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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

North Korea Tests Hydrogen Bomb; Trump Raises Issue of Cruz's Canadian Birth; Gun Control: Obama's Emotional Appeal. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 06, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:21] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, North Korea explains it exploded a hydrogen bomb, a major jump in nuclear escalation. New reaction from the world pouring in.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Blame Canada. Donald Trump says the fact that Ted Cruz was born there could be an issue in the race for the White House. So, is this a birther controversy part two? This morning, how Ted Cruz is responding.

ROMANS: President Obama with a rare emotional display as he makes his case on gun violence. But his executive order met with plenty of pushback from Republicans who want his job.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It is Wednesday, January 6th, 4:00 a.m. in the East.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: And the breaking news, North Korea says it exploded a hydrogen bomb. This is the very first time the reclusive nuclear regime has made such a claim. Yes, it has done nuclear test before. But those were from more crude fusion devices. A hydrogen bomb, a fusion device, would be a huge escalation in their capabilities and present huge new challenges for the U.S. in terms of security.

If, in fact, it was a hydrogen device, that is in question this morning. The apparent underground test said off political tremors around the world all night, and prompted an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council set for today.

Joining us for the very latest, CNN's Will Ripley live from Beijing.

At this point, Will, what do we know?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that the list of countries that are condemning this action by North Korea continues to grow not only here in China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom, France, the list goes on. There's a lot of global concern about this test. If, indeed, North Korea tested the hydrogen bomb, this is hundreds of times more powerful than, for example, the bomb dropped in 1945 on Hiroshima and the bombs that was dropped in Nagasaki. This is a very dangerous explosive device that North Korea says it would use to defend its sovereign territory. Of course, that's been the regime led by Kim Jong-un's defense for developing a nuclear program all along.

But what the United States has been doing, certainly since President Obama took office is a policy known as strategic patience, hoping that because of pressure from sanctions and whatnot, that North Korea would choose to denuclearize its own.

But, in fact, the reverse has happened. The North has continued to aggressively spend money developing its nuclear program. They have a lot of raw uranium. They have the potential to build even more warheads. They are miniaturizing warheads. They're developing their missile capabilities.

Listen to what the former U.S. ambassador has to say about this policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: I'm not sure saying we're going to respond with strategic patience is really going to get us so far. I think what we're going to have to do is there will be a discussion in the U.N., there'll be an effort to tighten sanctions. There will be I think effort with regional countries including China.

And I hope there will be some understanding that we have so to somehow retard this program in the way that we did with the Iranian program. So, I think we're going to have to really think very hard about what to do. We can just leave this one alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: A lot of experts are saying the sanctions haven't worked in spite of really, really crippling economic penalties. The North Koreans have continued to invest in their military, specifically in the nuclear and missile program.

Now, about seven hours from now, the United States Security Council will be holding a closed door session. It was requested by the U.S. and Japan, John. A lot of countries trying to figure out what to do next to prevent this situation from escalating further.

BERMAN: You know, in terms of technical aspect, Will. What is known this morning? There is confirmation there was some kind of tremor felt, you know, on the 5.1 magnitude. What are the South Koreans saying about what kind of device they believe it was?

RIPLEY: Yes, 5.1 is stronger than a tremor, which was a 4.1 back in 2013. Still no evidence, of course, that this was an H-bomb as North Korean claims. Japan has sent two aircraft actually up to try to detect the radiation. South Korean experts are casting doubt on these claims. So, it will take perhaps several days, according to officials in the United States and elsewhere to confirm if, indeed, this was hydrogen bomb.

But, clearly, whether it was an H-bomb or not, the North Korea nuclear program is continuing to grow. And that is what is so alarming because on Friday, it is Kim Jong-un's 33rd birthday. Whether the timing is coincidental or whether this was done as sort of an early birthday present for the supreme leader, we simply don't know.

[04:05:01] But a 33-year-old with the hand at the growing nuclear arsenal, and a lot of people are saying that what he's really trying to do here, he doesn't want to launch a missile. He wants a conversation, a sit down with world leaders. He wants to be recognized as a legitimate leader. They want normalized relations with the United States.

BERMAN: I was going to ask you, Will, why now? Little seems coincidental when it comes to the North Korean regime, and when he wants to sit down, when he wants an audience, what does he want to talk about?

RIPLEY: Well, because, really, this is a country that doesn't have a whole lot of bargaining chips. But their nuclear program and their growing arsenal is a bargaining chip. A strong very one. Perhaps their strongest.

