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U.S. Engaging In Back-Channel Diplomacy With N. Korea; North Korea Missile Would Reach Guam In 14 Minutes; Trump Tweets With Tillerson, McMaster, Haley Today; North Korea Says Trump Driving to the Brinks of War; Bombers Ready if Guam Attacked. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 11, 2017 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: First it was fire and fury. Now it's locked and loaded. Those are the latest towards from President Trump in the verbal confrontation with North Korea. Earlier today President Trump tweeted this, "Military solutions are now fully in place. Locked and loaded should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully king Jong-un will find another path." And on the front page of the Pacific Daily News in Guam, the ominous headline, 14 minutes.

That's how long officials say it would take for missiles from North Korea to reach that island of Guam. First I want to get to all of that but there are some new developments we're learning right now in what's described as some backchannel diplomacy that's going on in private. Our Global Affairs Correspondent Elise Labott is with us. Elise, so what are you learning about back channel diplomacy?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, even since President Trump took office there have been talks between U.S. and North Korean officials. In fact, this has really intensified since President Trump took office and especially on the release of U.S. detainees in North Korea. You remember Otto Warmbier who was released from North Korea unfortunately he died, but then his release was the product of talks between the U.S. and North Korea.

A special representative for North Korea, Joseph Yun had been meeting with North Korean officials for the last several months. They were supposed to meet in February, but then Kim Jong-un's brother was killed in Malaysia. Those talks have been ongoing, Wolf, primarily about the release of Americans but also in the sense of, let's try and get our relationship back on track. We understand those talks have continued. Joe Yun met in Oslo with some of his counterparts at the North Korean foreign ministry and also the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations.

So I think it's important for viewers to remember that although the rhetoric is very hot between the U.S. and North Korea, there's still are these diplomatic back channels. We call it, for years, the New York channel because it goes through the United Nations. The New York-North Korean mission to the United Nations. I wouldn't say that they're very productive in terms of helping the relationship, but those channels still exist and the hope is that if they can continue talking that would lead to a fuller dialogue on denuclearization or getting talks back on track. BLITZER: All right. Elise Labott with the latest on those

backchannels. Don't go far away. We have our reporters are around the world covering all of the angles of this story. Let's get some more. Let's bring in our White House Correspondent Sara Murray. Our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr, our Senior International Correspondent Ivan Watson joining us from Guam and our correspondent Will Ripley in Beijing. Sara, you're there in New Jersey with the president. President Trump. He pushed back yesterday against criticism that his fire and fury comment went too far. Today he tweeted that military options are locked and loaded. Is this another sign that he has no plans to at least tone down the rhetoric?

SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think that's right, Wolf. I don't think that President Trump sees his rhetoric as the problem here. I mean, you heard him yesterday. He said if anything, his initial statement that there would be fire and fury in response to just a threat from North Korea was maybe not tough enough. And he took to Twitter today to say the military is locked and loaded. Now, on White House official tried to sort of downplay this saying the president is saying nothing new here.

There's always a military option prepared in case of an international crisis, but obviously, Wolf, it's a very different tone. Very different rhetoric when it comes to this situation. To see the president out there boasting about military might at a time and tensions are rising with North Korea, another nuclear power. That is something new.

BLITZER: The president, Sara, he -- we're told he will meet later today with some key members of his national security team. Once again, give us a preview. Who will be - he'd be meeting with and what do we anticipate at the end of that meeting?

MURPHY: Well, he's going to be a meeting with Nikki Haley who is ambassador to the United Nations, the U.S. ambassador the United Nations as well as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Now, originally this is slated to be behind closed doors. We weren't necessarily expecting to hear from them afterwards. It sounds like that could be changing. We may actually be able to get a glimpse of them, maybe get a couple questions into the president after that meeting.

And it will be interesting to see if there is a any change in tone from him when that happens because Tillerson and Nikki Haley have really taken the lead on the diplomatic approach to North Korea. Trying to find some way to move forward in the backchannels Elise is talking about in terms of the situation there. They were instrumental in pushing for that vote at the U.N., to slap North Korea with sanctions. So we heard from President Trump yesterday. He said that negotiations are always possible, but he didn't sound particularly optimistic about the notion that they could be successful. We will see what his tone is like today after that meeting, Wolf.

BLITZER: That meeting is supposed to begin around 5:00 p.m. Eastern, and if they make statements as we anticipate they will afterwards, we'll, of course, have coverage of that. [13:05:03] Full coverage coming up in The Situation Room. Stand by. I want to go to the Pentagon. Barbara, we mentioned the headline, 14 minutes. That was how long it would take for an intermediate range missile to leave North Korea fly over Japan and land right off the waters, the coast of Guam. What else have you learned about how the U.S. could detect and attempt to actually to shoot down a North Korean missile?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, start with where we are right now. U.S. spy satellites are over North Korea virtually all the time scanning for any movement of missiles, of launch equipment, any signs of an imminent launch. They don't see that just yet, we are told from multiple sources. But they are watching for it. So if there is a launch, U.S. satellites would very quickly within seconds pick up that heat signature, the infrared signs of a launch.

