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President of the United States and President of South Korea Hold a Press Conference in White House; Turkey Shoots Down Mystery Aircraft in Its Airspace Near Syrian Border. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 16, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:11] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world here as we are watching and waiting live pictures inside of the White House as we are anticipating the president of the United States and also the president of South Korea.

I have Michelle Kosinski, our White House correspondent standing by to just give us a preview of what we should be anticipating -- Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The South Korean president's first trip here to the U.S. since she's been in office. As one analyst put it, what she wants to show back home is that the U.S. is South Korea's closest most important ally in the world. But as we always see, as the president has been trying to pivot to Asia, what these individual relationships prove is how much China always plays a role.

And the South Korea has been trying to cooperate more with China. The president, South Korean president Park raised an eyebrow recently when she appeared at the Chinese military parade.

So, you know, what does that message show? Is she going to back up the U.S. on certain issues that the U.S. disagrees with China on? Is South Korea willing to pressure China on cyber-security? That's a big topic. And South Korea has also been the subject of many cyber- attacks.

And if South Korea is trying not to offend China, what does that mean for down the road the possibility of the U.S. putting a new missile defense system in South Korea? What does that mean for all the tension in the South China Sea where China has been building these militarized island? The U.S. opposes that and is possibly very soon planning to run ships by there. Is South Korea going to back the U.S. up on that? And ultimately, is China going to put more pressure on North Korea versus its nuclear program? We know that North Korea is going to weigh heavily in the discussions that are happening still as we speak.

But, of course, there's also going to be this press conference where President Obama is going to take questions. We expect him to weigh in on the troop drawdown that he just announced yesterday in Afghanistan. Other big topics like Israel and possibly even the 2016 campaign, Brooke. BALDWIN: That's significant he will be taking questions. We will be

watching for that. This is an important moment. The White House, we'll take it live.

Michelle Kosinski, do not go too far. We'll check back in with you.

In the meantime, she mentioned some of the other issues overseas. Let's get. A troubling situation happening right now in the skies above Syria. Turkey has just shot down this mystery aircraft flying in its air space near the Syrian border. The aircraft, we do know, is an unmanned drone. We know that for weeks now Turkey has been warning Russia to stay out of its skies as Vladimir Putin wages war alongside his allies, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. officials are saying it is not clear exactly whose drone it is, but defense sources are telling CNN otherwise.

Let's go straight to our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

And Barbara, what are your sources telling you about what happened and who the drone belongs to?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke.

Well, let's start off by saying officially the Russian government says that all of their drones are accounted for. Nothing of theirs got shot down anywhere, especially not over Turkey. But you do see this wreckage on the ground. You see Turkish military forces near this wreckage. Now U.S. officials are saying they believe there are initial reports that are drone was Russian. Maybe a separate question who was operating the drone. We don't know if there was some Russian operators at some ground station operating it or operated by someone else.

But U.S. officials say the initial reports they have is it was a Russian drone. All American drones are accounted for. The Russians say all of their drones are accounted for. But that's a pretty busy border these guy days. The Russians, according to U.S. and Turkish officials, have strayed across into Turkish air space with manned aircraft in the past. The Turkish government strong on this point warning the Russians to stay out of their air space and that they would risk getting shot down if they came back in again. Again, no indication this was a manned aircraft, of course. So, remains to be seen exactly who is going to wind up claiming that it's theirs -- Brooke.

Barbara, stay with me. I want to bring in another voice here, lieutenant general mark Hertling, CNN military analyst and retired former commanding general in the 7th army.

So general, I was just - I was on TV this morning. I was talking to the press secretary at the Pentagon and he reminded brazen, Brooke, this isn't just, you know, Turkish air space. This is NATO air space. And so, in addition to this, you also have the recent intercept between Russian and U.S. jets over Syria. He said, yes, he is concerned. What's your biggest concern here? LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: My concern is that

there's a lot of aircraft flying in an area without any control. And, you know, going back to Barbara's comment a minute ago and Russia claiming it's not their aircraft, from the pictures that I have seen it looks like a Russian Orland end (ph) which is one of their two types of drone that they have used in Ukraine. Several of those drones crashed in Ukraine as well. I mean, it's almost identical and it is non-marked much like the rest of the Russian equipment isn't mark as it is lying in Syria.