They have -- as far as their military goes, they have more than 1 million standing troops, but a lot of their weapons are outdated. So you see them investing in missile technology up see them investing in nuclear technology.

Kim Jong-un gave his new year's address. It was a 29-minute speech. He didn't mention the nuclear arsenal specifically. But what he did talk about the need to continue developing weapons to defend the sovereignty of North Korea.

And he also talked about wanting to grow the North Korean economy. They have a two-prong approach. They're investing in their military, but also trying to grow their economy. They feel that won't be able to happen unless they are able to sit down at the table with the international community and talk about ways to bring North Korea back into the fold.

So, what do they have to offer now? They've just done this nuclear test. They're certainly not going to give up their nuclear program. That's the indication that I've gotten from officials. I visited five times to Pyongyang in the last year and half or so. And they say the nuclear program isn't a bargaining chip.

But some analysts have been telling me perhaps a moratorium on further testing could be something they could offer. Really, this is one of the few things that Pyongyang does have to offer. We have to watch this closely to see how this unfolds, John.

BERMAN: All right. Will Ripley for us in Beijing. And, of course, remember, South Korea, North Korea, they had another shouting match over the border this weekend. They were shooting, and, in fact, you know, playing speakers over the border. So, a very tense situation there, now with the introduction programs of a hydrogen bomb test makes the situation even more precarious.

Will Ripley for us in Beijing, thanks so much.

ROMANS: We'll have to see what this means for China, how China will respond, because, you know, China has a leader, only last year or so, what this mean force the relations between those two countries? Clearly, this is a provocation for China. China has been trying to contain this sort of behavior from its neighbors. So, a lot to unfold here on the diplomatic front.

Why now and what's next? The two big questions regarding North Korea this morning.

BERMAN: All right. There is also breaking news this morning. This is an object found in the home, found in the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Part of the building has been cordoned off, according to German police.

The object in question was found in the main entrance area. Only parts of the building are closed. It is unclear if Merkel was inside. We'll get more details when it becomes available.

ROMANS: All right. A potentially defensive line of new attacks in the race for two candidates who so far have been pretty chummy. Donald Trump is raising questions whether Ted Cruz is eligible to be president of the United States.

Why? Well, the Texas senator was born in Canada. But because his mother was a U.S. citizen, most legal scholars agree, Cruz does meet the constitutional requirement that he is a natural born citizen.

Nevertheless, Trump says nominating Cruz would put Republicans in a precarious position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A lot of people are talking about it. I hope it's not. So I hope it doesn't come about. But people are worried if he wasn't born in this country, which he wasn't, he was born in Canada. If the Democrats bring a lawsuit, the lawsuit could have years to resolve. How do you have a candidate with there is something over the head of the party and that individual?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Cruz responded by tweeting a clip of Fonzie from "Happy Days" jumping a shark.

Then instead of going after Trump, Cruz went after the media for covering possible division among the candidates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)] SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With all respect, our good friends here in the media are playing into the Democrat's playbook. How about we talk about the real challenges facing this country? One of the things the media loves to do is gaze at their navels for hours on end, by a tweet from Donald Trump or from me or from anybody else, who cares? Let's focus on the issues, let's focus on the issues on hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Cruz spent the day in Iowa. Trump is off the campaign trail for the day but sits down with Wolf Blitzer for an interview that will air on "THE SITUATION ROOM".

BERMAN: New reaction this morning to President Obama's announced proposed gun control measures. In a few hours, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Republican leaders will make their case against the proposal. They'll have a news conference.

The outline of the plan unveiled Tuesday in a rare show of deep emotion from the president, he was surrounded by victims of mass shootings and their families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For every family who never imagined their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun, every time I be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun -- every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:10:14] BERMAN: The White House insiders would tell you nothing has made the president more angry or driven him to tears more than what happened in Connecticut.

For the latest, let's bring in senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, this was one of the most emotional moments of the Obama presidency. The president embraced the crowd of mass shooting victims and their families, and then cried openly at the White House as he made the case for new executive actions on gun control.

Under the president's new executive actions, a warning to nearly all gun sellers to conduct background checks or risk prosecution. Plus, new FBI and ATF agents, $500 million for mental health care and a new push to develop smart gun technology. The new executive actions are not a gun grab. In fact, they fall short of a law mandating universal background checks across the country.

Here's more of what the president had to say. OBAMA: Second Amendment rights are important. But there are other

rights we care about as well. We have to be able balance them, because our right to worship freely and safely, that right was denied to Christians in Charleston, South Carolina, and that was denied Jews in Kansas City, and that was denied Muslims in Chapel Hill and Sheiks in Old Creek. They had rights, too.

