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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

Building Nuclear Threat, North Korea's Threat

Aired December 23, 2002 - 06:07   ET

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

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The latest nuclear crisis is being triggered by North Korea now. Pyongyang admitting that it is removing surveillance equipment at one of its reactors. The U.S. is worried that the North Koreans will now start building nuclear weapons.
And for the latest on this, we turn to Sohn Jie Ae, our bureau chief in Seoul, South Korea.

SOHN JIE AE, CNN SEOUL BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Catherine, the current president, South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, had a meeting with his president-elect, Roh Moo-Hyun, who was elected South Korea's president just four days ago.

Now, the two men sat together for lunch and discussed the North Korea issue. According to the South Korean presidential spokesman, the two men, who basically agree that the way to handle North Korea is through engagement, through dialogue, agree that this nuclear crisis should be resolved peacefully and through dialogue.

They also talked about how to coordinate with South Korea's major allies, such as the United States, Japan, China and Russia.

Now, and the president-elect also briefed by President Kim's top aides. And this, of course, comes after the weekend. North Korea started removing the safety seals and surveillance cameras from a deactivated nuclear power plant that North Korea agreed to freeze since 1994. There was suspicion that this power plant could be used to make nuclear weapons.

Now, North Korea's essential broadcast said that they needed to reactivate this power plant, because they needed the electricity after the U.S.-led consortium said that it would stop the shipments of heavy fuel oil to North Korea.

Some here in South Korea are starting to wonder why North Korea made such a move at this point, and some analysts think it may be that North Korea wants to test the new president-elect's resolve in his engagement policy towards North Korea.

Now, the president-elect also feels that the best way to deal with North Korea is through dialogue, which is different from Washington, so they're waiting to see how the president-elect can negotiate between South Korea and the United States -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: So, is there dialogue between the U.S. and South Korea? Certainly, there is none between the U.S. and North Korea. AE: Yes, there is certainly. The U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell, did call upon the South Korean president over the weekend to talk about how the U.S. doctrine (ph) reliance (ph) must be strong through this nuclear crisis, and how -- and South Korea also said that it would seek the help from its allies, such as Russia and China, in order to try to convince North Korea that what it's doing right now is not in its best interests.

So, there is certainly a lot of negotiations and a lot of dialogue going on between South Korea and the United States -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: All right, Sohn Jie Ae joining us from Seoul this morning, thank you very much.

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