No Meeting Place Yet for U.S.-North Korea Summit; Chemical Experts Blocked From Entering Attack Site; Saying Goodbye to a Colleague; American Chemical Inspectors To Go To Douma, Wednesday; U.S. and North Korea Talking At The Highest Levels; Public Offers Plenty Of Thug Theories.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, HOST, CNN: Cautious optimism on North Korea. President Trump he hopes for a successful with Kim Kong-un but will walk away if he has to. In Cuba, six decades after the Revolution, a political evolution. A new president is taking over and his last name is not Castro. Plus, trapped with ISIS. An American woman describes what it was like living under the terror group's rule with her children. Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN Newsroom. Donald Trump is predicting big things for his upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un. His first priority getting rid of North Korea's nuclear arsenal. Mr. Trump has been listening to concerns from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during their two-day summit in Florida. And although he has high hopes for the summit the president say he will walk out if the talks are not fruitful.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As you know I will be meeting with Kim Jong-un in the coming weeks to discuss the denuclearization of the Korea peninsula. Hopefully that meeting will be a great success and we're looking forward to it. It could be a tremendous thing for North Korea and a tremendous thing for the world. So, we will be doing everything possible to make it a worldwide success.</s>CHURCH: Mr. Trump also says negotiations are under way to free three Americans held prisoner in North Korea. Prime Minister took a cautious turn warning the talk with North Korean leaders have failed in the past.</s>SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If North Korea takes the right path under the Japan-North Korea-Pyongyang declaration there could be a possible path to settle the unfortunate past and normalize the diplomatic relationship. For that to happen a comprehensive resolution of multiple concerns including abduction, nuclear, and missiles would be the fundamental preconditions through the upcoming historic U.S.-North Korea Summit. We strongly hope for a breakthrough in the situation.</s>CHURCH: And CNN is following reaction throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Will Ripley is in Hong Kong and Anna Stewart is in Tokyo. Welcome to you both. Let's to you first, Will. It seems the biggest tumbling block right now for these face-to-face talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un is finding a location they can both agree upon to meet. Why is this proving to be so problematic, and once they do sit down for these talks, have they both figured out yet that they don't share the same definition for what constitute denuclearization.</s>WILL RIPLEY, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, we certainly hope that they are doing their homework on each other and certainly on the North Korean side. Kim Jong-un has a team of people who is so focused is the Korean peninsula politics nuclear gamesmanship. Who Trump has briefing him preparing him for the summit is less clear. But they can't do any of that until they decide on where they're going to hold it. And it seems like a simple thing, but in fact, if you start to really think about the political implications in meeting places. Let's say Kim Jong-un wants to go to Washington or he ruled that out, you know, going to U.S. territory. No. Donald Trump ruled out going to Pyongyang. For similar reasons, he doesn't feel that security could be guaranteed there. You know, Kim Jong-un ruled out going to an aircraft carrier on the waters of the Korean peninsula. Donald Trump ruled out going to the demilitarized zone. So where does that leave us? It leaves us with trying to find a neutral location for this and there are several places in Asia that are being thrown around as possibility. Singapore and Malaysia as you see on the screen there, or also going Vietnam, Thailand also a neutral European capital like Stockholm, Sweden, Geneva, Switzerland. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia was considered a frontrunner a few days ago. That apparently is becoming less likely possibly just because of the logistics of getting all of the international press into that country. But some of the other issues are here that Kim Jong-un apparently prefers to travel by train, much like his predecessors. He took that armored train, that luxury train to Beijing. Obviously that limits where he'd be able to go. And if he's going to fly somewhere will his jet have the fuel capacity to get in there or will he have to get a jet from another country. So, all of those logistics are being work out, and then denuclearization what is it mean for North Korea. Well, it means the American nuclear umbrella going away, it means American troops off the Korean peninsula. It means a peace treaty with South Korea. Whereas, denuclearization for the United States means North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons completely in exchange for relief from economic sanctions, normalization of relations. Two very different definitions of the term. Are they going to be able to come together, we don't know. We certainly don't know if they are going to be able to come together in a location because they haven't chosen yet. And until they know where they are going to do it, they can set a date. Donald Trump saying early June, but also indicating that it might not happen, Rosemary.