(APPLAUSE)

ACOSTA: The NRA responded saying, quote, "The proposed executive actions are ripe for abuse by the Obama administration, which has made no secret of its contempt for the Second Amendment."

Much of the president's ability to enforce these new actions depends on Congress spending the money on mental health, and to hire new investigators at the FBI and ATF. Republicans have long said the president should enforce the nation's existing gun laws. The White House is responding. Now, they have chance to the just that -- John and Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks for that.

A special programming note for you tomorrow at 8:00 p.m., President Obama will join Anderson Cooper for an exclusive live town hall event about gun in America. He will discuss his newly announced executive action on guns and he will take questions from a live studio audience at a town hall on "Guns in America" with President Obama, moderated by Anderson this Thursday night 8:00 p.m., only on CNN.

We want to get back to our breaking news this morning, North Korea's nuclear test. We want to bring in John Delury, associate professor at Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies.

Two questions, why now? What next? Your reaction first to this claim by North Korea that it has exploded a hydrogen bomb.

JOHN DELURY, YONSEI UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (via telephone): Yes. Well, it's more than a claim insofar as they've exploded a nuclear test from everything we can tell. The hydrogen part is still sort of up in the air. It may take a few days before we know about that.

But, you know, it's quite a statement and North Korea, of course, likes to be in the limelight. And so, they've put themselves back on our headlines. No one really has a clear way forward, though, and that's the problem.

BERMAN: A hydrogen device, explain to me why that would be different than the three other tests we've seen over the last several years.

DELURY: Well, there's, you know the technical answer you have to get a serious nuclear expert to walk you through it. But what it boils down to, it's a much more powerful device, it's bringing them up to par with the other nuclear powers.

I think, you know, symbolically speaking, the most important dimension to it is that the new leader Kim Jong-un has a stated strategy of what's in Korean called (INAUDIBLE) to simultaneously make progress in two areas. One area is economic development, which sounds okay. Fortunately, the other area is the nuclear weapons capability.

So, by claiming whether he has or has not by claiming he's conducted a hydrogen bomb, he is able to demonstrate, at least internally, that he is delivering on this promise of actually improving their nuclear weapons deterrent as they think of it.

ROMANS: What does he want? Does he want legitimacy? An end to sanctions? Does he want relevance? Is this ego? What do you think is the end game here for this 33-year-old leader?

DELURY: Yes, it's a great question. We need to get into his head more. If we had a little bit more diplomatic contact with North Korea, we'd probably have better estimates to that. I mean, as you know better than anyone, Dennis Rodman is the person you know who spent the most face time with this young guy. So, even the Chinese are really in the dark and are guessing a lot about Kim Jong-un.

So, actually the bottom line is we don't know enough about his calculation, how he thinks.

[04:15:00] I think it's more than getting attention. Although certainly, that's a part of North Korea's playbook. I don't think this is a move to sort of provoke their way into negotiation, at least with the United States. I think the North Koreans are quite realistic that the Obama administration is long past being interested in talking to them.

So, you know, also in terms of South Korea and China the other key countries, this is obviously upsetting to both leaders in Beijing and Seoul, and makes it harder for those leader to engage even economically with North Korea.

So, when you check off all of those options, you are sort of left with the domestic politics of this. I think we have to infer from this, that Kim Jong-un thinks this is good for his consolidation of power, good for the security of his regime and maybe even of the country as he thinks of it.

BERMAN: You said earlier, even Beijing, even China is confused or doesn't fully know what's going on inside.

What about China? Because China has a complicated relationship with North Korea. Xi Jinping has -- you know, it's early in his regime, trying to figure out how to deal with North Korea.

DELURY: Yes, it's historically, it's a real, you know, the fluctuations of that relationship are something that go all the way back to the Korean War, and even before the Korean War, back in the '50s. So, we're seeing sort of another cycle of this drama that's often hidden from view.

Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping got off to a bad start, in part, because of the last test, which Kim Jong-un did right after Xi Jinping came to power and was egging the face for Xi. They were just starting to repair the damage and mend the fence actually in the fall and there was a very high profile trip by one of Xi's top leaders to Pyongyang in Ooctober. That was seen as potentially a big breakthrough.

This, obviously, sets that all back. Kim Jong-un is sending a clear message to Beijing that says, I don't need you. I'm not looking to please you. I'm my own man.