So I think we have a couple problems. First of all, you have for the first time in this air space the use of drones. It obviously went beyond its link capability, which means the radio control of the drone. It was probably not shutdown. It probably crashed. Most of the drone we used in Iraq and Afghanistan don't get shot down, they crash because they go outside their length. And it's a difficult aircraft to shoot down any way. It's small, weighs about 50 pounds, it is maybe tow by three feet long. So that's a tough airplane to shoot down.

So I'm not sure I'm buying any of the Russian story because we have seen them give this kind of propaganda before where nothing ever goes wrong in the Russian military, but we have seen a lot of things go wrong.

[14:06:11] BALDWIN: That's the thing. That's so important. You're not buying it.

Barbara, I was watching one of your pieces recently. Another example, you know, the Russians secretly videotaped a conversation, right, between U.S. and Russia. We know that they are trying to agree on some sort of safety plan over the skies of Syria, but how can you trust anything? How do you agree with anything if Russia is not telling the truth?

STARR: Well, I got to tell you. We spoke recently to a former air force - U.S. air force intelligence officer and asked him this very question. And he said, no, he would not trust the Russians. He's long experienced in U.S. air force intelligence. His view was that U.S. pilots flying on those skies are going to have to look out for themselves.

That's not the way it's supposed to work. People are supposed to cooperate up there. And that's why the U.S. wants to have this technical agreement. Nobody is looking for a disaster. Nobody is looking for some accidental really terrible incident to happen. So the U.S. pressing very hard to get the Russians to come to a technical agreement about how they operate up there. The Pentagon very strong, very adamant. This is not in the U.S. is cooperating with the Russians. They are really just trying to avoid a disaster at this point.

BALDWIN: Realistically, General, how do you see this playing out specifically regarding U.S. and Russia in Syria?

HERTLING: I think the Russian aircraft are going to continue to have problems because they are doing a lot of uncoordinated action and the American or the coalition plane frankly, Brooke, are being controlled by what we call an a-wax (ph), a plane that actually has sighting where various aircrafts are. They have very fine targeting procedures. And it appears the Russians are just attempting to fly anywhere they want to. And it's going to cause problems.

There's going to be some type of accident. It's lucky that this first one was a drone. No one was hurt. It was over flying not only as you said Turkish air space but NATO air space. And I think you're going to continue to see the Turks have problems with this. And they will continue to shoot at and they already have in the pas past, by the way and they down Syrian aircraft, Syrian helicopters and other drones over Turkish air space. So if the Russians to continue to push the envelope, someone is going to get hurt.

BALDWIN: General Mark Hertling, thank you. Barbara Starr, as always, thank you so much for your reporting there at the Pentagon.

This is something the president could be answering after this Q&A. We are waiting any moment now. Live pictures here from the White House. Two podiums. We are about to see the president of the United States and the president of South Korea deliver addresses here. But again, they will allow for some time for Q&A afterwards. We will take it live.

You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:09:37] BALDWIN: Take you live to the White House here. President Obama and the president of South Korea. Let's dip in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon. Last year in Seoul, President Park welcomed me to the blue house. Today it's my pleasure to welcome her back to the White House.

Madame President, during your last visit here you addressed a joint session of Congress, which is an honor that's reserved for America's closest friends. You noted that the founding document of both of our countries and a commitment to the people with the same words to their pursuit of happiness.

For more than six decades, Americans and Koreans have stood shoulder to shoulder in that pursuit. Once again your time here includes a visit to our Korean War Veterans memorial. We're very grateful for that. That's a reminder that our people have fought and bled and died for one another's freedom. And I know your gestures mean a great deal to the American people and especially to our proud Korean War Veterans.