</s>CHURCH: It could very well prove to be the stumbling block because this, as you mention, Kim Jong-un likes and prefers to travel by train, and not only train, but a bulletproof train. He feels vulnerable in a plane and he feels very vulnerable outside his own country. So, this could indeed prove to be the thing that brings this whole thing to an end.</s>RIPLEY: Yes. And we don't know for sure what is it in Kim Jong-un's mind. He does fly and he has a private jet. In fact, sometimes he flies his own plane. We visited sites in North Korea where he has been described as actually flying the plane in himself, and then flying away. So, it's not necessarily a fear of flight itself but it is a little less of a secure situation for a leader of a country to get in an aircraft flying to foreign space and he's never made a trip like that before. The trip to Beijing as far as we know was the first time he even left North Korea since he came to power in late 2011. And yes, that bulletproof heavily armored train is a very secure method of transportation. Obviously what would be ideal for the North Koreans is to have this meeting as close to home as possible, but that apparently is not going to work for the Americans. And they really do have to sort this out before they can move forward with this.</s>CHURCH: Yes, indeed. We'll see what happens with that. Will Ripley joining us there from Hong Kong. Thanks for that. Let's go to Anna Stewart now in Tokyo. And Anna, Japan's prime minister met with President Trump for that two-day summit, warning him in fact about talks with North Korea. And also talking trade. What is being said about that trip back in Tokyo?</s>ANNA STEWART, PRODUCER, CNN: Yes. Well, you know, to give it some context this was a crucial trip really for Abe. Politically he's really weak here in Japan, he's facing a number of corruption allegations, very low approval ratings and there have been protests in the tens of thousands just in the last week in Tokyo. So, it's really important that he won some political points on this trip. And you know, he's done pretty well. Firstly on North Korea, Trump assured him, made a promise in front of all the reporters that he would take Japan's interest on North Korea to any discussion. Now those aren't necessarily the same as other countries. One of them is the issue of Japanese abductees held in North Korea now for decades. It's a real crucial issue here in Japan, and of course, the security of Japan itself. And then on trade, this was more of a mixed bag. So, Japan remains not on the exemption list for Japan in the aluminum tariffs which he thought it might get an exemption here. However, he hasn't been push, Abe has not push into a bilateral free trade agreement. That is what Trump really wanted to achieve I think to have a really good political win for himself that Abe managed to push back slightly on that. They've open up a dialogue on free talks of making trade freer, fairer, easier, but that's the far-cry from a bilateral deal. And then on TPP, this was fascinating. We had such a turnaround from Donald Trump in the last week. Tuesday night, saying that he really wasn't interested on Twitter. And in the statement today, saying, well, if the deal was significantly better maybe he would be open to it. So, perhaps, Abe manage to persuade him to come back to TPP. So that could be seen as a win as well. The question is, is all of this really enough to sort of sail the ship back home. Abe has got a lot to deal with when he gets off that plane.</s>CHURCH: He must certainly does. Anna Stewart, with that assessment, joining us with a live report from Tokyo. We appreciate that. Well, senior U.S. officials tell CNN President Trump personally made the decision to cool off new sanctions on Russia. The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley announce the plans on Sunday, but the White House back pedaled the next day with economic advisor Larry Kudlow, saying Haley might have been confused. Topic came up again Wednesday with President Trump saying he'll hit Russia with more sanctions when they deserve it.</s>TRUMP: There's been nobody tougher on Russia than President Donald Trump. Between building up the military, between creating tremendous vast amounts of oil. We raise billions and billions of dollars extra in NATO. We had a very, very severe -- we were talking about it a little while -- fight in Syria recently a month ago between our troops and Russian troops, and it's very sad but many people died in that fight. There has been nobody tougher than me.</s>CHURCH: It is unclear when an inspection team will be able to verify whether chemical weapons were used in a deadly attack in Syria. A U.N. advance security team was shot at on Tuesday in Douma near the site of an alleged attack. The U.S. says the timing of the inspection is critical.</s>JAMES MATTIS, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We're very much aware the delay that the regime impose on that delegation, but we are also aware of how they have operated in the past to see what they have done using chemical weapons. In other words, using the pause after a strike like that to try to clean up the evidence.