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North Korean Media Talks Denuclearization; Memorial to Anthony Bourdain; North Korean Summit; Trump Slams G-7 Allies. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired June 11, 2018 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00] RENE MARSH, CNN GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Person said it would be quite troubling.
Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: He really didn't want to answer your question. I mean, you tried.
MARSH: Yes, he didn't. And we don't know why. Again, you know, does it -- is it because he doesn't have a lot of information or is it because he's trying to protect the process? Unclear. But we will be watching as time goes on to see just how involved Secretary Perry is in this negotiation, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: All right, Rene, thank you for asking all the questions and bringing that to us.
Meanwhile, U.S. foreign policy experts have maintained the denuclearization is the goal of this summit. And now, interestingly, North Korean state media agrees this is a top priority at the Trump/Kim summit.
CNN's Barbara Starr explains live from the Pentagon.
Was this a surprise to read this in North Korean state media?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's what the U.S. was looking for, an acknowledgement that this is the goal of the summit. You saw Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, just a short time ago, reemphasized all of that, calling for complete and verifiable denuclearization. The big question, of course, for Kim Jong-un, what does that mean? What does he have to do?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice over): Cameras captured the moment North Korea said it blew up underground nuclear test tunnels. Satellite imagery shows another test site appearing to be dismantled. Was this the beginning of Kim getting rid of his nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that could hit the U.S., or was it all for show? President Trump demanding denuclearization.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It means they get rid of their nukes. Very simple. They get rid of their nukes. And nobody else would say it.
STARR: Dismantling ballistic missiles is one thing, but there is no guarantee Kim Jong-un will tell Donald Trump his nuclear secrets, including covert sites buried deep in mountains.
TONY BLINKEN, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: What's even more important is this vast complex that they have in place spread throughout the country that's able, by current estimates, to produce enough material for six to seven nuclear weapons every year. Getting a grip on that, the entire supply chain that feeds that complex.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Mr. General-Secretary, though my pronunciation may give you difficulty, the maxim is (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE), trust by verify.
STARR: Thirty years after Ronald Reagan and the Soviets, it's still complicated. Just one example, Kim's nuclear warheads may be so unstable they can't be moved.
DAVID ALBRIGHT, INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY: We don't know the safety margins that North Korea uses. I mean nuclear weapons involve a lot of high explosives, at least the ones the North Koreans are building. And I'm not sure I'd want to see that put on an American ship or planes.
STARR: But if there is an agreement, first, North Korea would have to declare both known and secret locations and its inventories of ballistic missiles, nuclear war heads and plutonium and uranium. Weapons and equipment would have to be disabled or destroyed. Experts envision international inspectors on the ground, plus U.S. satellites and aircraft overhead keeping secret watch. Those international nuclear inspectors already are getting ready.
YUKIYA AMANO, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: We will be ready to act promptly and play an essential role in verifying North Korea's nuclear program if a political agreement is reached.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: One of the most crucial things here will be those North Korean secret nuclear sites. The U.S. has longed believe they have secret uranium enrichment. That is key to understanding, of course, how much nuclear fuel they can make to put in nuclear bombs to threaten the United States. That's just one thread here that is going to be very much worth watching to see where all of this goes.
Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: OK, Barbara, we will be watching. Thank you very much for that.
So it was a contentious G-7 summit in Canada, including a series of attack against America's closest allies. So, how can those relationships now have more tension than the one with dictator Kim Jong-un. Our foreign policy experts discuss this, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:38:18] CAMEROTA: Loved ones and admirers around the world are mourning the death of Anthony Bourdain. There is a growing makeshift memorial at the new shuttered New York City restaurant where he rose to fame. And that's where we find CNN's Alex Marquardt with more.
Hi, Alex.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.
That's right, well, this impromptu memorial has been growing over the past four days since word of Bourdain's passing has quickly and sadly been spreading. Now, it only makes sense that the memorial was here at Brasserie Les Halles. As you mentioned, it has been shuttered for a little bit. But this is a restaurant that is so closely associated with Bourdain. This is where he made his name. Where, in 1998, he was named the executive chef. It was here that he wrote his book "Kitchen Confidential," which really shot him to chef super stardom.
And so for the past four days people have been coming here. You can see here that they've been leaving bouquets of flowers, they've been leaving bottles and cans of beers. And all of these notes. And it's really through these notes, Alisyn, that you get a sense of how profoundly he touched people. If you look at this one, it reads, it made no sense that I loved you as I did. I talked about you in therapy. We never met.
But down here, Alisyn, this is really the sentiment that you're hearing from most people. Thank you for showing us the world.
It's not just Americans who have come here to leave their tributes to Bourdain. It's also non-Americans.
I want to read this beautiful note. Thank you for your tireless pursuit to make the world a smaller place brought together by the power of food and love. You have been an inspiration for my life and I'll miss everything that you had left to offer this world.