They would then begin to be able to quickly calculate a missile's trajectory, its flight path. Where it's headed and its aim point. The target it is aimed at. What we know is that the U.S. procedure is military agencies, intelligence agencies, will all be in instant communication as this trajectory and target would be plotted. They would be able to calculate whether that missile, in fact, is headed for Guam. And that means within minutes. And, really, minutes. That's all they have.

They have to decide if they want to make the effort to shoot the missile down, if it, in fact, is headed for Guam, American territory. One of the interesting wrinkles here is, the North Koreans often, you know, launch missiles anyhow. Shorter range missiles. Missiles that the U.S. knows are just simply going to go into the waters off Japan. So if you have a missile launch and there's no calculation that it poses a threat to South Korea, Japan, Hawaii, Guam, or the United States, the U.S. may well let the North Koreans just let that missile go into the water. The key question, why 14 minutes is so important is you have to shoot that missile down as far away from the target as you possibly can. That means a decision would have to be made within just a few minutes about what to do. Wolf?

BLITZER: What else are you hearing from the U.S. military, Barbara, about preparations in case -- in case North Korea does fire those four missiles toward Guam?

STARR: OK. So we're talking about and it's a good point. We're talking about North Korea firing the missiles, the decision about whether you're going to use the missile defense, if you will. The THAAD System on Guam, ships at sea, they can have missiles onboard that can shoot down the North Korean missile, that's all in place. When the president says locked and loaded, you know, the U.S. military likes to points out that it is ready to go when it comes to North Korea. You have those 28,000 troops in South Korea. 50,000 troops in Japan.

You have air forces across the pacific and obviously they are the most mobile. You have B-1 bombers in Guam. You can move in B-2s, B-52s, air force F-15s, F-16s, the Navy has F-18s in the region onboard carriers. So you have a lot of fire power. Several weeks ago the U.S. military as we reported it at CNN updated all the military options for the president. Specifically aimed at giving him a rapid response option that he could order very quickly and that the forces and the weapons would be ready to enact that, if he were to order it. So we have two issues here. Shooting down a North Korean incoming missile and is there action you want to take inside North Korea? Do you want to begin a military campaign against Kim's regime? Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes. In addition to the president saying U.S. military was now locked and loaded, he also retweeted a U.S. pacific command tweet in which the pacific command said that U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers on Guam, they stand ready to fulfill #FightTonightmission if called upon to do so. So clearly, the rhetoric is being stepped up not just by the president but the U.S. military, the pacific command at well. Stand by, Barbara. I want to go to Ivan Watson. You're there in Guam. How are officials there preparing people for the possibility of some sort of conflict without creating panic?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you mentioned there the B-1 Bombers, and the Andersen Air Force Base here. It invited some local journalists to take a look how some of these B-1 bombers were operating. As one officer described it, they're in a constant state of readiness.

[13:10:05] He didn't describe exactly what their missions were today. And he also explained some of the motives behind the work they do and what they're trying to defend here on Guam in the U.S. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS OCCHIUZZO, DEPUTY OPERATIONS GROUP COMMANDER, ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE: The majority of the people here, we live here. So I live here. My wife lives here. My two daughters live here. My son lives here. We go Tumon Bay, my son go - they go to school here, we go to Jeff's Pirates Cove, so we obviously have a vested interest in here. And we feel safe here right now. And that's what this continuous bomber presence does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Wolf, there are some 5,300 U.S. servicemen and women at Andersen Air Force Base and at Naval Base Guam. And then with their family members there's about 13,000 here. Of course, this island is also home to more than 160,000 other American citizens. The local civilian authorities were issuing instructions to people today. We heard from the Guam Homeland Security Adviser, yes, it's just 14 minutes for a North Korean missile to get from North Korea to Guam, provided all of it, technical features of that weapon work and provided it can penetrate multiple layers of missile defense, U.S., Japanese and South Korean missile defense.