In recent years President Park and I have worked together to strengthen our alliance for the future. And today I want to reaffirm that the commitment of the United States to the defense and security of the Republic of Korea will never waiver. Our alliance remains a lynch pin of peace and security, not just on the Korean peninsula, but across the region. And so South Korea plays a central role in America's rebalance to the Asia-pacific and e we continued that work today.

As we agreed in Seoul last year, our militaries are investing in shared capabilities, including the technologies in missile defenses that allow our forces to operate together effectively. We want to ensure that our Korean allies have the capabilities that are needed to take on greater responsibility for the defense of the peninsula and the potential transfer of control of the alliance. And we're determined to maintain our readiness against any threat.

Madame President, I want to commend you and the people of South Korea for the resolve that you displayed this summer following North Korea's reckless actions in the DMZ that wounded two of your soldiers. North Korea was reminded that any provocation or aggression will be met by a strong, united response by South Korea and the United States.

Likewise, Pyongyang's nuclear missile programs have achieved nothing except to deepen North Korea's isolation. Today, President Park and I are reaffirming that our nations will never accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. We will continue to insist that Pyongyang must abide by its obligations on the complete and verifiable denuclearization of peninsula in a peaceful manner. And given the horrific treatment of the North Korean people by their government, our two nations will continue to expose abuses and call for accountability for human rights violation violations.

At the same time, we do support President Park's efforts to improve relations between south and North Korea. As my administration has shown with Iran, Cuba, we are also prepared to engage nations with which we have had troubled histories, but Pyongyang needs to understand that it will not achieve the economic development it seeks so long as it clings to nuclear weapons.

In contrast to the President Park's articulate and a better vision, a unified Korea, free from the fear of war and nuclear weapons and that's a vision that we very much support.

Beyond the peninsula, President Park shared her proposal, the northeast Asia peace and cooperation initiative to build greater cooperation among the countries of the region and we welcome those efforts. President Park and I met with Prime Minister Abe of Japan last year to address shared challenges into a lateral summit that President Park will host this month can be another step forward in building positive relations between South Korea, Japan and China.

With respect to trade, we reviewed the first three years of our chorus trade agreement. Bilateral trade is up including exports of American autos. We do still have work to do and I can say that when the issues of implementing course have risen, they have been resolved but we need to resolve them quickly. And President Park discussed the regulatory reform that she is pursuing. Those are reforms that we welcome.

And finally, I'm pleased that our alliance is increasingly a global one. South Korea is not just an important player in the region. It's increasingly an important player on the world stage. South Korea remains a partner in development in Afghanistan, a member of the coalition against ISIL, a generous donor of humanitarian aid to refugees. And now, we're going even further expanding our cooperation to some new frontiers.

For example, given the increasing cyber threats to both our nations, including from the DPRK, we're stepping up efforts to strengthen cyber defenses and coordinating at the highest levels. The White House and blue house making sure we're in sync in dealing with that challenge.

In the fight against climate change, we're accelerating our investments in clean energy. Our new civil nuclear agreement reflects our shared commitment to the safe use of nuclear power, which is a low carbon energy source. I want to commend South Korea for announcing its post 2020 target to limit carbon emissions through its natural cap and trade system. As we head into the Paris conference, South Korean leadership can be an example for other nations around the world.

And finally, we are expanding out cooperation from health and global development. Having already worked together against E-bola, South Korea has stepped up as a true leader in advancing global health security. Our development agencies will partner to reduce poverty and encourage sustainable development in Southeast Asia. And both our countries are standing together to promote education and health for girls around the world. Our let girls learn campaign in South Korea's better life for girls emission.

So, Madame President, thank you once again for your partnership, your leadership and your friendship. I believe that we have shown again today that our unbreakable alliance is not just a foundation for security in the Korean peninsula and in the Asia-Pacific region, more and more our alliance is helping people around the world in their own pursuit of happiness, the security and prosperity and dignity that they seek for their families and for their nations.

Madame President.