And something that we've been hearing from people all around the world is -- is how -- the love that he showed for their countries. If you see this, it says, thank you for bringing a respectful view to the people of Palestine, Libya, Iran and more.
[06:40:02] So, Alisyn, from here on the streets of New York, to the highest offices in the land, presidents, celebrities, fellow chefs, everyone has been paying tribute to Anthony Bourdain. He touched so many different lives.
Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Alex, I hope that he knew a fraction of the effect that he had on so many people around the globe. Thank you for showing us all of that this morning.
So the president, with another major summit after this contentious end to the G-7 summit. So what will the president's state of mind be when he sits down with Kim Jong-un? What's going to happen here? Our foreign policy experts are standing by, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back. John Berman live in Singapore.
As the president heads into this historic summit with North Korea, he has picked a fight with America's closest allies. He has had his senior adviser insult another world leader -- a world leader from Canada, no less. And those same advisers say it is all in part not to look weak here in Singapore.
[06:45:06] So it does beg the question, what is his state of mind going into this important meeting with Kim Jong-un?
Joining me now, CNN national security analyst David Rohde and Josh Rogin.
David, in my mind, Peter Navarro and Larry Kudlow would never say the things that -- and I'm going to play them for you -- never say these things I'm about to play unless the president dictated them. So let's listen again to what they said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: He really kind of stabbed us in the back. He really, actually, you know what, he did a great disservice to the whole G-7.
PETER NAVARRO, ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right, stab in the back, David, a special place in hell. Let's assume that those words were essentially dictated by the president of the United States, if not spoken and then repeated. So what does that tell you about what he's thinking as he sits down here in Singapore in about 12 hours.
DAVID ROHDE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: To he it's a sign actually of a lack of confidence. I don't know if he dictated these terms to his aides, but there's clearly an effort in this administration to go on TV and say things that will impress the president. The overreaction to Trudeau's statements, having his aides say this, show that, I think, President Trump is nervous about this meeting and he -- you know, he felt that Trudeau might have undermined his toughness somehow. And that's -- this isn't a good sign for me before these critical negotiations with North Korea. The president should be sort of calm and very, very confident.
BERMAN: Yes, looking strong is so important to this president and not looking weak equally important. That is the sense we got from those advisers.
And, Josh, also crucial, I think, for this administration to really stress the fact that President Trump will be sitting one-on-one with Kim Jong-un. Why do you think they want that and what are the risks?
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, very simply they want to, first of all, establish the personal relationship between President Trump and Kim Jong-un. And, secondly, they want to bridge this gap. OK, if you read all the reporting, and I -- I think it's true, there's still a gap between the two sides. And that gap involves what comes first, what security assurances the United States is willing to provide, and what does North Korea mean by denuclearization and are they really willing to commit to it? All right, this is the best chance they have to bridge that gap.
The risk, of course, is that there's only going to be two versions of what happened in that meeting, one by Kim Jong-un and one by President Trump. And both of these guys have a tenuous relationship with the truth. And the fact is that it's a historic event and we may never really know what happened. We don't know what President Trump is offering. Mike Pompeo wouldn't say. We don't know what Kim Jong-un is going to say. So you're going to have this gap in the historical record that could present itself in interesting -- in ways as we move forward with this process.
BERMAN: You know, establishing a relationship is something that Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, stressed. It is now one of the three things that North Korean state media is stressing, David, in different language but establishing this bilateral relationship with the United States.
Is that achievable in just a one-on-one meeting?
Let me read you something David Axelrod says here about this meeting. He said, POTUS says he hopes that he and Kim Jong-un like each other. He's meeting with a brutal dictator who's threatened to nuke the U.S., the world's leading human rights abuser, and he describes it as a first date on match.com.
Is Axe right about this, David, or, you know, the personal relationship can be important.
ROHDE: I think the administration is playing down the expectations here. Pompeo, this morning, was talking about, this is a process. We're looking for a framework. The original goal of this meeting was total and complete denuclearization by North Korea. That means giving up their nuclear weapons. So -- and maybe they're smart politically to play down expectations, but, I -- I -- you know, all of these are signs that this is going to be a protracted process. The longer this goes on, the more this drags out, the more of a win it is for North Korea.
BERMAN: All right, David Rohde, Josh Rogin, thanks so much for being with us. I do appreciate it.
Senate Democrats demanding North Korea -- North Korea produce actual concrete actions, denuclearize before sanctions are lifted, but can they force the president's hands? We'll discuss, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:53:36] CAMEROTA: President Trump is in Singapore this morning for an historic summit with dictator Kim Jong-un after the G-7 summit in Canada went south. That meeting with America's closest allies ended with President Trump and his advisers attacking Canada's prime minister and European allies over trade.
