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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Eason Jordan

Aired January 12, 2003 - 08:35   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: All right. It's time now for you to participate in our discussion of North Korea. And, for that matter, CNN and journalism. We have a few interesting questions for the boss.
The e-mail address is wam@cnn.com. But more importantly, because it's too late for me to get the e-mails on, if you'd like to address a question to Eason Jordan, seen here, president of newsgathering here at CNN, we have a phone number for you: 800-807-2620. That's a toll- free number, paid for personally by Mr. Jordan, I believe. 800-807- 2620.

Eason, good to have you back. Let's get right to the questions. Mike in Houston has this for you: "The point has been made that there are few in this administration who have experience with North Korea. I wonder if the entire State Department, consisting of political and nonpolitical members, fits this description."

EASON JORDAN, PRESIDENT OF CNN NEWSGATHERING: Well I don't know that it would be fair to say that no one in the administration has experience with North Korea. In fact, that would be wrong. There's a senior gentleman in the Bush administration named Jack Pritchard (ph) who has significant experience with the North Korean issue going back to the Clinton administration and maybe beyond that.

I'm not certain, in fairness to the Bush administration. North Korea's hard to figure out, hard to deal with, and there's so much bombast and bellicose rhetoric, it's difficult to sort through that rhetoric and deal with just the issues.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's get another e-mail in. Once again, that number, if you'd like to call us, is 800-807-2620. Operators standing by.

Dwion Gates in Pacifica, California has this for us: "How is it the U.S. could be so upset with North Korea for dropping out of a treaty when the U.S. did the same thing recently, when George W. Bush recently pulled out of a nuclear treaty with Russia? Bush simply said that treaty was outdated and pulled out of the treaty much to the chagrin of Putin." He's talking about the ABM treaty, of course.

In your travels, Eason, do you see that people see a little dichotomy there, perhaps a little hypocrisy?

JORDAN: Well, I think there's a view outside of the United States that there is a double standard at times. That the U.S. has not upheld certain treaty obligations. The Bush administration says, well that was an agreement made by previous administrations. And the Bush administration has decided to bow out of certain treaties.

Now this is a big issue. This is about nuclear weapons. And obviously, the U.S. and the world should be, and are, greatly concerned about this North Korea issue. I don't think anyone really wants to see North Korea with nuclear weapons. The North Korean leadership has said that it does not seek to have nuclear weapons.

But in fairness to the North Koreans, the North Koreans say that the U.S. has not upheld its treaty obligations, with slow in building a nuclear power plant, two nuclear power plants that the U.S. Promised to help build in North Korea. And that the U.S. reneged on a commitment to provide timely oil shipments to North Korea until those nuclear power plants were built. So both sides have big gripes with one another.

O'BRIEN: Tim Morrisson, Leander, Texas, has this for us. That number, once again, 800-807-2620, if you'd like to dial in.

Tim says this: "I'd like to hear a good reason why we should not consider pulling all our troops out of Korea? The Koreans can work out their own problems with the help of the U.N. and neighboring countries."

JORDAN: Well, really, this is an important issue. It's one that the U.S. and South Korea must talk about, and they are talking about it. In fact, as we speak, there are 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea. They're used as a trip wire, so to speak, to keep the North Korea from invading South Korea.

North Korea did invade South Korea once before. It led to a war that resulted in tens of thousands of American deaths. And nearly two million Koreans died in that conflict. No one wants to see a war in the Korean peninsula. A second Korean War would be a disaster and would result in probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of deaths. And Americans being there to try to stop a war from happening, preempt a war from happening, or at least rebuff a North Korean invasion of South Korea, should that happen, there are people in this government and in the South Korean government who think that's absolutely essential.

O'BRIEN: Let's get a phone call in. Catherine (ph) is on the line from Ohio. Good morning, Catherine (ph). You're on the line.

CATHERINE: Good morning. Thank you. My concern with North Korea, now that they have pulled out of the nuclear nonproliferation pact, is, what impact is this going to have on our ongoing battle with the Middle East? The Middle East needs weapons. If we're going to go to war, would the Middle East be buying weapons? Who is to say that North Korea's not going to align themselves with any of our, for lack of a better word, enemy countries?

