Intelligence Suggests North Korea Could Fire Multiple Missiles; Interview with Ambassador John Everard
MAX FOSTER, HOST: Tensions on a knife edge.</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When you talk about tensions on the peninsula, this is about as tense as it gets. South Korean soldiers, their backs to us, facing off with North Korean soldiers right on the other side.</s>FOSTER: As the U.S. warns North Korea it's skating near a dangerous line, a volatile border is on even higher alert.</s>ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World.</s>FOSTER: Also ahead on the show, lurking beneath the capital city, a treasure trove of Roman artifacts. Why it's being hailed as one of London's most important archeological digs. And, who will wear the next Green Jacket? Why the Master's golf tournament teeing off in just hours is so special. North Korea's neighbors are on edge amid new warnings the country may be planning multiple missile launches. Pentagon officials call North Koreans masters of deception saying they may have planned all along to focus the world's attention on two Musudan missiles placed along North Korea's east coast. The officials say they've seen other launchers moving around, suggesting the possibility of multiple test firings. Today, the U.S. defense secretary called it a combustible situation.</s>CHUCK HAGEL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This country, the United States of America, our allies, the United Nations, has been very clear that North Korea has been with its bellicose rhetoric, with its actions, have been skating very close to a dangerous lie.</s>FOSTER: Both the United States and South Korea are warning a missile test could come at any time. Let's bring in Anna Coren in Seoul for the very latest on that. Anna, what about the timing of this. There's some suggestion it would happen earlier and it hasn't happened. Will it happen?</s>ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, according to South Korean and U.S. authorities they say, yes, it will happen possibly in the coming days. There's a significant date coming up, April 15, that is the anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founder Kim il-Song who, of course, is Kim Jong-un's grandfather. So that is probably the most important day on the North Korean calendar. You mentioned those Musudan missiles that are in place on the east coast of the country. They haven't been tested before. And now the pentagon is saying that there could be multiple missiles, that perhaps North Korea's plan all along was for us to focus on those two missile launches, when in actual fact there will be other rockets fired from the country. Now, what is really important to note, Max, is that everyone does believe that this will be a test as opposed to a strike. These medium- range missiles, they have a range of something like 4,000 kilometers, up to 4,000 kilometers. That obviously takes us enough here to South Korea, Japan, and U.S. bases in Guam. But once again important to note that likely to be a test and not a strike.</s>FOSTER: So why, then, are the South Koreans on a very high alert?</s>COREN: Yeah, certainly on very high alert. Both South Korean and U.S. troops, they actually raised it another level. And the U.S. has also come out, Max, and said that if these missiles pose any threat whatsoever, they will be struck down. You'd also have to assume there will be serious consequences from the international community, whether it be further sanctions or international condemnation. You can only expect that will be heading North Korea's way as well more than likely to fall on deaf ears. But just to give you an idea of what the situation is like here on the Korean peninsula, my colleague, Kyung Lah, went up to the demilitarized zone, the DMZ, and this is what she found.</s>LAH: There is near absolute silence on the most militarized border on the planet. South Korean soldiers on the edge of a fight, staring down a sworn enemy that unblinkingly stares right back, sometimes through binoculars peaking out from windows. The area that we're walking into is called (inaudible) these huts are actually divided in half. This side is South Korea, over there is part of North Korea.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All cameras facing this way.</s>LAH: Rules are tight on this military guided press tour. Don't linger, don't point. This is cold war up close. When we talk about tensions on the peninsula, this is about as tense as it gets. South Korean soldiers, their backs to us, facing off with North Korean soldiers right on the other side just feet away. This room we're about to enter is actually divided in half. Shut down just so we can come in and capture some pictures.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can maneuver around, just please stay within arms length of those soldiers.</s>LAH: The soldiers are here so we don't get grabbed and pulled into North Korea. We're only given a few minutes in here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 20 seconds.