Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

CNN International: U.S. Soldier In N. Korea Custody After Crossing Border; North Korea Fires Two Short-Range Ballistic Missiles; Russia Launches Air Strikes On Odesa For Second Night; U.K. Intel Chief: Wagner Chief Is Alive And At Liberty; Greece Wildfires Burn For The Third Day Near Athens; Slovenian Activist Leading Campaign Against Hate Speech. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 19, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

DAVID SCHOEN, ATTORNEY FOR STEVE BANNON: -- under the insurrection charge that's encouraging violence, intending to cause violence, knowing that it likely will produce violence, that sort of thing. I think if you really parse his speech and other surrounding factors, that would not be a fair charge.

The wild card, of course, is the jury, and I think that's why, you know, D.C. is particularly attractive to --

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

SCHOEN: -- this special prosecutor.

ABBY PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you need some lawyers who drink constitutional questions for breakfast. David Schoen and Laura Coates, thank you both very much.

And our coverage on CNN continues right now.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London. Just ahead, we're learning more about the U.S. soldier who is being held in North Korea after he crossed into the secretive nation at the Demilitarized Zone.

Also ahead, a second night of heavy bombardment in Odesa as Russia targets the Ukrainian port city with missiles and drones. And a rare speech from Britain's top spy who says Putin has been humiliated by the attempted mutiny in Russia last month. Details from Prague in just a moment.

But first, we're learning new details about the American soldier in North Korean custody who ran across the military demarcation line into North Korea on Tuesday. Private Travis King had faced disciplinary action, according to an army official, and was supposed to be sent back to the United States.

Court documents reveal he was brought to South Korean court on assault charges last year. The incident comes during a sensitive time, with Pyongyang ramping up its ballistic missile test. Two short range missiles were launched early Wednesday.

Well, let's bring in CNN's National Security Reporter Natasha Bertrand, who's live for us at the Pentagon. And Natasha, as we just said, we knew this U.S. soldier was facing disciplinary action. So what more are you learning about the potential motive for what happened here and the Pentagon's efforts to resolve this?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, this whole situation really has officials here scratching their heads. But essentially what we're learning is that this individual, Private Travis King, he was deployed to U.S. forces South -- U.S. forces Korea, and he was a fairly junior enlisted soldier.

And what happened was he took as a tour of the DMZ, and he, all of a sudden, ran across the demarcation line into North Korea. According to U.S. officials here, he was not coerced to do so, and he appeared to do so voluntarily and, of course, without authorization.

But we're learning a bit more about his backstory. He was facing assault charges in South Korea stemming from two incidents in September of 2022 and October of 2022. And he actually served 50 days in a South Korean detention facility and was set to be sent back to the United States to Fort Bliss in Texas and face disciplinary action by the U.S. military.

He was actually going to be separated from the army as a result of these assault charges. So he was making his way to the airport escorted by U.S. military officials, but they couldn't accompany him all the way to the gate. And they lost track of him, essentially when he was set to board the plane.

At some point after he did not make his flight, he then went to this tour of the DMZ, and that is when we're told he crossed that line into North Korea. Now, the U.S. military is working with North Korean officials, military officials, to try to resolve this situation. But as we know, the U.S. and North Korea, they really haven't had any diplomatic relations since the Biden administration came into office.

So it remains to be seen just how productive those conversations have been. And importantly, we have actually heard from Travis King's mother, who spoke to ABC and said that she can't imagine her son doing something like this. She last spoke to him just a few days ago, and he told her that he was going back to Fort Bliss. But she said, of course, that all she really wants right now is for him to come home. Christina?

MACFARLANE: All right. Natasha Bertrand there live from the Pentagon. Thanks, Natasha.

Let's turn to CNN's Marc Stewart, who's joining us now from Tokyo with more on the missile test and the tensions on the Korean peninsula. And Marc, we know that relations between the U.S. and North Korea have been difficult for decades, but things are particularly fraught right now, especially with the news just this morning that two more ballistic missiles were launched by North Korea into the Eastern Sea.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Christina. In fact, if you live in this region or you work in this region, it is very clear that North Korea craves attention and will do whatever it can to stay relevant. As you mentioned, it was just after 04:00 this morning here in Tokyo that we received an alert from the prime minister's office warning of a suspected missile launch.

