Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
North Korea Standoff
Aired February 27, 2003 - 13:14 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: South Korea's prime minister calls it a grave threat. The U.S. says that North Korea has restarted a nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon complex, a possible first step toward producing nuclear weapons. The White House says this does not come as a surprise, but it deepens North Korea's isolation from the rest of the world. Now there's speculation about what the north could do with an up and running reactor, and how long it might take to get there.
CNN's David Ensor is our national security correspondent, and he's live from Washington -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATL. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Marty, it was a distinctive heat signature picked up by certain surveillance sensors that first told U.S. intelligence that this reactor had been turned back on in the last couple of days by the North Koreans.
Obviously, as you say, this is a source of considerable concern. It's a place they have watched closely. This is a 5-megawatt electrical -- electricity-producing plant, but that's not very much electricity. What it also produces, of course, as a byproduct is plutonium, which could be used in nuclear weapons.
Officials saying this particular facility would produce enough for a bomb in about 12 months, in about a year.
Now, in addition, in the same area in Yongbyon, in a different building, there's another facility they're watching, it's a reprocessing facility. So far, it's not been turned back on. That would be very worrisome if it were to happen, and it may, because that facility would be where the North Koreans would be able to take the roughly 8,000 fuel rods they have stored since 1994, which could be turned more quickly into nuclear weapons.
Officials saying that in a period of five or six months if they turn that back on, the North Koreans could have five or six nuclear weapons. Now U.S. intelligence believes the North Koreans may have as many as one or two weapons already. So this one is getting a lot of attention and a lot of concern here, Marty.
SAVIDGE: No doubt about that, David Ensor, in Washington, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 27, 2003 - 13:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: South Korea's prime minister calls it a grave threat. The U.S. says that North Korea has restarted a nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon complex, a possible first step toward producing nuclear weapons. The White House says this does not come as a surprise, but it deepens North Korea's isolation from the rest of the world. Now there's speculation about what the north could do with an up and running reactor, and how long it might take to get there.
CNN's David Ensor is our national security correspondent, and he's live from Washington -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATL. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Marty, it was a distinctive heat signature picked up by certain surveillance sensors that first told U.S. intelligence that this reactor had been turned back on in the last couple of days by the North Koreans.
Obviously, as you say, this is a source of considerable concern. It's a place they have watched closely. This is a 5-megawatt electrical -- electricity-producing plant, but that's not very much electricity. What it also produces, of course, as a byproduct is plutonium, which could be used in nuclear weapons.
Officials saying this particular facility would produce enough for a bomb in about 12 months, in about a year.
Now, in addition, in the same area in Yongbyon, in a different building, there's another facility they're watching, it's a reprocessing facility. So far, it's not been turned back on. That would be very worrisome if it were to happen, and it may, because that facility would be where the North Koreans would be able to take the roughly 8,000 fuel rods they have stored since 1994, which could be turned more quickly into nuclear weapons.
Officials saying that in a period of five or six months if they turn that back on, the North Koreans could have five or six nuclear weapons. Now U.S. intelligence believes the North Koreans may have as many as one or two weapons already. So this one is getting a lot of attention and a lot of concern here, Marty.
SAVIDGE: No doubt about that, David Ensor, in Washington, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
