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American Morning
Bush Says Good Progress Being Made to Find Peaceful Solution to North Korean Crisis
Aired October 20, 2003 - 07:33 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's turn to East Asia this morning. President Bush said that good progress is being made to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis. Is a major policy shift for the U.S. in the air?
To Bangkok now and CNN's White House correspondent Dana Bash, who is traveling with the president this morning -- Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad.
Well, it is a shift of sorts, because the president has refused to even discuss granting North Korea a one-on-one, non-aggression pact in exchange for them dismantling their nuclear program. That is something that Pyongyang has been asking for.
But this new proposal is for the U.S. and for other countries who have been involved in multilateral talks to give North Korea the written assurances that they are looking for. And Bush officials say that the idea is that North Korea, they believe, is less likely to break such a pact if their neighbors are involved.
Now, the president earlier today met with one of the key players, South Korea's President Roh, discussed the issue, said that there is progress. He also had meetings with the Chinese president, another very important player in this process.
And National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told reporters that there is no draft yet, saying that the U.S. isn't going into these talks with guns blazing saying take it or leave it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: This is going to take some time. But you have within the six party context an opportunity to address what the North Koreans say are security concerns. But most importantly, to address what the rest of the six party, members of the six party framework are concerned about, and that's a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, security, and, more specifically, terrorism, fighting terrorism, is top, top of President Bush's agenda here at what is traditionally an economic summit. That is making some of the members of the delegation unhappy. They think that this should stick to trade and the economy. But Bush officials are saying that the two are inextricably linked. You can't talk about the economy and not talk about dismantling terrorism, because terrorist attacks, they say, so disrupts the economies around the world -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Dana Bash for us, traveling with the president this morning.
Dana, thanks for that update.
You can log onto cnn.com/world for an interactive itinerary of President Bush's trip to Asia and to Australia.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Solution to North Korean Crisis>
Aired October 20, 2003 - 07:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's turn to East Asia this morning. President Bush said that good progress is being made to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis. Is a major policy shift for the U.S. in the air?
To Bangkok now and CNN's White House correspondent Dana Bash, who is traveling with the president this morning -- Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad.
Well, it is a shift of sorts, because the president has refused to even discuss granting North Korea a one-on-one, non-aggression pact in exchange for them dismantling their nuclear program. That is something that Pyongyang has been asking for.
But this new proposal is for the U.S. and for other countries who have been involved in multilateral talks to give North Korea the written assurances that they are looking for. And Bush officials say that the idea is that North Korea, they believe, is less likely to break such a pact if their neighbors are involved.
Now, the president earlier today met with one of the key players, South Korea's President Roh, discussed the issue, said that there is progress. He also had meetings with the Chinese president, another very important player in this process.
And National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told reporters that there is no draft yet, saying that the U.S. isn't going into these talks with guns blazing saying take it or leave it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: This is going to take some time. But you have within the six party context an opportunity to address what the North Koreans say are security concerns. But most importantly, to address what the rest of the six party, members of the six party framework are concerned about, and that's a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, security, and, more specifically, terrorism, fighting terrorism, is top, top of President Bush's agenda here at what is traditionally an economic summit. That is making some of the members of the delegation unhappy. They think that this should stick to trade and the economy. But Bush officials are saying that the two are inextricably linked. You can't talk about the economy and not talk about dismantling terrorism, because terrorist attacks, they say, so disrupts the economies around the world -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Dana Bash for us, traveling with the president this morning.
Dana, thanks for that update.
You can log onto cnn.com/world for an interactive itinerary of President Bush's trip to Asia and to Australia.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Solution to North Korean Crisis>