Now we have learned that two missiles were launched, short range missiles that landed in the waters between Japan and Korea. Let's look at the timing of all of this. It comes as a U.S. submarine, for the first time in decades, was importin Korea a submarine that had nuclear capability?

[08:05:00]

Was North Korea trying to make some kind of political message or statement behind that? Of course, we'll never know. But there is never coincidence in many times when it comes to these missile launches. In fact, it was just last week that we saw a long range missile, an intercontinental ballistic missile, launched again, this as the NATO conference was taking place, parallel timing in that case.

That missile was again an intercontinental ballistic missile. It was a noteworthy test because it was in the air for 74 minutes, one of perhaps the longest flight times thus far. Even though it did land in the waters of Asia, it is a missile that does have the potential to travel over the Pacific and possibly onto U.S. soil.

So we see when there are political overtures from the west, oftentimes North Korea will take some kind of action to be part of the conversation. Now, as far as what happened with the soldier and how this will play in with this larger geopolitical debate about North Korea, how it fits into Asia and the United States relationship, we just don't know. But it will be interesting to see how that plays out. And if it will have any kind of role at all, Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, so much uncertainty. This really couldn't have happened at a worse time, really. Marc Stewart, live there from the region. Thanks very much.

Now the Mayor of Odesa calls it one of the most horrible nights since Russia's full scale invasion nearly 18 months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BOMBS & GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: The southern Ukrainian port city came under intense Russian bombardment for the second night in a row. CNN teams on the ground in Odesa capturing this video of Ukrainian air defenses destroying incoming cruise missiles. Several civilians were injured and several buildings were damaged by falling debris. CNN's Clare Sebastian joining me here now. And Clare, the mayor also said this was a fierce battle, substantially bigger than the one we saw on Monday night.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the second night in a row, but this one really was, and certainly from the accounts of our team on the ground, a terrifying night for the people of Odesa as a city of more than -- almost 1 million people before the war. The mayor saying we do not recall such a scale of attack since the beginning of the full scale invasion.

So that gives you a sense of the scale here. In terms of what the targets were, what was actually happening, President Zelenskyy has come out and accused Russia of targeting infrastructure linked to the grain deal. Obviously that deal that they pulled out of on Monday, the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

We had heard early in the day from Ukrainian officials in that city that a grain in an oil terminal at the port of Odesa had been hit by missiles that actually did reach their targets. Russia is saying that this the Russian MOD, the Ministry of Defense in the last hour has come out and said that it launched a group strike with high precision sea and airbase weapons on military industry facilities.

They're saying fuel infrastructure and ammunition depots. They're also saying that they hit an airbase, a Ukrainian air base in Central Ukraine. So they're not admitting to hitting sort of grain-related infrastructure. They're not also, as they did on Tuesday, explicitly claiming that this is retaliation.

But I think, given that we had heard from the Kremlin on Tuesday saying that they're still looking at proposals for retaliating for the attack on the Kerch Bridge, it can be viewed in that context. Although, obviously, I think it's still hard to distinguish Russian retaliation from their overall aggression here. These aerial assaults continue to be part of a pattern.

MACFARLANE: Yes.

And attacks in Crimea as well we're hearing as well in the last few hours?

SEBASTIAN: Yes. So this is Russian occupied Crimea. There's a fire that has broken out at what the Russian installed head of the region is calling a military training ground. Others are calling it an ammunition depot. There may be both of those things.

There seem to be rolling explosions. We have video showing rolling explosions which suggest that ammunition is detonating. Because of this, we don't know the cause. It's a fairly big fire. They've had to evacuate some 2,000 people from neighboring villages.

They've closed a section of highway. There was a suggestion on telegram from a Wagner linked group that a storm shadow missile may have been used. That would be pretty significant to do this. But we have no corroboration of that as of yet. MACFARLANE: Yes, and we're seeing those images as you speak there.