Now, the local authorities have published what they describe as an emergency fact sheet in the event of a missile threat and that makes for some sobering reading because it urges people to look for concrete shelters in the event of an attack and tells them what to do. Not to look at a flash on the horizon, if, god forbid, there's a nuclear explosion, but gives you a sense of some of the preparation and the advice that the authorities are giving. That said, the authorities continue to insist that the threat level is not being raised here, and, in fact, the governor of Guam advised locals to go out, enjoy the weekend, enjoy the beaches and try to pretend as if nothing has changed here. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes. Despite the North Korean deadline of mid-August, that would be next week that they said they wanted to see some action, positive action from their perspective coming from the United States. I want to go to Beijing right now. Will Ripley who's been to North Korea more than a dozen times is joining us right us now. North Korea, Will, as you well know, keeping up the war of words with the United States. The state-run North Korean central news agency saying this, "Trump is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war making such outcries as the U.S. will not rule out a war against the DPRK. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea. What more is North Korea saying about this standoff? They're issuing more statements.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That was one of two statements that North Korea has put out this morning, Wolf. And that phrase pushing to the brink of nuclear war is something we hear quite often from North Korea. We also hear another phrase and one of their other statements saying that they would threaten to turn the mainland U.S. into the stage of a nuclear war if they sense that a U.S. pre- emptive attack was coming. Another phrase that they use was calling the United States nuclear war fanatics.

And well, all of that language may sound frightening for people listening in the United States, if you put it in context that is the kind of rhetoric that we often hear from North Korea. Fairly regularly. It's business as usual. They did not insult President Trump in any of their statement, they also didn't reveal any more details about the plan that they announced earlier in the week to launch those four Hwasong-12 intermediate range missiles. Now it doesn't mean that they're not still working on that plan, it doesn't mean that they're not going to present it to Kim Jong-un for his signature as they said that they would do. We do need to watch very closely North Korea's actions but if you're looking at their rhetoric today they have not upped the ante as they did with their previous statements earlier in the week, Wolf.

BLITZER: China is also weighing in, what it would do in various scenarios, Will. You're there in Beijing for us. What are the latest statements coming in from China, which has a significant role in all of this?

RIPLEY: Two interesting developments here in Beijing. One, this editorial in the state newspaper, the Global Times. It's a tabloid, it's not an official government mouthpiece. They're not speaking officially on behalf of the government but this newspaper can give you some insight into the views of at least some of the more hawkish elements of the Chinese government particularly the people's liberation army. And so this editorial said that they're calling for China to remain neutral if North Korea fires the first shot. But if the United States were to launch a pre-emptive attack, this editorial calls for China to step in and prevent the United States from toppling the North Korean regime. Now again, this is an editorial, not an official government statement. But pretty interesting because this is state media nonetheless even if it's tabloid media, it gives you a sense of where China stands on the North Korean issue.

[13:15:00] On the North Korean issue. Also China and Russia supposedly once again renewing their calls according to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, saying that China and Russia want the U.S. to suspend its regularly scheduled military exercises that are set to begin later this month in exchange for North Korea freezing its missile program.

But, Wolf, we've heard China call for that many times before and neither side has been willing to do that.

BLITZER: Yes, they always -- every year, whenever the U.S. and South Korea have these military exercises, the North Koreans are very irate about it. They want the U.S. and South Korea to stop. The U.S. and south Korea never do stop.

Will Ripley in Beijing for us. Thanks very much.

There's much more that we're following. Coming up, more on this developing story, including what the former national security adviser to President Obama, Susan Rice, says would be a foolish and catastrophic move by the White House on North Korea.

Stay with us.

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[13:19:58] BLITZER: President Trump issue as new warning to North Korea, even as diplomatic efforts take place behind the scenes.

Let's get some perspective from our panel. We have our CNN military and diplomatic analyst retired Rear Admiral John Kirby with us. Our global affairs correspondent Elise Labott is still with us. And our CNN military analyst retired Army Major General James "Spider" Marks is with us as well.

Here's the latest statement, General Marks, from the president, a tweet earlier today. Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong-un will find another path.

That's strong words. Went from fire and fury to locked and loaded.

MAJOR GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, it's a sequence of events that really says we're going to ratchet this thing up. Not necessary for what's going on. You'd prefer the president not engage in this verbal conflagration. Doesn't need to do it. The regime up north has routinely done that. But his point remains, and as Secretary Mattis has said, the military readiness, not just on the peninsula with South Korea, but also our readiness in the region, is at a high level all the time, 24/7. So relative to the threat of sending missiles in the direction of Guam, we can figure all that out. Barbara Starr gave a really good laydown in terms of how that happens. The enterprise among ships, land-based systems, coalition partners, both in South Korea and in Japan, satellite based, we can pick up the alerts when something's happening and we can make a decision within a very short amount of time to take those missiles down. And then when they hit the water, we'll go gather those things up. We'll do some forensics and we'll deconstruct what happens (ph).

BLITZER: You make it sound as if it's so easy to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.

MARKS: It's not --

BLITZER: It's not that easy.

MARKS: It's not that easy, but we've got the science. We've done the rehearsals. We've done it. We have to rely on that capability. I mean that's what we have. That's what we have.

