ANC's New Leader Promises To Unite Party; North Korea Blame For Massive Cyber Attack.
CHURCH: A very warm welcome back to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. Want to update you now on the main stories we're following this hour. The U.S. Senate passes the Republicans tax reform bill just a short time ago. The 51-48 vote was along Party line, because the senate made technical changes to the measure, the house will have to vote on it again later Wednesday. Then it can go to President Trump for his signature. Cardinal Bernard law, the former archbishop of Boston, has died at the age of 86. He was a powerful figure in the Roman Catholic Church, but he resigned in disgrace in 2002 after the Boston globe uncovered a massive sex abuse scandal in his arch diocese. Law was accused of protecting priests who were abusing children. Sir Ramaphosa will soon deliver his first address as head of South Africa's ruling Party. He will give the closing address at the conference hall at the African national congress. He replaces Jacob Zuma as Party leader and he is still but certain to take over as South Africa's President in 2019. And Ramaphosa is promising to unite the ANC which has been mere in the corruption scandals facing Jacob Zuma. CNN's David McKenzie is in Johannesburg. He is joins us now live. So, David what does Ramaphosa bring to the table, what challenges does he face and how possible is it that he could replace Jacob Zuma earlier 2019?</s>DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ramaphosa, Rose Marie, carries the hopes of millions of South Africans who want to see the ANC take a new direction and try kick start the country's ailing economy. But throughout his career he is almost been called a nearly man, almost getting to the presidency, but now his time has come.</s>MCKENZIE: At the childhood home, the proud older sister waited for the vote to be announced.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very nice to meet you.</s>MCKENZIE: Hidden in the bathroom, too nervous to even watch.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just praying.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We declare Ramaphosa as the new president of the African National Congress.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa!</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then I get out, I said, oh, is that Zuma? No, Cyril, they were shouting.</s>MCKENZIE: Ramaphosa says this was always the goal.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe one of the good days, god will bless us like this.</s>MCKENZIE: It just took longer than expected. A union organizer during (inaudible) and a protege of nelson Mandela, he was on the fast track to becoming President. Ramaphosa became the chief ANC negotiator with the racist regime, known as being tough but fair.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The regime is determined to block any advance to democracy.</s>MCKENZIE: But when it came time to step down, Mandela chose another successor. Ramaphosa left government for business becoming one of the richest men in South Africa. Those business ties came into question in 2012. When police brutally killed scores of striking miners at a Catalan mine. Ramaphosa was a board member at the company that owned the mine.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The responsibility has to be collective and as a nation we should dip our heads and accept that we did fail the people of Maricana, particularly the families and the workers and those who died.</s>MCKENZIE: He was cleared of wrongdoing, and by the time he reentered politics as deputy President, many hoped he could drive the country forward.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we are ready for a takeoff. You will see changes happening in South Africa soon.</s>MCKENZIE: Instead, under the leadership of Jacob Zuma, the country faltered, entering a recession. And it through the multiple corruption scandals, court challenges and street demonstrations, like many in the ruling ANC, the vocal Ramaphosa stayed silent. He now faces fractures in the ruling Party already losing support with the public. Here in so we to, they are convinced that Ramaphosa is the man to bridge that divide. When you see him again, what are you going to say to him?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to hug him. I'm going to hug him.</s>MCKENZIE: So, he has a tough job ahead of him, Rosemary, because his top leadership is divided amongst the fractious ANC. Still there is hope in south Africa hoping that the man that is been an icon in south African politics for so long could be the right man to lead this country forward. Rosemary?</s>CHURCH: We will watch to see what changes may occur. David McKenzie joining us live from Johannesburg which is nearly 10:40 in the morning. Many thanks. The U.S. is trying again to pressure North Korea to resolve the nuclear crisis peacefully. Canada and the U.S. will host a new international group in Vancouver next month with the goal of bringing Pyongyang to the negotiating table. President Donald Trump has rejected the possibility of talks before, but now the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says diplomacy is still an option. But only if North Korea stops its nuclear provocations.</s>REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: The White House position on talks, they have not rejected diplomatic talks. What the White House has merely observed is that North Korea has not exhibited a willingness to talk. But the White House position and the President's policy has always been -- and I go back to why does the pressure campaign exist, and this pressure campaign of sanctions and diplomatic pressure is the President's policy. It is the policy that came from the national Security Council that we would put in place. Sanctions is seen like never been seen before.</s>CHURCH: Meanwhile, the U.S. could retaliate against North Korea for the WannaCry cyberattack which blocked computers in almost every country earlier this year. Experts have widely suspected Pyongyang was behind that virus, and now Australia and other countries are following the U.S. in directly blaming North Korea for the attack. Our Brian Todd has more.