That may be very popular in North Korea, that may be something that at least North Korean elites or North Korean people like to see, a very strong independent young guy. We don't know about, but that's a possibility we have to entertain.

So, the Chinese are really left on the back of their feet and it will be interesting to watch Xi Jinping trying to handle this. He's in a real diplomatic corner now.

ROMANS: Yes, as you said, that relationship now back in the freezer.

John Delury, associate professor at Yonsei University -- thank you so much for joining us. Great analysis. Thank you.

BERMAN: Big developments on the Korean peninsula this morning.

Other news: a series of New Year's sex attacks causing anger outrage in a huge European city. The backgrounds of the attackers causing more concern. We'll explain, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:21:02] ROMANS: Angry protests breaking out in the German city of Cologne, after 90 women robbed, threatened and raped on New Year's Eve. The suspects described by police as, quote, "Arab or North African". German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling the attacks disgusting, but warning against an anti-migrant backlash.

CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen tracking the latest development live from London for us.

Fred, what do we know about this?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the German police is actually trying to get to terms with some of the fact, trying to find a lot of things out. All this happened on New Year's Eve in the city of Cologne, where there was a big new year's celebration. And the police is speaking of a group of up to a thousand men who apparently perpetrated a large scale sexual assault and robbery on women in that main square there in the German city.

Apparently, they were setting off fire crackers in the beginning, then descending on women, surrounding them, starting to grope them, and trying to rob them at the same time. There was at least one case a woman reported allegedly being raped, but certainly many other cases of sexual assault that are coming into the police. And the police in that town say they believe that number is still going to increase, because they didn't even find out about this on that evening. They say people are just now coming forward.

So, this is causing a major stir in Germany right now. It's been going through German media all this morning. It's the top item on all of their news sites. Many people very angry about this.

And that protest was one by women saying this is not what's going to happen.

ROMANS: And authorities being careful not to tie this to the migrant issue, to the migrant crisis. There have been so hundreds of thousands of people coming into Germany from North Africa, from some of these -- Syria and Iraq and elsewhere. What are authorities saying about that?

PLEITGEN: Well, they certainly are. You know, it's more than a million people who have come into Germany this year. One of the things, of course, this is causing some tension among the populations in Germany.

However, the authorities there are trying to say, listen, let's not jump to any conclusion, even though there was witness reports of people that appear to be North African and possibly Arab descent who were perpetrating a lot of this, it's totally unclear whether or not any refugees were actually involved in this. In fact, there is no evidence that any refugees were.

But, of course, there are right wing factions in Germany that are very angry about this, that are making their voices heard at this point in time. Quite frankly, a lot of other groups as well are saying that Germany needs to watch out. Needs to keep in mind its social peace as well and as it tries to come to terms with the fact that a million new people have just arrived there.

ROMANS: All right. Fred Pleitgen, you know we keep monitoring it for us this morning -- thank you, Fred.

BERMAN: All right, could the Arab occupation of a federal facility in Oregon be coming to a head? Suggestions from the occupiers that law enforcement could be ready to make its move. We'll have the latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:27:23] ROMANS: New developments in Oregon, where armed protesters occupy a federal wildlife refuge and refuse to leave. Overnight, protest leader Ammon Bundy claims he received information the FBI has arrest warrants for some of the occupiers and that authorities are planning a raid. The FBI referred the question to local authorities. They say they have no information on that claim.

CNN's Sara Sidner, she is on the ground in Oregon with more for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, the sheriff of the county where these armed protesters have taken over federal land has told the group to leave, to go home. But the grown-up says they're not going anywhere.

They call themselves the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom. And they say they're going to be here until this land is returned to the local folks here, namely the ranchers and farmers to work this land and make a living.

That doesn't seem as though it's going to happen, but that's what they say they will stay here until it does. They are armed, they say, but not planning on violence unless they say it's perpetrated on them by the police.

There is no police presence right now. Not local, not state, not federal. We should also reiterate that this group says they are not anti-government, that they are anti-federal government. And that some part of the federal government they do not believe should exist, mainly the Bureau of Land Management. They say it should be up to the state and local government.

And to prove that fact, the leader of this group, Ammon Bundy, actually took out a loan that was handed out through the federal government from the Small Business Administration for his business several years ago -- Christine, John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Sara, thanks so much.

Breaking overnight, North Korea says it has exploded a hydrogen bomb. This would be a major escalation of nuclear tensions. What will the United States do about this reaction? Pouring in from around the world? The U.N. Security Council getting ready to meet. A live report, next.

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