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Catherine (ph).

JORDAN: Well, it's interesting that you make that point. Because, as you know, the so-called "axis of evil" includes three countries, North Korea, Iraq and Iran. Now, North Korea and Iraq have no relationship whatsoever. In fact, it's an unfriendly relationship at a distance. They have no embassies in one another's capitals.

Iran, however, has a very close relationship with North Korea. North Korea has sold missiles to Iran and North Korea has sold missiles recently to Yemen, also to Syria, to Pakistan, a number of countries. And this has the U.S. quite concerned.

And I think the U.S. view is, well, if North Korea's prepared to export missiles, for example, then what would stop North Korea if it developed nuclear weapons from exporting those to the outside world?

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's shift gears a little here, Eason. I told people they can ask us any question they like. Of course, what came up was the crawler. Dee in Iowa has this: "Please stop the damn crawler at the bottom of the screen. My mind is not designed to listen to one person and read at the same time. I know many people complain about it. Why don't you stop it?"

And then, Gordon has this counterpoint: "Mr. Jordan, I like the scroll, but why can't it be a bit bigger and a tad slower?"

JORDAN: Well, I think Dee in Iowa, actually, that comment may have been ghost written by my colleague Aaron Brown, who feels the same way about the crawler. We can talk about slowing it down or making it a tad bit bigger, but people like you, Miles, get very upset when we start talking about putting words on the screen and taking away your space.

We're committed to getting information out there. A lot of people like the crawler. A lot of people don't like it. It's an issue that evokes a lot of passion. And very few people are neutral on the issue.

O'BRIEN: Well, I should point out that the boss is on right now. Look at how clean that screen is. I mean, he commands some real estate. But when you're the boss, that's what happens. When you're just an anchor, you're up there in the corner.

Eason Jordan, it's a pleasure. Would you come back and do this again? I think people enjoy that opportunity.

JORDAN: I'd be delighted.

O'BRIEN: All right. We appreciate it. Take care.

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 12, 2003 - 08:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. It's time now for you to participate in our discussion of North Korea. And, for that matter, CNN and journalism. We have a few interesting questions for the boss.
The e-mail address is wam@cnn.com. But more importantly, because it's too late for me to get the e-mails on, if you'd like to address a question to Eason Jordan, seen here, president of newsgathering here at CNN, we have a phone number for you: 800-807-2620. That's a toll- free number, paid for personally by Mr. Jordan, I believe. 800-807- 2620.

Eason, good to have you back. Let's get right to the questions. Mike in Houston has this for you: "The point has been made that there are few in this administration who have experience with North Korea. I wonder if the entire State Department, consisting of political and nonpolitical members, fits this description."

EASON JORDAN, PRESIDENT OF CNN NEWSGATHERING: Well I don't know that it would be fair to say that no one in the administration has experience with North Korea. In fact, that would be wrong. There's a senior gentleman in the Bush administration named Jack Pritchard (ph) who has significant experience with the North Korean issue going back to the Clinton administration and maybe beyond that.

I'm not certain, in fairness to the Bush administration. North Korea's hard to figure out, hard to deal with, and there's so much bombast and bellicose rhetoric, it's difficult to sort through that rhetoric and deal with just the issues.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's get another e-mail in. Once again, that number, if you'd like to call us, is 800-807-2620. Operators standing by.

Dwion Gates in Pacifica, California has this for us: "How is it the U.S. could be so upset with North Korea for dropping out of a treaty when the U.S. did the same thing recently, when George W. Bush recently pulled out of a nuclear treaty with Russia? Bush simply said that treaty was outdated and pulled out of the treaty much to the chagrin of Putin." He's talking about the ABM treaty, of course.

In your travels, Eason, do you see that people see a little dichotomy there, perhaps a little hypocrisy?

JORDAN: Well, I think there's a view outside of the United States that there is a double standard at times. That the U.S. has not upheld certain treaty obligations. The Bush administration says, well that was an agreement made by previous administrations. And the Bush administration has decided to bow out of certain treaties.

