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American Morning
How Does White House Plan to Deal with North Korea
Aired April 25, 2003 - 07:31 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back in a moment here with North Korea again. Detentions continue. U.S. officials say Pyongyang claims to have at least one nuclear weapon and plans to prove it, as well.
How, then, does Washington and the White House plan to deal with this revelation?
Live to the White House and Chris Burns there this morning -- Chris, good morning.
What are they saying?
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Bill.
President Bush is saying that the North Koreans are back to their old blackmail game. This is not any great surprise to the White House. The North Koreans have tried to do this for quite a long time, for years and years, a desperately poor nation building or trying to build nuclear weapons as a way to try to force other countries to provide aid for their starving population.
Now, what is the next step? Well, today in, on Friday in Beijing, there was a very brief set of talks with Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and the North Koreans and the Chinese. The Chinese says that there was the decision, the agreement that there will be more contacts. However, what contacts will they be?
Secretary of State Colin Powell saying that we'll have to see. The envoys will have to go back to their capitals and discuss what the next step will be.
James Kelly has gone on to South Korea, where you did hear that the foreign minister there had said that this is a major disturbance to the stability in the region. The Japanese are saying that they're willing to provide more aid to the North Koreans if they dismantle their nuclear program.
But the question of a nuclear weapon, is it a bluff? Well, there had been speculation, belief in Washington, that the North Koreans did have a nuclear weapon already and perhaps what's even more troubling is that in those talks in the last couple of days, the North Koreans said that they had actually reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods from their Pyongyang nuclear plant and that would provide, could provide enough weapons grade plutonium to build several nuclear bombs.
So they are obviously trying to push the brinkmanship and the question is will they test a nuclear weapon? Will they show the nuclear weapon? That is all part of this game going on and Secretary of State Colin Powell saying, though, they will not be threatened. The next step is what to do.
We'll have to see what, where the White House takes this -- Bill.
HEMMER: Chris, that's one topic on Iraq and reaction from Tariq Aziz today. What more are they saying there?
BURNS: Well, up to now, a thumbs up from President Bush. That's what we've got so far. Now, keep in mind the former deputy prime minister was a symbol, not a big fish in terms of power, but a big symbol to the Iraqis and the rest of the world. He was the sort of -- had that sort of Western polish, spoke English very well. But he was only number 43 in that deck of 55 cards that was given out for most wanted that the United States would like to get a hold of.
The question is could he provide some insight on where Saddam Hussein is or if there were any weapons of mass destruction to find? So that we'll have to see. Tariq Aziz had said shortly before the war that they would fight to the last bullet. So the fact that he's now in U.S. custody is definitely a message to the Iraqis that the regime has changed -- Bill.
HEMMER: Thanks, Chris.
Chris Burns, the front lawn of the White House.
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 April 25, 2003 - 07:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back in a moment here with North Korea again. Detentions continue. U.S. officials say Pyongyang claims to have at least one nuclear weapon and plans to prove it, as well.
How, then, does Washington and the White House plan to deal with this revelation?
Live to the White House and Chris Burns there this morning -- Chris, good morning.
What are they saying?
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Bill.
President Bush is saying that the North Koreans are back to their old blackmail game. This is not any great surprise to the White House. The North Koreans have tried to do this for quite a long time, for years and years, a desperately poor nation building or trying to build nuclear weapons as a way to try to force other countries to provide aid for their starving population.
Now, what is the next step? Well, today in, on Friday in Beijing, there was a very brief set of talks with Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and the North Koreans and the Chinese. The Chinese says that there was the decision, the agreement that there will be more contacts. However, what contacts will they be?
Secretary of State Colin Powell saying that we'll have to see. The envoys will have to go back to their capitals and discuss what the next step will be.
James Kelly has gone on to South Korea, where you did hear that the foreign minister there had said that this is a major disturbance to the stability in the region. The Japanese are saying that they're willing to provide more aid to the North Koreans if they dismantle their nuclear program.
But the question of a nuclear weapon, is it a bluff? Well, there had been speculation, belief in Washington, that the North Koreans did have a nuclear weapon already and perhaps what's even more troubling is that in those talks in the last couple of days, the North Koreans said that they had actually reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods from their Pyongyang nuclear plant and that would provide, could provide enough weapons grade plutonium to build several nuclear bombs.
So they are obviously trying to push the brinkmanship and the question is will they test a nuclear weapon? Will they show the nuclear weapon? That is all part of this game going on and Secretary of State Colin Powell saying, though, they will not be threatened. The next step is what to do.
We'll have to see what, where the White House takes this -- Bill.
HEMMER: Chris, that's one topic on Iraq and reaction from Tariq Aziz today. What more are they saying there?
BURNS: Well, up to now, a thumbs up from President Bush. That's what we've got so far. Now, keep in mind the former deputy prime minister was a symbol, not a big fish in terms of power, but a big symbol to the Iraqis and the rest of the world. He was the sort of -- had that sort of Western polish, spoke English very well. But he was only number 43 in that deck of 55 cards that was given out for most wanted that the United States would like to get a hold of.
The question is could he provide some insight on where Saddam Hussein is or if there were any weapons of mass destruction to find? So that we'll have to see. Tariq Aziz had said shortly before the war that they would fight to the last bullet. So the fact that he's now in U.S. custody is definitely a message to the Iraqis that the regime has changed -- Bill.
HEMMER: Thanks, Chris.
Chris Burns, the front lawn of the White House.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