SEBASTIAN: Yes.

MACFARLANE: Pretty big explosions, as you say. Clare, thank you.

And we are learning new details about the leader of the Wagner mercenary group following last month's short lived rebellion against the Kremlin. The head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency tells CNN Yevgeny Prigozhin is floating about after Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced to cut a, quote, humiliating deal with him.

CNN'S Nick Paton Walsh joining us now live from Prague. And Nick, it's been nearly a month since we've really heard anything on the health or whereabouts of Prigozhin. So these comments are significant.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly. Prigozhin's whereabouts been, frankly, of great mystery since this apparent, according to Vladimir Putin meeting, he had a matter of days after the failed rebellion in the Kremlin, where they appear to have sorted everything out from what it seems.

[08:10:07]

What's been interesting today to hear Sir Richard Moore. the head of MI6, in a rare speech delivered in Prague, a city with a redolent history of Russian tanks rolling through it in the past was essentially to hear that for the best knowledge of Western intelligence, what we saw happening on the surface in Russia in that extraordinary weekend failed rebellion is what they actually think was happening to behind closed doors.

The public perception matched up with the private reality. Now, specifically, there's a colorful quote we heard from Moore in reference to, and I think it's fair to say their heads were spinning, too, observing the events around Moscow during that weekend. That exactly how fast the loyalties that Prigozhin showed appeared to have changed.

Now, Moore said Prigozhin started off that day as a traitor at breakfast, he'd been pardoned by supper, and then a few days later, he was invited for tea, showing the extraordinary flip flop that Putin appeared to have publicly had to entertain as he cut a deal with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of that armed rebellion.

Here's a little more what Moore had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD MOORE, MI6 CHIEF: You really didn't fight back against Prigozhin. He cut a deal to save his skin using the good officers of the leader of Belarus. So even I can't see inside Putin's head, but the only person who has been, well, the only people who have been talking about escalation and nuclear weapons are Putin and a handful of henchmen around him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now, Western intelligence agencies, it's fair to say, I think, have been reticent to give too much commentary about what they think was happening around that weekend, which makes these comments particularly interesting. The sort of first confirmation we had that deal was, as far as they can say, genuinely done, a deal that he cut to save his own skin. I quote Sir Richard Moore saying there.

But this too Prague, a venue where he chose to also launch an appeal to Russians disaffected with how the war is being fought to essentially come and spy for the United Kingdom, promising their safety and secrecy of those secrets, but also took two king to point out how in the assessment here that China remains fully in support of Russia.

Complicit was his words in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But also, too, that Iranian support for Russia's war. Remember those attacks on Odesa you were hearing about, often done by Iranian built and supplied Shahed drones? That that support has indeed caused fissures at the top of Iran's official dom.

And that essentially is something rare and remarkable to see, that as we see Russia's war here, fault are continually. These unexpected consequences are spilling out in Russia, to Iran, around the world, Christin?

MACFARLANE: Yes, important context, Nick, not just to the last few days, but of course, the events of last month with that insurrection.

Nick Payton Walsh there live in Prague. Thanks.

Now huge waves of southern Europe are baking in a heat wave that's being trailed by wildfires and health warnings. 17 countries are under alerts for high temperatures. Rome on Tuesday set a record high of 41.8 degrees, but temperatures are expected to ease a bit later this week.

In France, four cities hit an all-time high on Tuesday, all above 36 degrees. And one Alpine ski resort there reported a record 29 degrees. Meanwhile, the hot weather is not helping firefighters in Greece. The fires are burning for a third day west of Athens and close to residential areas.

Barbie Nadeau is joining us now live from Rome wit the latest. And Barbie, these firefighters having to address these wildfires in these conditions, in this heat must be extremely challenging.

MACFARLANE: Yes, you know, that is the real worry. It's just the health and wellbeing of these firefighters. It is extremely hot out there. They're wearing their protective gear. The European Union, though, has been very good about sending assets.