It's a provocative move. Were North Korea to do that, I would guarantee that Kim would -- he would have to be suicidal at that point if he's going to launch a missile and the telemetry says it's in the route of Guam. We have to assume it's nuclear-tipped. Why? Because we've just ascribed to them the capability. We have to make that assumption.

BLITZER: Yes, it would be a disaster.

MARKS: (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: All right (INAUDIBLE).

It's one thing for the president to ratchet up. And I'm curious, Admiral Kirby, and I'll call you Admiral Kirby for this question, that the U.S. military specific command is also getting involved in the rhetoric as well.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Yes.

BLITZER: I was a bit surprised. I speak as a former Pentagon correspondent during the first Gulf War. U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers on Guam stand ready to fulfill #fighttonight mission if called upon to do so. Is that normal for the Pacific Command or any of the commands to get involved and start blustering like this?

KIRBY: It's a little unusual. I suspect that this is probably part of a pressure campaign here dictated by the White House to make it clear to Kim Jong-un's regime that they're serious.

Look, I'm going to hang on that last line in the president's tweet today, which is, hopefully Kim Jong-un will find another path. I'm going to hold on to the hope that what they're really trying to do is ratchet the pressure up so much publicly and so muscularly that they'll -- they'll force a capitulation, they'll force some sort of dialogue with the North. That's what I'm hanging my hat on. And I suspect that if that's true, that would explain a little bit about what PACOM did today.

BLITZER: Because the diplomacy is important. Elise, you cover the State Department for us. The president, 5:00 p.m. Eastern later today up in New Jersey, he's going to meet with the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. She just scored a big win last weekend at the U.N. Security Council, 15-0 vote including Russia and China, to increase sanctions against North Korea. It seems like a long time ago given all the rhetoric that's passed since then. But is it realistic to think diplomacy is going to achieve much?

LABOTT: I don't think right now, but I think maybe the hope is that in the long term -- and I have to agree with John, this kind of ratcheting up of the pressure, a lot of people say that the rhetoric is just very scary. But it does seem a little bit, as you heard Will Ripley say, to be working.

You know, if you look -- if you parse out Kim Jong-un's statements, he's not talking specifically about four missiles pointed at Guam. You kind of hear the regular bombast of, you know, the kind of fire and fury we heard from the president. And I do think that, you know, the diplomacy, this actually, this rhetoric might boost, you know, the credible deterrent. It's not just a message also to North Korea. It's a message to China that this is getting out of control. You need to help us dial down the temperature. And that they need to get in. Also to Russia. They need to get involved in the diplomacy.

You see Russia and China stepping it up a little bit. And I do think that, you know, ironically, this kind of bombast and this rhetoric, I do think Kim is cowering a bit. I think the danger, though, is a miscalculation that spirals out of control.

BLITZER: I want you to listen to what President Obama's former national security adviser Susan Rice told me last night. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: What I worry about is this discussion and preparation potentially for what the administration has called preventive war or pre-emptive war, which would envision the United States potentially attacking North Korea in the absence of an eminent or actual threat against the United States.

[13:25:11] Deterrence makes good sense. That's very essential for us to maintain. And, obviously, we don't ever take off the table the threat of the use of force. But pre-emptive war, if one were actually thinking of executing that, would be catastrophic.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: As she spoke after the president, President Trump did not rule out a pre-emptive strike.

MARKS: Yes, there is no antiseptic military solution. There are no good military options.

Look, Seoul will suffer. Tokyo will be in the crosshairs as well. As Elise indicated, all solutions have got to go through Beijing.

But what's really sad here is when you play -- and you try to play the brinksmanship card in the nuclear age, which we've been a part of for 80 years, the costs are exorbitant. And now we have the United States trying to be the brinksman (ph). And guess who's going to come in and be the calming influence? China. Whither U.S. influence even more. That's unsatisfactorily right now. I mean we're -- we're unfortunately tipping the -- tipping the scales in a direction that we're not intended to be tipped.

BLITZER: But China potentially has more influence over North Korea than any other country.

MARKS: Well, they do. And, globally, everybody's going to turn to China and say, you know, the United States now looks like they're playing in brinksmanship. Can you guys step in and help us with this other problem? It's not where we want to be.

BLITZER: Well, if they prevent a nuclear war, that would --

MARKS: That's a good thing.

BLITZER: That would be good.

MARKS: That's a good thing.

BLITZER: All right, stand by, guys. There's much more.

MARKS: (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: Spider Marks, Elise Labott, John Kirby, as usual, thank you.

Coming up, President Trump thanking Russia's Vladimir Putin for expelling hundreds of U.S. diplomats and other employees from Russia. But why does the president rarely criticize, if ever, Putin? We're going to hear from one U.S. lawmaker.

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