Pro-Government and Anti-Government Protests Erupt in Venezuela; North Korea Rebuilds Missile Launch Site
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. So glad to have you with us on this Saturday, March 9th. I'm Christi Paul.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. You are in the CNN Newsroom. Right now you see what's happening in Venezuela. Pro-opposition protesters are out on the streets supporting the self-proclaimed leader Juan Guaido. Meanwhile supporters of the embattled president, Nicolas Maduro, are also there as well. Maduro has just issued this challenge to the U.S. saying, and this is a quote, "Every attempt at imperial aggression will be met with a strong response."</s>PAUL: Late last night, police in the capital city of Caracas dismantled the stage set up by a pro-Guaido group. That stage was supposed to be used for a rally today. In the meantime, residents in Venezuela have been dealing with nationwide blackouts. This has been going on for several days. Power has only been partially restored to some of those areas that we know of so far this morning. CNN Correspondent Paula Newton is live in Venezuela with the very latest. Paula, what are you seeing this morning?</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to be with you, Christi and Victor. These two dueling protests are just getting under way. We are here at the pro-government rally. We have been here before, as you know. What is crucial here is for each side to show that they have behind them. As you pointed out, there has been some controversy with police taking down the setup for the opposition leader, Juan Guaido. He tweeted right back, saying if they think they can wear us down, if they believe they can intimidate us, we have a surprise for them on the streets today. The issue here is momentum. The problem is that the opposition is worried as are people supporting them, like the Trump administration, that they will lose the momentum of this protest. And when I say momentum, I mean the people here on the streets. Christi, we brought you the stories again and again over the last few years just how difficult it is to get by. All of that exacerbated with what has been a pretty grueling day-and-a-half, power outage in almost every crevice and corner of this country. The protests here will start marching. The opposition protests in another part of the city. Both sides hoping that there isn't any confrontation, although we've already heard sporadic reports of National Guard and police perhaps confronting some of the opposition protesters. It is going to be a long, hot day in Caracas. But again, each side wanting to show that they have the momentum. Christi?</s>PAUL: Paula Newton, do take care of yourself and the crew there. Thank you so much.</s>BLACKWELL: North Korea, new satellite images shows vehicles moving and trains being loaded at a facility near the country's capital. Analysts say it could be a sign a missile or satellite launch is imminent, or maybe this is just a play to get attention.</s>PAUL: Either way, it could be a damaging blow to U.S.-North Korea relations, little more than a week, of course, after the Hanoi summit ended without a deal. Now, the launch itself could happen at a site that had been partly dismantled while talks were underway between the U.S. and North Korea.</s>BLACKWELL: The site has now been fully rebuilt. Here is CNN correspondent Will Ripley with the latest from Beijing.</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Victor, Christi, what we are seeing right now inside North Korea based on analysis of satellite images is a potentially troubling shift back to the more militaristic posture that North Korea took before this diplomatic detente with Kim Jong-un and President Trump, a detente that is now in danger of really fully breaking apart after President Trump walked out of summit talks in Hanoi, which was described as really a humiliating blow that left Kim Jong-un bewildered according to sources that I have spoken with. So now we're seeing images from a missile and rocket factory outside of Pyongyang, Sanumdong, where analysts say it appears that North Korea has put together something, hard to tell if it is a missile or a rocket, but they've assembled something, put it on a rail car. And that rail car may now be headed to a North Korean launch site. We know that the Sohae satellite launch facility in recent days has seen a flurry of reconstruction work. It was a facility that Kim Jong-un promised to shut down, they started to take it apart. Now analysts say it has been fully put back together, and could be ready for a launch really at any moment. So if you see either this missile or rocket roll up to Sohae and sitting on a launch pad -- that has not been seen yet, but if that happens, that will be very clear evidence that North Korea is preparing to launch something, rocket or missile, into space, into orbit. Now, regardless of which it is, it would be highly provocative. North Korea has long said that their satellite launches are for the space force, they're for research purposes, not any sort of military threat. But the U.S. sees it much differently because space rockets use the same kind of intercontinental ballistic missile technology that's banned by the U.N. Security Council. So any kind of launch would be considered highly provocative and could really threaten to escalate tensions in this part of the world. Meanwhile, here in China, we're getting word that Chinese President Xi Jinping is reconsidering traveling to Mar-a-Lago at the end of this month, because he is worried that President Trump may walk out on him if they don't reach a deal much like he did on Kim Jong-un. So really, President Trump's diplomatic credibility being undermined as a result of what happened in Hanoi with tensions threatening to rise in this region as well. Victor, Christi?