Spain -- sorry, France and Italy have sent four Canada firefighting planes. There are three or four crews coming from other parts of Europe to try to ease off, you know, some of the pressure extremely these firefighters. But it's a big concern. There is a fire alert here in Italy and Sardinia that's supposed to last through the weekend. So, of course, these temperatures are very, very high, and these wildfires spread very, very quickly, especially as the wind, Christina?

MACFARLANE: All right, Barbie Nadeau there live from the heat in Rome. Thanks, Barbie.

All right, coming up, it's one of the most fortified areas in the world. We'll have more details about the DMZ separating north and South Korea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:46]

MACFARLANE: Welcome back, a U.S. soldier is being held in North Korea after he crossed the demarcation line while on a civilian tour of the joint security area. It is part of the demilitarized zone that separates north and South Korea and is one of the most heavily fortified areas in the world.

North Korea is a notoriously autocratic regime and has no official diplomatic relations with the U.S. Tensions between the two countries have been rising in recent years due to Pyongyang ramping up its nuclear and missile programs.

But you might remember the last high-profile visit of U.S. citizen rather to enter North Korea from the demarcation line. Of course, it was 2019. Donald Trump becoming the first sitting U.S. leader to set foot in North Korea. Mr. Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un shook hands for about a minute before returning to the south to hold a short conversation.

CNN's Will Ripley joins me now live from near the Korean demilitarized zone. Good to see you, Will. I know you've reported from this location many times, I think the last time in 2018. Tell us about the scene you're seeing there today and how this crossing by this soldier may have actually happened?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting because as you talk about that, if we bring back memories of President Trump stepping over the military Demarcation line, which is less than 5 miles down this road here.

This is actually -- we're still a bit of a distance from the DMZ, approaching what's known as the Unification Bridge. And you can see even less than 5 miles out,you can still, there's spike strips on the road. There's obviously all of these barricades. Basically, they do not want people getting close to the Demilitarized Zone unless they are authorized to do so.

Now, tour groups, they're suspended for the time being. They were allowed in, but there's a lot of protocol, a lot of security checks that you have to go through. And -- but in fact, if indeed it was at Panmunjam, where this whole incident happened, then this young U.S. army private, 23 year old Travis King, may have actually stepped across in relatively the same way that President Trump stepped across when he went with Kim Jong-un, which is just kind of, you know, we don't know if there's video that will ever be released that would show it.

Obviously, it was probably caught on multiple security cameras, given the sensitivity of this location. But whether or not that will ever see the light of day, we don't know. What we also don't know, Christina, is exactly how long Mr. King is going to be in North Korean custody. Pretty complicated situation considering the two sides have not had any official lines of communication for a very long time.

MACFARLANE: That is true. And as we talk about President Trump, we see those images will, I mean, we're so familiar now with that scene playing out as it did historically in 2019. I just wonder, from your perspective, if you feel that that moment has in some way normalized the act of crossing the demarcation line and also the reality that this is actually still an active war zone.

RIPLEY: Absolutely. I don't know if it's normalized it. I mean, as far as we know, this hasn't happened -- certainly a U.S. service member hasn't actually gone into North Korea as a defector in more than 40 years. The last time was in 1982.

But there have been a number of other U.S. citizens who've crossed illegally into the north, but they did not do it necessarily at Panmunjom. You know, north to south is very common, and a lot of times these were either NGO workers or tourists who then tried to, you know, overstay their visas essentially, that's how they got in. They were allowed in with visas, and then they tried to stay.

[08:20:11]

But they actually have somebody try to cross from the south to the north. Now, if it had been the other way around, if somebody was actually trying to come from North Korea into South Korea, which has happened a number of times, especially in recent years, the last incident I can recall, there were actually bullets that were flying, and it was the soldier, the North Korean soldier made it to South Korea, but he was very seriously injured, although he did end up surviving.

In this case, no shots were fired. But this young man, if he thought that it would be just something that he could do, he could just cross into North Korea, and all of a sudden, you know, he's there. Whether he gave much thought to it, considering that he spent almost 50 days in detention here in South Korea.