</s>LAH: This is technically South Korea on this side. To get over to North Korea just on the other side of these microphones.</s>FOSTER: Kyung Lah there. And thank you to Anna Coren in Seoul. Let's get some perspective now from an expert who knows North Korea far better than most of us. John Everard is a consultant for the United Nations on North Korea. He's also a former British Ambassador to the same country, who lived there from 2006, the year Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test until 2008. Do you think -- I mean, what is this -- I mean, will it be a test, will it be a strike. I mean, what do you understand about what you're hearing from North Korea?</s>JOHN EVERARD, FRM. BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO NORTH KOREA: Well, I doubt it will be a strike at this stage. I think a test is more likely. But there, again, even if they don't test by flying the missile over Japan, which they've done in the past, which would kind of annoy the Japanese, at least, a test of course violates a series of United Nations security council resolutions. It's bound to provoke further security council reaction and is also going to seriously annoy the Chinese who have been watching with growing dismay as North Korea has indulged in this great series of antics.</s>FOSTER: They gave the impression, though, it would happen today, earlier on, you know, before now. It hasn't happened. How do you understand that?</s>EVERARD: This is a standard North Korean game. They will raise expectations and then make nothing happen.</s>FOSTER: Will it happen?</s>EVERARD: I think it's going to happen, but they will keep us guessing about the timing for as long as they can.</s>FOSTER: In terms of the United States, how are they supposed to respond to all of this, because you would think that North Korea wouldn't want to take on the United States, but it's pushing the United States, so how should the United States respond?</s>EVERARD: I have to say I'm not an apologist for the United States foreign policy, but I think that the American reaction to events so far has been very sophisticated and absolute text book diplomacy. The United States has drawn a line in the sand. It has made very clear to Kim Jong-un that if it does anything so stupid as to attack South Korea, remember in 2010 North Korea sank a South Korean warship and shelled a South Korean island, that you've seen the B-2s, you've seen the B-52, just don't do it. They've also taken steps to deescalate. And I think the announcement the other day that they will delay a missile test was excellent. I mean, that gives Kim Jong-un a ladder to climb down if he wants to. He can claim victory to his own generals.</s>FOSTER: North Korea, it is trying to engage in diplomacy, they would argue. Let's hear now from Dennis Rodman, a basketball player met the leader of North Korea, was asked when he returned if there was any message from North Korea. Let's hear what he said.</s>DENNIS RODMAN, RETIRED NBA PLAYER: One thing he asked me, give Obama something to say and do one thing. He wants Obama to do one thing, call him.</s>GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC ANCHOR: He wants a call from President Obama?</s>RODMAN: That's right. He told me that. He said, if you can, Dennis, I don't want to do war. I don't want to do war. He said that to me.</s>FOSTER: Well, it's interesting, isn't it, because Obama suggests that he wants to be involved in diplomacy, but he's not dealing directly with the leader of North Korea.</s>EVERARD: No. But America has reached out on several occasions trying to establish a meaningful dialogue with these people. Remember the Leap Day deal that fell apart, that North Korea picked apart almost as soon as it was signed. It's become evident that over the last months several senior American envoys have been in Pyongyang and clearly got nowhere. Now, what Kim Jong-un is saying is that he wants to be treated with respect, as gang leaders tend to put it. He wants America to negotiate on his terms. He wants America to recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapons state, which Secretary Kerry made very clear a couple of days ago is simply not going to happen. It's not just about the phone call, it's all that goes with it. And I can quite understand that President Obama is not going to go down that road.</s>FOSTER: Certainly not now. John Everard, thank you very much indeed for joining us. Later on CNN, another special edition of The Situation Room: North Korean Crisis, Wolf Blitzer takes a deeper look at the latest developments in the story with analysis and more tonight at 11:00 in London, midnight in Berlin here on CNN. You're watching Connect the World. Still to come, an announcement from this jihadist group about its involvement in Syria. The details ahead. Found by CNN hiding in a boat in Havana, the couple accused of kidnapping their sons and sailing to Cuba. More on that story next. And right now, four clubs are vying for two places in the Champion's League semifinals. All that and much more when Connect the World continues.