Now this is a big issue. This is about nuclear weapons. And obviously, the U.S. and the world should be, and are, greatly concerned about this North Korea issue. I don't think anyone really wants to see North Korea with nuclear weapons. The North Korean leadership has said that it does not seek to have nuclear weapons.

But in fairness to the North Koreans, the North Koreans say that the U.S. has not upheld its treaty obligations, with slow in building a nuclear power plant, two nuclear power plants that the U.S. Promised to help build in North Korea. And that the U.S. reneged on a commitment to provide timely oil shipments to North Korea until those nuclear power plants were built. So both sides have big gripes with one another.

O'BRIEN: Tim Morrisson, Leander, Texas, has this for us. That number, once again, 800-807-2620, if you'd like to dial in.

Tim says this: "I'd like to hear a good reason why we should not consider pulling all our troops out of Korea? The Koreans can work out their own problems with the help of the U.N. and neighboring countries."

JORDAN: Well, really, this is an important issue. It's one that the U.S. and South Korea must talk about, and they are talking about it. In fact, as we speak, there are 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea. They're used as a trip wire, so to speak, to keep the North Korea from invading South Korea.

North Korea did invade South Korea once before. It led to a war that resulted in tens of thousands of American deaths. And nearly two million Koreans died in that conflict. No one wants to see a war in the Korean peninsula. A second Korean War would be a disaster and would result in probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of deaths. And Americans being there to try to stop a war from happening, preempt a war from happening, or at least rebuff a North Korean invasion of South Korea, should that happen, there are people in this government and in the South Korean government who think that's absolutely essential.

O'BRIEN: Let's get a phone call in. Catherine (ph) is on the line from Ohio. Good morning, Catherine (ph). You're on the line.

CATHERINE: Good morning. Thank you. My concern with North Korea, now that they have pulled out of the nuclear nonproliferation pact, is, what impact is this going to have on our ongoing battle with the Middle East? The Middle East needs weapons. If we're going to go to war, would the Middle East be buying weapons? Who is to say that North Korea's not going to align themselves with any of our, for lack of a better word, enemy countries?

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Catherine (ph).

JORDAN: Well, it's interesting that you make that point. Because, as you know, the so-called "axis of evil" includes three countries, North Korea, Iraq and Iran. Now, North Korea and Iraq have no relationship whatsoever. In fact, it's an unfriendly relationship at a distance. They have no embassies in one another's capitals.

Iran, however, has a very close relationship with North Korea. North Korea has sold missiles to Iran and North Korea has sold missiles recently to Yemen, also to Syria, to Pakistan, a number of countries. And this has the U.S. quite concerned.

And I think the U.S. view is, well, if North Korea's prepared to export missiles, for example, then what would stop North Korea if it developed nuclear weapons from exporting those to the outside world?

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's shift gears a little here, Eason. I told people they can ask us any question they like. Of course, what came up was the crawler. Dee in Iowa has this: "Please stop the damn crawler at the bottom of the screen. My mind is not designed to listen to one person and read at the same time. I know many people complain about it. Why don't you stop it?"

And then, Gordon has this counterpoint: "Mr. Jordan, I like the scroll, but why can't it be a bit bigger and a tad slower?"

JORDAN: Well, I think Dee in Iowa, actually, that comment may have been ghost written by my colleague Aaron Brown, who feels the same way about the crawler. We can talk about slowing it down or making it a tad bit bigger, but people like you, Miles, get very upset when we start talking about putting words on the screen and taking away your space.

We're committed to getting information out there. A lot of people like the crawler. A lot of people don't like it. It's an issue that evokes a lot of passion. And very few people are neutral on the issue.

O'BRIEN: Well, I should point out that the boss is on right now. Look at how clean that screen is. I mean, he commands some real estate. But when you're the boss, that's what happens. When you're just an anchor, you're up there in the corner.

Eason Jordan, it's a pleasure. Would you come back and do this again? I think people enjoy that opportunity.

JORDAN: I'd be delighted.

O'BRIEN: All right. We appreciate it. Take care.

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