Joining us now is Senator Ben Cardin. He is a Democrat from Maryland and a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Good morning, senator.
SEN. BEN CARDIN (D), MARYLAND: Alisyn, it's good to be with you. Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Good to have you here on this important morning and trying to make sense of what happened at the G-7 summit and what we're about to see tonight.
Let's start with the G-7 summit. Let me play for you and our viewers, in case they missed it yesterday, what the president's top economic advisers said about Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the G-7 summit. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: He really kind of stabbed us in the back. He really, actually, you know what, he did a great disservice to the whole G-7.
PETER NAVARRO, ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Senator, what do you make of those comments?
CARDIN: Well, I think President Trump is the one who's the outsider in the G-7. The manner in which he has treated our closest allies is really difficult to understand. We need Canada's help and support. We need the support of the G-7. These are democratic countries that share our values and yet the president seems to want to go alone when it comes to working with our closest allies.
[06:55:15] CAMEROTA: But it sounds like what they -- I mean the way I interpret what they're saying is that they think that Prime Minister Trudeau said one thing to President Trump in private and then said something different at this press conference. It sounds like they feel hoodwinked somehow by Prime Minister Trudeau.
CARDIN: Everything I've heard on the trade front is that the Canadians and the Mexicans, our European allies, all have been extremely disappointed by the way President Trump has brought up the trade issues. So to say that Canada stabbed the president in the back, I just think that's creative criticisms. It just doesn't exist.
What we need to do is work together. So diplomacy means bringing people together. We're going to have a major effort in Singapore. You've got to listen to each other and try to bring together. But we start from strength. And that is working with our closest allies. We don't pull them apart. And President Trump, throughout his presidency, started with criticizing our closest allies when he became president. He questioned the Trans-Atlantic Partnership. This is what's made America the great nation it is, by the friends we've had, our allies around the world. And the president has jeopardized that.
CAMEROTA: But, senator, on the larger picture, just explain how Peter Navarro, who we just heard there, can say that there is a, quote, special place in hell for Canada's prime minister, Trudeau, but not have any harsh words for Dictator Kim Jong-un, who starves his own people, murders his own cabinet. And the president is saying that he wants Russia to be reinstated and part of the G-8. Explain this sort of cognitive dissidence to -- for Democrats?
CARDIN: I can't explain it because to invite Russia into the G-7, to make it G-8, when Russia is the country that attacked our democratic system, rewarding Mr. Putin for his conduct is just -- you just can't explain that. It makes no sense at all.
Kim Jong-un is a dictator. Kim Jong-un is a person who has created horrible human rights violations against his own people. We're going into diplomacy. We want the president to succeed in Singapore. Succeeding means that North Korea -- that North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons program. The Korean peninsula becomes denuclearized. That's what our objective is. And we want to work that through diplomacy. So we want the president to succeed, but recognize you are dealing with Kim Jong-un. You're dealing with a dictator. You're dealing with a person who has killed a lot of people. His human rights record is the worst in the world.
CAMEROTA: Here's what Lindsey Graham -- Senator Lindsay Graham suggested yesterday. If diplomacy doesn't work, he wants to be prepared for the use of military force. And he asks Democrats to get on board. Here's this moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I appreciate you telling the president what a good deal would look like, but the country needs you to back the president up to get that deal. So here's the question for my Democratic colleagues, if diplomacy fails, will you support my efforts to authorize the use of military force as a last resort to convince North Korea and China things are going to be different this time. A bipartisan AUMF would really make that letter much more credible. And if diplomacy fails, as a last resort, Democrats and Republicans need to put the military option on the table or we'll never get a good deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: Do you support Senator Lindsey Graham's plan?
CARDIN: I support diplomacy working. And diplomacy can work. The president cannot give up too much too early. We know that Kim Jong-un will try to drag this out as long as he possibly can. We know that he initially will be resistant to giving up his nuclear weapons. He wants to protect his regime. There are ways we can give him those types of assurances. But it has to come with denuclearizing the peninsula. So it -- be tough with North Korea. You'd be tough by not making any concessions up front.
CAMEROTA: All right, Senator Ben Cardin, thank you very much for your perspective. Obviously we'll all be watching what happens and unfolds this evening.
And thanks to our international viewers for watching. For you, CNN "TALK" is next. For our U.S. viewers, NEW DAY continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think that very quickly I'll know whether or not something good is going to happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president has gone into a high-wire act without a safety net. This is a bit of a risk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump is not from the classical, diplomatic or political playbook. Let's see what happened.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Donald Trump is not going to capitulate. So there's really only two options, peace or war.
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Canadians are polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.
LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: He really kind of stabbed us in the back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kim must not see American weakness.
[07:00:02] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Canada does not believe the ad hominem attacks are a useful way to conduct our relations.