He knew he was facing military disciplinary action back in the United States. But now, you know, the North Koreans could very likely still be quarantining him because they have huge fears inside that country about COVID-19. Most of the population hasn't been vaccinated. They did have some major outbreaks of what is believed to be the virus during the pandemic much later than the rest of the world, but they don't have crowd immunity to that. So they might suspect that this young man was sent by the United States to bring COVID-19. So they might have another quarantine for a time period. Then they're going to question him. They're going to know, you know, who is superior officers were. They're going to see if they can get any sort of information out of him about the U.S. military.

But when they realize that he's actually only been in for a very short period of time as a private, pretty low ranking, not much valuable intelligence, then he's not much value to the North Koreans. And they know that because they're not really interested right now in negotiating with the U.S. either, which just rolled a nuclear submarine up to South Korea, North Korea launching ballistic missiles, he could just be sitting there. This young man could be sitting there in North Korean custody for quite a while.

MACFARLANE: Yes. And it's great to have that context. Will, as you say, there's been no diplomatic relations between North Korea and the United States since the Biden administration came in. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, know what recourse they have to try and get him back safely home.

Will Ripley their life from the demarcation area. Thanks very much.

MACFARLANE: All right, up next, the fight against online hate. What one woman did after she said her country's former prime minister began a smear campaign against her. That story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. We want to take a moment now took at the spread of hate speech online. Now, we often see stories like this, where the dangerous speech comes from an anonymous social media account.

But this time, the alleged online troll is a well-known figure, the former prime minister of Slovenia. One woman is trying to stop him. This report is part of our As Equals series.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

NIKA KOVAC, SLOVENIAN ACTIVIST: We are a movement, we are a group of young women. And what we want is change in the society, giving the voice to the people who are usually not hurt.

MACFARLANE (voice-over): Nika Kovac leads the institute 8th of March, an activist group fighting for social justice and gender rights in Slovenia. Nika says she's often been the target of online hate by one of the country's most influential figures, former Prime Minister Janez Jansa and his supporters.

KOVAC: So these are the tweets from ex-prime minister about me. Janez Jansa's tweeted yesterday a tweet which is basically like saying, like, let's burn the activists of Nika Kovac and then names of some other activists.

[08:25:09]

MACFARLANE (voice-over): Hateful messages like these aren't from anonymous trolls. They're from members of the former government and their supporters.

ALL: Jansa! Jansa! Jansa!

MACFARLANE (voice-over): Jansa's party was voted out of power in 2022, but some of its followers continue to promote sexist, racist, and anti-immigrant hatred online.

KOVAC: You feel hopeless, you feel powerless. You can change the laws, you can change the structure, but you also need an immediate response to that kind of behavior.

MACFARLANE (voice-over): As part of a new campaign called "Only Love", Nika's movement is recruiting volunteers to address online hate in a unique way. Today, 25 people are being trained to use loving messages to counter trolling by people in power.

MOJCA LUKAN, 8TH MARCH INSTITUTE (through translation): When a specific or a group of individuals is attacked, we would all receive a notification to respond. We will comment and share the love under the posts of the person who has been attacked.

Three, two, go!

If there are 10 hateful comments, we want to even more from us to make them invisible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): And we thought, if we get just 30 or 40 people to join our team in always responding whenever a politician attacks someone then we can make a change together.

Thank you all for joining us on the "Only Love" campaign tour. We will stop in Velenje and hand out flower and leaflets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): There is a QR code on the leaflet.

MACFARLANE (voice-over): Nika's work has caught the attention of the current government, which has invited her to lead a task force to research the issue of hate speech.

Meanwhile, her team believes their strategy can make a difference.

KOVAC: We need to have, like, an organized army of kindness, organized army of people who are really determined to bring back solidarity and hope into the public discourse.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: And CNN reached out to former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa but didn't receive a response.

All right, thanks for joining me here in CNN Newsroom. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London. World Sport with Amanda Davies is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)