US officials meet to discuss possible North Korea options; Trump, Putin to hold full-fledged bilateral meeting
BROWN: Well, President Trump's national security team is holding an emergency meeting today to discuss North Korea. CNN has learned security, military and diplomatic officials will discuss what options are available if it's confirmed that North Korea did in fact conducted intercontinental ballistic missile test. Now, if that is confirmed, an official tells CNN the goal will be for President Trump to approve a measured response. Joining me now to discuss is Charles Kupchan. He is a former senior director for European affairs for the White House Security Council under President Clinton and a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. Charles, great to have you on. The first question is this is yet another test, the 11th from North Korea since President Trump took office. How significant is this?</s>CHARLES KUPCHAN, FORMER SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, WHITE HOUSE NSC: Well, it's particularly significant if as North Korea has suggested that this is a missile with a new range, an intercontinental ballistic missile, which could hit Alaska, if not the continental United States. We don't know if that's the case. I think one of the reasons that the NSC is meeting today is to look at the data, to figure out whether indeed this is a new range; if so, what steps should we take? It's not an emergency, in the sense that North Korea doesn't have the ability, even if they have the range to put a nuclear warhead on the missile, don't have the ability yet to put it on a reentry vehicle that won't burn up, but this would be crossing a new threshold. And perhaps the administration may want to take some steps such as increasing force levels, sending a shot across the bow to Pyongyang that it's not going to accept this new step forward.</s>BROWN: Because in that sense, it is an emergency because clearly North Korea is not going to stop its efforts toward what you pointed out, creating that nuclear warhead, and there is this emergency meeting today, happening on this holiday considering options to respond to this potential test that the US is trying to confirm. Take us inside that meeting. What would the options be that the US is weighing right now?</s>KUPCHAN: Well, I think in the short term, it would really be about a symbolic increase in force levels, to do something to send a signal to North Korea that the United States is responding forcefully. And the meeting itself, to some extent, sends that signal because the North Koreans know this is July 4. Everything else being equal, the people in the Situation Room would rather be with their families. I also think there's one other conversation that's taking place in the Sit Room, and that is what should President Trump say when he'd go to the G20 in a few days to Mr. Putin, to Xi Jinping, the head of China. What steps can the great powers collectively take to tighten the noose around North Korea. No question, they are discussing the talking points, the steps that Trump can take when he sees these foreign leaders at the end of the week.</s>BROWN: And that leads me to my next question because the leaders of China and Russia met. And if you look at their statement that they released today, in response to North Korea's potential tests, they basically are boxing out the US and President Trump. Basically, they're saying that they want to do this together. What do you make of that, this triangle? Russia and China have always used third-party issues like North Korea to try to form a united front against the United States. Putin, in particular, is interested in pushing back against the US despite Trump's initial desire to forge a better relationship with him. I don't think that there's a whole lot of there-there. China and Russia are not coming together to form a new alliance against the United States, but I do think they have leverage over North Korea, and that's why it's so important for Trump to impress upon both of those powers that they need to step up to the plate and tighten the pressure on Pyongyang. Otherwise, as Trump said to Xi Jinping yesterday on the phone, the US may be pressed to act unilaterally.</s>BROWN: All right, Charles Kupchan. Thank you very much for breaking it down for us.</s>KUPCHAN: Sure.</s>BROWN: And still ahead, final preparations are underway as thousands prepare to take in the annual Independence Day concerts at the National Mall. We're going to take you there live. Plus, from rising star to an empty beach, what happened to Chris Christie's once promising career? We'll discuss the governor who has been Trump before Trump.