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U.S. Calling on North Korea to Halt Nuclear Weapons Program

Aired October 17, 2002 - 13:17   ET

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

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


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The United States is calling on North Korea to keep the promises it made eight years ago and halt its nuclear weapons program. North Korea now admits to working secretly for several years to develop nuclear weapons.
CNN's Kelly Wallace has more from the White House, and reaction to this startling news -- Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, U.S. officials definitely concerned, but they are hoping there will be a peaceful resolution to this matter. Officials now saying the U.S. is consulting vigorously with its allies.

As for President Bush, he left the White House earlier today for a one-day political fund raising trip with stops in Atlanta, and then in Daytona Beach, Florida. He has not spoken out publicly about this matter just yet, but through a spokesman, he was said to find the news troubling and sobering.

What happened is U.S. officials came across some intelligence in the summer months, indicating that North Korea had had a secret nuclear weapons program dating back to the 1990s. Well, then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, who happens to be in Beijing today meeting with Chinese officials, confronted the North Koreans about this two weeks ago during a visit to Pyongyang.

Apparently, much to the administration's surprise, the North Koreans admitted it. According to a source familiar with the meeting, the North Koreans basically said, look, President Bush has called North Korea part of an axis of evil, there are U.S. Troops on the Korean peninsula; of course, we have a nuclear weapons program.

Well, the U.S. is saying North Korea is now in violation of that 1994 agreement in which it agreed not to pursue any nuclear weapons programs, and again, the hope is that international pressure sure can build to confront the North Koreans to stop pursuing nuclear weapons.

Now, meantime the question is being raised, how will all of this impact the administration's efforts to gather a coalition to deal with Saddam Hussein. U.S. officials say in their view it will have no impact whatsoever, and they say the president views the two situations quite differently, that he believes Iraq poses a unique threat, that Saddam Hussein has invaded two other countries, that he has used weapons of mass destruction on his own people.

In the words of one top official, Saddam Hussein and his regime are -- quote -- in a class by themselves. But it remains to be seen if any U.S. lawmakers or allies start raising questions and question whether the administration is possibly considering military action to deal with one nuclear threat and using a diplomatic route to pursue another -- Carol.

LIN: Kelly, and I'm wondering if there has been any reaction from Capitol Hill, because consider the timing of this. The administration has known about this for at least two weeks, suspected it for months. So why didn't this come up before the resolution vote on Capitol Hill to support force against Saddam Hussein?

WALLACE: Well, that is a good question. U.S. officials say there have been consultations with Congress. We understand that the intelligence committees, or at least the heads of those committees were notified. It doesn't appear the leadership in the Senate or House happened to be notified about this, and the question will be some lawmakers, might ask, why aren't they given thins information, and whether they would want to have that before casting a vote on this resolution.

But some lawmakers are already speaking out. The Democratic leader Tom Daschle saying the focus must be on getting inspectors back inside North Korea, putting as much pressure as possible to get inspectors inside that country, to see what North Korea has, and to do everything possible to convince the country to refrain from pursuing a nuclear program -- Carol.

KAGAN: Do you think that the administration is willing to pursue a diplomatic tact because they believe North Korea may use its weapons program as leverage for more economic aid from the United States, that that is the real intent here.

WALLACE: Well, certainly you have seen the North Koreans seem to be extending a hand, or it appeared that they wanted to have more of a relationship with the Western world. There was sense by this administration -- you had the highest level meeting during the Bush administration just two weeks ago, the Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly in Pyongyang, because the administration felt that there might be some possible room here, that the North Koreans might be taking some steps, and that could pave the way possibly for improved relations between the two countries and maybe for economic aid to help the people of North Korea.

U.S. officials say that is all off the table. The North Koreans clearly will not according to U.S. officials be able to use this as leverage to get other things. Remains to be seen if the North Koreans think otherwise -- Carol.

LIN: Interesting, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Program>


Aired October 17, 2002 - 13:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The United States is calling on North Korea to keep the promises it made eight years ago and halt its nuclear weapons program. North Korea now admits to working secretly for several years to develop nuclear weapons.
CNN's Kelly Wallace has more from the White House, and reaction to this startling news -- Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, U.S. officials definitely concerned, but they are hoping there will be a peaceful resolution to this matter. Officials now saying the U.S. is consulting vigorously with its allies.

As for President Bush, he left the White House earlier today for a one-day political fund raising trip with stops in Atlanta, and then in Daytona Beach, Florida. He has not spoken out publicly about this matter just yet, but through a spokesman, he was said to find the news troubling and sobering.

What happened is U.S. officials came across some intelligence in the summer months, indicating that North Korea had had a secret nuclear weapons program dating back to the 1990s. Well, then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, who happens to be in Beijing today meeting with Chinese officials, confronted the North Koreans about this two weeks ago during a visit to Pyongyang.

Apparently, much to the administration's surprise, the North Koreans admitted it. According to a source familiar with the meeting, the North Koreans basically said, look, President Bush has called North Korea part of an axis of evil, there are U.S. Troops on the Korean peninsula; of course, we have a nuclear weapons program.

Well, the U.S. is saying North Korea is now in violation of that 1994 agreement in which it agreed not to pursue any nuclear weapons programs, and again, the hope is that international pressure sure can build to confront the North Koreans to stop pursuing nuclear weapons.

Now, meantime the question is being raised, how will all of this impact the administration's efforts to gather a coalition to deal with Saddam Hussein. U.S. officials say in their view it will have no impact whatsoever, and they say the president views the two situations quite differently, that he believes Iraq poses a unique threat, that Saddam Hussein has invaded two other countries, that he has used weapons of mass destruction on his own people.

In the words of one top official, Saddam Hussein and his regime are -- quote -- in a class by themselves. But it remains to be seen if any U.S. lawmakers or allies start raising questions and question whether the administration is possibly considering military action to deal with one nuclear threat and using a diplomatic route to pursue another -- Carol.

LIN: Kelly, and I'm wondering if there has been any reaction from Capitol Hill, because consider the timing of this. The administration has known about this for at least two weeks, suspected it for months. So why didn't this come up before the resolution vote on Capitol Hill to support force against Saddam Hussein?

WALLACE: Well, that is a good question. U.S. officials say there have been consultations with Congress. We understand that the intelligence committees, or at least the heads of those committees were notified. It doesn't appear the leadership in the Senate or House happened to be notified about this, and the question will be some lawmakers, might ask, why aren't they given thins information, and whether they would want to have that before casting a vote on this resolution.

But some lawmakers are already speaking out. The Democratic leader Tom Daschle saying the focus must be on getting inspectors back inside North Korea, putting as much pressure as possible to get inspectors inside that country, to see what North Korea has, and to do everything possible to convince the country to refrain from pursuing a nuclear program -- Carol.

KAGAN: Do you think that the administration is willing to pursue a diplomatic tact because they believe North Korea may use its weapons program as leverage for more economic aid from the United States, that that is the real intent here.

WALLACE: Well, certainly you have seen the North Koreans seem to be extending a hand, or it appeared that they wanted to have more of a relationship with the Western world. There was sense by this administration -- you had the highest level meeting during the Bush administration just two weeks ago, the Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly in Pyongyang, because the administration felt that there might be some possible room here, that the North Koreans might be taking some steps, and that could pave the way possibly for improved relations between the two countries and maybe for economic aid to help the people of North Korea.

U.S. officials say that is all off the table. The North Koreans clearly will not according to U.S. officials be able to use this as leverage to get other things. Remains to be seen if the North Koreans think otherwise -- Carol.

LIN: Interesting, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Program>