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is the biggest cyberattack the world has ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of computers around the world in about 150 countries rendered useless. Businesses, homes, and hospitals were hit, holding critical systems hostage. Even parts of Britain's National Health Service were crippled putting lives at risk. Now the U.S. Government is publicly placing the blame for that cyber assault uniquely dubbed WannaCry, squarely on Kim Jong-un's army of hackers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was directed by the government of North Korea. We are also comfortable in saying that there were actors on their behalf, intermediaries carrying out this attack and they carried out those attacks on behalf of North Korea in the past.</s>TODD: Sources tell CNN British intelligence officials and Microsoft had previously concluded that groups associated with the North Korean regime were responsible for the WannaCry hack which occurred in May. But this was the first time the U.S. publicly singled out the Kim regime.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: North Korea is in the extortion business. It's in the intimidation business. Frankly, it's in the larceny business.</s>TODD: Experts say the North Korean attack was unique for a foreign government, because it was ransomware, designed to shut down computers until users paid ransom money to unlock their screens. But officials say in the WannaCry hack, the attackers botched the ransom technology and didn't make much money.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once word got out ping didn't unlock the computer it stopped. Still the destruction was widespread and a cyber war team that has become dangerously proficient. Kim Jong-un is believed to have an army of more than 6000 hackers, most of them from North Korea's top intelligence agency. The best of them work for an elite unit called Bureau 121, the same unit who is believed to hack Sony pictures and has infiltrated systems in many countries.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are causing disruption, banks, and ATM machines in South Korea. They are attacking the finance sector and affecting swift, one of the main ways we move money around to do financial heists.</s>TODD: Financial heists designed not just to disrupt the west, but generate real money for the Kim regime.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That money is then used in turn by the regime for its nefarious purposes for the nuclear program for the missile program.</s>TODD: Publicly White House officials say they don't have many options for retaliating against the Kim regime for the WannaCry attack.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump has used every lever you can use short of starving the people of North Korea to death.</s>TODD: But behind the scenes White House officials tell us they are taking measures to hinder North Korea's hacking capabilities, applying what one official calls max pressure. They won't discuss their options in advance, but cyber experts tell us that could mean that U.S. Cyber command is launching its own offensives to disrupt Kim Jong-un's hackers. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.</s>CHURCH: Facebook and Microsoft are working together against North Korean hackers among other strategies. Microsoft is increasing windows security to prevent a similar cyberattack. Facebook has deleted profiles used by hackers and is reaching out to users who may be at risk. The White House wants tech companies to work more closely with the government against cyber threats. And now Paula Hancock is following this story from Seoul, South Korea. She joins us now live. Paula, what's been the response in South Korea to this increasing pressure on Pyongyang other nations blaming North Korea for the WannaCry cyberattack?</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, we and an official response from South Korea when it comes to WannaCry, we would expect one certainly. South Korea is the main target of cyberattacks which it says originate from North Korea. In recent months, recent years, you've had cyberattacks here on banks, on broadcasters, even on the South Korean military and all of those according to South Korean officials have been the work, they believe, of North Korea officials had been the work, they believe of North Korea. It is certainly an issue that South Korea feels acutely and imagine that they would welcome the fact that there has been this rally internationally to try and combat this. So, today you had the likes of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, all agreeing with the United States saying that they believe also that North Korea was behind the WannaCry cyberattack back in May. Now, 164 countries were affected, according to the White House homeland security. So, certainly you can imagine there is a great deal of power within those companies -- countries to be able to club together. And then when you have massive companies like Microsoft and Facebook as well joining together to try and fight this, this is what homeland security is hoping for at this point, that this kind of collaboration from not just governments, but also the private sector could actually make a difference. Rosemary?</s>CHURCH: All right, Paula Hancocks joining us there from Seoul in South Korea. Many thanks to you as always. Donald Trump's first year as U.S. President has been a never-ending source of comedy goal for late night hosts. Still to come, a look at some of their more memorable moments.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things just started to tip over as it was going around, it ended up on the side. Everything went dark.</s>CHURCH: And we are hearing from passengers who were on an Amtrak train when it careened off the tracks in Washington State. We're back with that in just a moment.