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North Korea's Nukes

Aired January 15, 2004 - 15:06   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now the nuclear stalemate with North Korea and a firsthand view of the north's nuclear fuel storage facility from a former American diplomat.
CNN's David Ensor has a rather sobering story, joining us right here in the Washington bureau.

Hello, David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, it is rather sobering, indeed. As you say, this is the first word from a member of the private American delegation that traveled recently to North Korea and was shown its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. Now, for about a year now, North Korea has been claiming it had taken 8,000 spent fuel rods out of a storage facility there and was reprocessing them into plutonium for use in nuclear bombs.

Now we hear from former Ambassador Pritchard, who says that his team, his delegation, were taken to the storage pond where the nuclear rods were kept under international supervision until late 2002, when the international team was thrown out. And here's what they saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK PRITCHARD, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR: Fuel facility. The spent fuel storage pond was empty. There are no spent fuel rods there. You may recall that these were in canisters manufactured by the United States. Those canisters were empty. The pond contained no spent fuel rods. And the North Koreans told us they had moved them out on a regular basis for reprocessing in the reprocessing facility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: So that lends some credence to the North Korean argument.

Pritchard said North Koreans told the group that -- quote -- "Time is not on the U.S. side" and that, as time goes, by they are increasing their nuclear arsenal. He said that he does not believe the North Koreans are bluffing.

Now, in addition to the plutonium-based program, U.S. intelligence has evidence that North Korea has a secret uranium- enrichment program to make bombs as well. They were confronted by evidence on that some time ago by the United States. And, at first, they denied it. Now they're saying it's not true and they said that again to this delegation. Six-party talks on what to do about all this may resume next month.

Our colleague CNN's Andrea Koppel is being told by a senior official that there's hope those talks can set up a regular working group from the nations, the six, North and South Korea, China, Russia, Japan, and the United States, and that working group can be constantly trying to reach a solution.

And that, of course, would have to include, as far as the United States is concerned, a non-nuclear North Korea -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: David, it's still anything but a clear picture. But I guess the fact that this visit occurred is progress, yes?

ENSOR: Progress in the sense that now a few Americans, including one who is a top nuclear scientist, have actually been to Yongbyon and looked at the facility where the storage was of these fuel rods, and they're not there.

So the North Koreans apparently are telling the truth. They've moved them. Now, we don't know 100 percent that they've reprocessed them, as they claim. Still, this is worrying indication that the North Koreans may not be bluffing. They may be building more bombs -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. All right. Thank you very much, David Ensor. We'll keep tracking that very closely, of course.

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 January 15, 2004 - 15:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now the nuclear stalemate with North Korea and a firsthand view of the north's nuclear fuel storage facility from a former American diplomat.
CNN's David Ensor has a rather sobering story, joining us right here in the Washington bureau.

Hello, David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, it is rather sobering, indeed. As you say, this is the first word from a member of the private American delegation that traveled recently to North Korea and was shown its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. Now, for about a year now, North Korea has been claiming it had taken 8,000 spent fuel rods out of a storage facility there and was reprocessing them into plutonium for use in nuclear bombs.

Now we hear from former Ambassador Pritchard, who says that his team, his delegation, were taken to the storage pond where the nuclear rods were kept under international supervision until late 2002, when the international team was thrown out. And here's what they saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK PRITCHARD, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR: Fuel facility. The spent fuel storage pond was empty. There are no spent fuel rods there. You may recall that these were in canisters manufactured by the United States. Those canisters were empty. The pond contained no spent fuel rods. And the North Koreans told us they had moved them out on a regular basis for reprocessing in the reprocessing facility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: So that lends some credence to the North Korean argument.

Pritchard said North Koreans told the group that -- quote -- "Time is not on the U.S. side" and that, as time goes, by they are increasing their nuclear arsenal. He said that he does not believe the North Koreans are bluffing.

Now, in addition to the plutonium-based program, U.S. intelligence has evidence that North Korea has a secret uranium- enrichment program to make bombs as well. They were confronted by evidence on that some time ago by the United States. And, at first, they denied it. Now they're saying it's not true and they said that again to this delegation. Six-party talks on what to do about all this may resume next month.

Our colleague CNN's Andrea Koppel is being told by a senior official that there's hope those talks can set up a regular working group from the nations, the six, North and South Korea, China, Russia, Japan, and the United States, and that working group can be constantly trying to reach a solution.

And that, of course, would have to include, as far as the United States is concerned, a non-nuclear North Korea -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: David, it's still anything but a clear picture. But I guess the fact that this visit occurred is progress, yes?

ENSOR: Progress in the sense that now a few Americans, including one who is a top nuclear scientist, have actually been to Yongbyon and looked at the facility where the storage was of these fuel rods, and they're not there.

So the North Koreans apparently are telling the truth. They've moved them. Now, we don't know 100 percent that they've reprocessed them, as they claim. Still, this is worrying indication that the North Koreans may not be bluffing. They may be building more bombs -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. All right. Thank you very much, David Ensor. We'll keep tracking that very closely, of course.

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