</s>BLACKWELL: Will, thank you. We don't know yet if the North Koreans are preparing a military missile or this space rocket to send up a satellite. Our next guest says whether the U.S. government chooses to recognize it or not, there is a key difference. Joining me now, Adam Mount, senior fellow and director of the Defense Project at the Federation of American Scientists. Adam, thanks for joining us this morning. Let's first start here. You told my producers that the space launch rocket could potentially carry a satellite, is not a missile, should not be treated as one. We know the history of 2009 when the North Koreans sent up Kwangmyongsong-2, I think it was, and that led to in part the end of the Six Party Talks. How should the U.S. respond if they send this satellite up?</s>ADAM MOUNT, SENIOR FELLOW, FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: Right. A missile launch is not the same as a satellite launch vehicle. They have different technical characteristics and should be treated differently. That having been said, we don't want to get into a pattern where North Korea can test new missile engine designs and call them satellite launch vehicles. So this really does illustrate just how critical it is that we put in place clear restrictions to codify this nuclear and test missile moratorium so that North Korea can't circumvent it or subvert it in a number of different ways. As you mentioned, this is what happened to Obama's Six Parties Talks agreement. So this was foreseeable and foreseen. It looks like there's been a missed opportunity to lock in that nuclear missile test moratorium at an earlier date.</s>BLACKWELL: So your group released a report this week that is fascinating. I want to read one line, I think it's the most important line here from the first few pages here. And it says, there is no mix of economic, diplomatic, or military pressure that can verifiably eliminate North Korea's arsenal on acceptable terms in the next few years. You also say North Korea will be nuclear armed under the Kim family control for the next two decades. So the question now is what should be the long term strategy to denuclearize, but also the other issues that the U.S. and the global community have with Kim and with North Korea?</s>MOUNT: Right. We cannot simply trust that someday in the near future North Korea is going to FedEx us its nuclear and missile arsenals. We have to put in place a more long-term strategy that defends our national interests, the security of our allies, and confronts this range of challenges that North Korea poses to the United States and to international security. So, for example, we can't sort of bet all or nothing that North Korea will disarm completely. We need a near term agreement to restrict the advancement of their nuclear and missile test programs. We need to confront this broader range of threats. So just today, for example -- or excuse me, just this week, UNICEF warned that 60,000 North Korean children could be plunged into severe malnutrition due to the lowest North Korean harvest in a decade. That will threaten and risk our ability to shape the transformation of North Korea. A healthy populous is one that can seek outside information, that can help us build a more stable region for the future. So we should not only be confronting the range of challenges that North Korea poses to us, but shaping North Korea's transformation over time through conventional and nuclear arms control, through more precise economic inducements, really closer work between the United States and its allies. We can't bet all or nothing on denuclearization because it is just not a realistic bet.</s>BLACKWELL: So let me ask you this. The national security adviser, John Bolton, said this week that the president is open to potential talks in the future with Kim Jong-un. No date, no location, of course, it's far too soon for that. But should those talks still be on the table considering the fruitless talks at Hanoi, the lack of even a definition of denuclearization in Singapore, and the inability to solve some of these other secondary, tertiary issues that you have discussed?</s>MOUNT: Right. So we hope that they've learned a couple of lessons from Hanoi and from these events. The North Korean foreign minister said that at Hanoi they offered a piece of paper that would constitute a permanent halt to all long-range rocket tests. If that had happened, we may not be in this bind now. So we hope that the Trump administration has learned that it's not good enough to bet on all or nothing, that we need a more precise agreement now that provides security benefits. And the second thing you hope that he's learned is that you can't go into these talks seeking a political win. The North Koreans are just not reliable enough and there's far too much at stake.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes, and the United States and the global community has lost out by taking the North Koreans' word for it in the past. Adam Mount, thanks so much for being with us.</s>MOUNT: Thank you.</s>PAUL: We're following some breaking news right now. At Newark International Airport, passengers on board a Boeing 737 had to escape by emergency slides to get down onto the runway after a suspected fire on board. We've got more information on that in just a moment and we'll bring you the pictures that we have. Also, a reminder for you. Live from South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, three CNN presidential town halls back to back. First of all, former congressman John Delaney at 7:00, Representative Tulsi Gabbard at 8:00, and mayor Peter Buttigieg at 9:00. Jake Tapper, Dana Bash moderate tomorrow night. It starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.