</s>CHURCH: And U.S. and other western nations say the Syrian regime dropped the banned weapons on the last rebel held town in eastern Ghouta, about 75 people were killed. Syria and Russia deny a chemical attack took place. Well, Jomana Karadsheh joins us now from Amman, Jordan. So Jomana, nearly two weeks after the suspected chemical weapons attack in Douma, and still the inspection team is unable to get to the site to verify what happened and they've been shot at as just reported. U.S. Defense Secretary we heard there James Mattis believes the delay was to allow the regime to clean up any evidence. So just how useful will this investigate</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, that's the big question, Rosemary, when are they going to be able to get there and what they are going to be able to gather when they do. You know, keeping in mind this is not been a sealed type of crime scene, a very sterile kind of a crime scene. You had Russian experts who visited, you had the regime that has been also at the crime scene and they even escorted journalists, including American journalists. And all these people going to the scene of the attack before the fact-finding mission from the OPCW. And when you talk to chemical weapons experts they say it is extremely important for them. As you know, you would expect to get there as soon as possible after an attack for a number of reasons. You know, most important when they want to try and establish what kind of chemical may have been used in an alleged attack. If it's something like chlorine, for example, which is believed to have been used in this alleged attack. They say that traces of chlorine gas could evaporate, they could disappear within a couple of days of an attack. And we're talking about an attack that took place 12 days ago. And if this was a nerve agent, for example, like western governments believe that sarin may have also been used in the attack, that could, traces of that could linger in the area for a couple of years. Another very important thing, Rosemary, why they need to get there as soon as possible is of course a concern when it comes to tampering with evidence and compromising the scene. And so far, it is really unclear when the OPCW fact-finding mission is going to make it to Douma.</s>CHURCH: Yes. Unclear when but if history is our guide when might this chemical weapons team be allowed access to the site in Douma. And what are you learning about the people who were affected by this attack.</s>KARADSHEH: You know, it's very difficult to tell, Rosemary, when they are going to get access. You know, there are several factors here when it comes to logistics and permission. We believe they have these permissions as we've heard from the director general of the OPCW, then you have the security situation on the ground, allowing them to enter the area and spend some time there. And as you mentioned earlier, their advanced security team on Tuesday when they're carrying out that reconnaissance mission to try and inspect the site ahead of the arrival of the OPCW fact-finding mission, they came under fire one of these locations and also an explosive device was detonated. But as we understand no one was hurt. We need to keep in mind what the scope of the mission of this OPCW fact-finding mission is going to be. It's not to assign blame. They need to establish the fact of whether an attack took place and what chemical was used, so they do need to get there as soon as possible and it's unclear when that's going to happen. When you're talking about what people there are saying, you know, Rosemary, activists and medical workers that we were speaking to right after the attack were warning that this area is now going to be under the control of the regime. It's going to be very difficult to get, you know, the accounts, the honest accounts, as they say, from people who are there in the area right now because they might feel that they are intimidated. They feel that they're scared of speaking freely in an area that is under control of the regime. These are people who have been living for years until rebel control and they've decided to stay in this area even after the regime took control. So it's very difficult to verify from people what really happened. And since the attack took place, Rosemary, there have been so many different stories competing narratives conspiracy theories from both sides here blaming each other for the attack, and in some cases saying an attack never took place.</s>CHURCH: It's very hard to get to the truth of this story. Jomana Karadsheh bringing us the details from her vantage point in Amman, Jordan where it is just after 10.15 in the morning. Thank you so much. Let's take a very short break here, but still to come, a Southwest Airlines pilot is credited with saving thousands of lives after a mid- flight engine explosion. Her name is Captain Tammie Jo Shults and we will tell you exactly how she flew them to safety. And this.</s>RICHARD BLYSTONE, FORMER CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Can I go a little farther, Mr. President, you have seen the magazine covers. No doubters saying beast of Baghdad or butcherer of Baghdad.</s>CHURCH: Remembering one of the legends of journalism who were lucky enough to call a friend and a colleague.