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CNN Sunday Morning
North Korea May Be Restarting Nuclear Weapons Program
Aired July 13, 2003 - 07:04 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.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Now to a potential nuclear threat linked to another member of the so-called axis of evil, this time North Korea. A new U.S. intelligence report raises the possibility that the secretive Communist nation could be making moves to produce nuclear weapons.
CNN's Chris Plante joins us now, live from the Pentagon, with more details on that.
Good morning, Chris.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.
That's right, there are renewed signs this morning that North Korea, as you said, one of the countries making up President Bush's axis of evil, may be back at their nuclear program in an effort to produce nuclear weapons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PLANTE (voice over): North Korea appears to be reprocessing old nuclear fuel rods into plutonium, possibly for use in the production of nuclear weapons, that's according to a U.S. intelligence report this week.
The issue of nuclear weapons in North Korea is of grave concern to the U.S., something President Bush has made clear.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea. We will not give into blackmail. We will not settle for anything less than the complete verifiable and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
PLANTE: The U.S. says the reprocessing is taking place at the Yongbyon facility. An analysis of air samples found the presence of krypton 85, a gas byproduct. The U.S. believes that North Korea already has at least one nuclear weapon and possibly three. But in this case, more is clearly not better.
DANIEL PONEMAN, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIAL: Basically we have three choices. We can either ignore the problem and hope that it goes away. Or we can take some form of military action which may or may not be effective and raises a serious risk of war in Korea. Or we can try to find some form of agreement. PLANTE: Believed to have about 8,000 spent fuel rods, experts say that North Korea could potentially six, or as many as 12, nuclear weapons with the reprocessed fuel, raising further concerns that the impoverished nation might sell nuclear weapons or components to the highest bidder.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLANTE: For it's part, the Bush administration has tried to form an international coalition to apply economic pressure to North Korea. But China and Russia oppose economic sanctions, leaving the Bush administration with the dilemma, how to approach the situation without giving in to what they call blackmail? John.
VAUSE: Chris, how did the United States get this intelligence in the first place? How did it get the evidence or the samples, if you like?
PLANTE: Well, there's a little bit of mystery surrounding that. Ordinarily, these sort of samples would be collected out of the air by surveillance aircraft, airborne collection systems. There have been some news reports, however, that in this case that they did not use airborne collections systems; that there was some other method employed. It's not clear what that method was, but given the fact that this facility at Yongbyon is very much inland, in the center of the country of North Korea, that remains a mystery at this point -- John.
VAUSE: OK, Chris Plante, reporting for us live this morning from the Pentagon.
Thank you, Chris.
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 July 13, 2003 - 07:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Now to a potential nuclear threat linked to another member of the so-called axis of evil, this time North Korea. A new U.S. intelligence report raises the possibility that the secretive Communist nation could be making moves to produce nuclear weapons.
CNN's Chris Plante joins us now, live from the Pentagon, with more details on that.
Good morning, Chris.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.
That's right, there are renewed signs this morning that North Korea, as you said, one of the countries making up President Bush's axis of evil, may be back at their nuclear program in an effort to produce nuclear weapons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PLANTE (voice over): North Korea appears to be reprocessing old nuclear fuel rods into plutonium, possibly for use in the production of nuclear weapons, that's according to a U.S. intelligence report this week.
The issue of nuclear weapons in North Korea is of grave concern to the U.S., something President Bush has made clear.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea. We will not give into blackmail. We will not settle for anything less than the complete verifiable and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
PLANTE: The U.S. says the reprocessing is taking place at the Yongbyon facility. An analysis of air samples found the presence of krypton 85, a gas byproduct. The U.S. believes that North Korea already has at least one nuclear weapon and possibly three. But in this case, more is clearly not better.
DANIEL PONEMAN, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIAL: Basically we have three choices. We can either ignore the problem and hope that it goes away. Or we can take some form of military action which may or may not be effective and raises a serious risk of war in Korea. Or we can try to find some form of agreement. PLANTE: Believed to have about 8,000 spent fuel rods, experts say that North Korea could potentially six, or as many as 12, nuclear weapons with the reprocessed fuel, raising further concerns that the impoverished nation might sell nuclear weapons or components to the highest bidder.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLANTE: For it's part, the Bush administration has tried to form an international coalition to apply economic pressure to North Korea. But China and Russia oppose economic sanctions, leaving the Bush administration with the dilemma, how to approach the situation without giving in to what they call blackmail? John.
VAUSE: Chris, how did the United States get this intelligence in the first place? How did it get the evidence or the samples, if you like?
PLANTE: Well, there's a little bit of mystery surrounding that. Ordinarily, these sort of samples would be collected out of the air by surveillance aircraft, airborne collection systems. There have been some news reports, however, that in this case that they did not use airborne collections systems; that there was some other method employed. It's not clear what that method was, but given the fact that this facility at Yongbyon is very much inland, in the center of the country of North Korea, that remains a mystery at this point -- John.
VAUSE: OK, Chris Plante, reporting for us live this morning from the Pentagon.
Thank you, Chris.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