[14:16:52] PARK GEUN-HYE, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Mr. President, thank you very much for your remarks. I also thank you and the American people for the very warm welcome you have extended to me throughout my visit. In today's summit, you and I discussed not only the Korean-U.S. alliance but issues surrounding the Korean peninsula, the northeast Asia and a shared global agenda.

During the past two and a half years, we have been able to create a resolved sense of issues as conditions based transship operational control and the revision after 42 years of the nuclear cooperation agreement, which evidences that the Korea-U.S. alliance is stronger than ever.

Our alliance is now moving beyond a security alliance and an economic alliance and evolving into a comprehensive global alliance. The biggest threat to peace and security on the Korean peninsula, the northeast Asia is a North Korean provocation and advancement of their nuclear capabilities. And President Obama and I share recognition in many aspects of this issue.

First, to deter strategic provocation by the North, Korea and the U.S. will strengthen efforts with the international community including China, Russia and Japan. And to this ends, we will try to fully utilize the various regional and multilateral gatherings that are to take place.

Second, with a sense of urgency and firm commitment, we have agreed to strengthen diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korea nuclear problem on the basis of Korea, U.S. Japan cooperation that will strengthen coordination among the five parties. While Korea and the United States will deepen consultations with other countries including China.

Third, should North Korea demonstrate a genuine willingness towards denuclearization, we reaffirm that Korea and the U.S., along with the rest of the international committees stand ready to extend cooperative measures to the north.

In our discussions, we looked beyond today the current pressing of the peninsula and engaged in deeper conditions about the future of the Korean peninsula with regard to the changing situation in the Korea peninsula and the process of peaceful unification will continue to pursue mutually coordinated policies on North Korea. At the same time to create conditions conducive to peaceful unification revolves deepen highly strategic consultations between Korea and the U.S.

I would also like to thank President Obama for support for the Korean government's ideas on peaceful reunification. And today, we adopted a joint statement on North Korea that contains our shared recognition on these related issues.

The Korea-U.S. alliance is the linchpin of peace and stability in the Asia-pacific and there exists a synergy between President Obama's rebalancing policy at the Asia-Pacific and our northeast Asia peace and cooperation initiative (INAUDIBLE). And I would like to thank President Obama for his warm words of welcome and strong support for (INAUDIBLE).

In late October the second high level forum will be held in Seoul and I hope that Korea and the United States will continue to engage in close cooperation in that forum and beyond.

President Obama also recognize Korea's initiative in reviving Korea, Japan, China trilateral talks that had been on hold for the past three and a half years. And he also expressed his high hopes for the Korea, Japan, China summit that will be held in two weeks time.

We also shared the recognition that such meetings may meaningfully contribute to the improvement of bilateral relations in our region.

President Obama affirmed that Korea-U.S. relations in to China relations can be compatible and supported Korea's policies toward China.

The recent summit meetings between Korea and China, the U.S. and China and now Korea and the U.S. have started to build consensus regarding North Korea and its nuclear program and we believe that this will play a positive role in ensuring peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and throughout northeast Asia.

In dealing with the North Korea nuclear program, we will also seek to strengthen cooperation between Korea, U.S. and Japan. I believe that strengthening dialogue between Korea, the U.S. and Japan, Korea, Japan and China will open new channels for stronger vision cooperation.

Regional peace and stability becomes stronger when countries within the region build closer ties of mutual economic dependency. In this regard, I would like to congratulate President Obama for the successful conclusion of TPP negotiations.

Korea and the U.S. already have high standards and in this respect I believe that we make natural partners in terms of the TPP. I sense TPP negotiations have now been concluded. We will be engaged in closer cooperation with regards to Korea's possible participation in the TPP.

Today's meeting was particularly meaningful in that it provides impetus to efforts to open new frontiers of cooperation between the Korea-U.S. alliance and strengthens our global partnership. Korea and the United States will focus first on health security, cyber security, space and artic cooperation which are gaining the spotlight in this 21st century.

