09:25:05]

Mike Rogers, chairman of the committee, said as much, and so did I, we have a strong bipartisan bill. Kevin McCarthy has allowed it to be hijacked by these extremists who really have a very, very bigoted agenda here, driving trans people out of the military, driving women to a position where they can't get the health care they need, will make it less likely for women to serve in the military. This undermines our national secretary simply to advance a right-wing quote-unquote anti-woke agenda.

I hope that when we get a conference report Kevin McCarthy stands up to that and chooses a different path, but I can't say I'm sure of that.

BOLDUAN: Let's see what happens in the coming months on that one.

Congressman, Ranking Member, thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: So, as one report puts it, a federal judge is about to shape the course of the 2024 presidential election, and perhaps the fate of the country. What could be the most important decision in the Mar-a- Lago documents case and it could come today.

Emails shared with CNN raise new questions about whether migrants at the border are being pushed into the water.

And, breaking news this morning, U.S. officials say a man who crossed the border into North Korea is believed to be a U.S. soldier. We have new reporting coming in.

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