In the (INAUDIBLE) space particularly we will work to conclude talks on the Korea-U.S. agreement on space cooperation to establish an institutional foundation for such cooperation. And to (INAUDIBLE) in order to enhance common response capabilities against cyber-attacks, we have agreed to establish a hotline between the White House and blue house for cyber cooperation.

On global issues, President Obama and I on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations have agreed to strengthen cooperation on climate change, development cooperation, U.N. peace keeping operations, nuclear security, humanitarian aid for refugees, violent extremism and other urgent global issues.

Today's summit served as an opportunity to set a clear vision and strategy for the future of the Korea-U.S. alliance in new Korean peninsula, a new northeast Asia and new world, I'm confident that the Korean alliance will continue to involve into a comprehensive, strategic alliance.

[14:24:04] OBAMA: All right. We are going to take a couple questions. We will start with Michelle Kosinski from CNN.

KOSINSKI: Thank you, Mr. President. On 2016 now that we have seen the Democratic candidates in their first debate and how they did, maybe you can share their thoughts on how much you watched of that. Do you feel like the window now has closed on the vice president entering the race? And if you don't feel that it's closed, do you feel that he, in a sense, owes it to Democrats to get in very soon?

And also on Israel, we heard Secretary Kerry say one of the roots of what's going on there now is frustration over settlement activity. Do you feel like that is a root cause? Do you feel like the President Abbas has a responsibility to condemn attacks and try to stop them?

And President Park, welcome. As you know, the U.S. has reached this deal now with Iran over its nuclear program. But how would you feel if that were North Korea? How would you feel if that were North Korea? Would you welcome attempts for such a deal and do you feel like you would ever trust North Korea to abide by such an agreement? Thank you.

[14:25:26] OBAMA: The Democratic debate was taking place at the same time as some ball games so there was a little bit of clicking back and forth. I'm not going to comment on what Joe's doing or not doing. I think you can direct those questions to my very able vice president.

The one observation I'll make about, the Democratic debate was that those are all some very fine people. They share a belief in an economy that is working for everybody, and not just a few. They share a belief that America has to predict strength around the world by maintaining the finest military, but also by making sure we have a strong economy back home that we're employing diplomacy working with other nations wherever possible to solve big problems like climate change.

So what was interesting to me was the degree to which, although there were some very real differences among the candidates and I'm sure those will emerge, and there may be for each candidate some differences with my administration, overall, they very much -- we very much share a vision of an economy that works for everybody and effective pursuit of America's national security through all the tools that are available to us. And I was very impressed with all of them. I know them personally. And they are good people. Beyond that, it's up to the American people to decide. And so I will have a vote like everybody else as a citizen, and that ballot is private. I don't have to share my views about that right now because I think it's important for the American people to make up their own decision.

I think the vice president, like every other candidate, make their own decisions about these issues and they will have to figure out whether it makes sense for them.

With respect to Israel, obviously, we're very concerned about the outbreak of violence that initially is centered on Jerusalem, but we always are concerned about the spread of violence elsewhere. We condemn in the strongest possible terms violence directed against innocent people and believe that Israel has a right to maintain basic law and order and protect its citizens from knife attacks and violence on the streets.

We also believe that it's important for both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli elected officials and President Abbas and other people in positions of power to try to tamp down rhetoric that may feed violence or anger or misunderstanding and try to get all people in Israel and West Bank to recognize that this kind of random violence isn't going to result in anything other than more hardship and more insecurity.

And, you know, I don't think that -- I don't think we can wait for all the issues that exist between Israelis and Palestinians to be settled in order for us to try to damp down violence right now. I think my views are well known that over time, the only way that

Israel is going to be truly secure, and the only way the Palestinians are going be able to meet the aspirations of their people is if they are two states living side by side in peace and security. Those talks, which Secretary Kerry put an enormous effort in, and before that a number of our envoys and Secretary Clinton put enormous effort in, have stalled, and I think it's gonna be up to the parties, and we stand ready to assist to see if they can restart a more constructive relationship.