North Korea Vowing It Won't Give in to U.S. Pressure
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to North Korea. Of course that country vowing that it won't give in to U.S. pressure as it pursues its nuclear ambitions. But the U.S. is still seeking a peaceful solution.</s>COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The president is keeping all of his options on the table and we're leading with the diplomatic option because it's important for everybody to realize this is a problem not just for the United States, but for the region and for the world.</s>ZAHN: So how should the U.S. manage the crisis? Well, Republican Peter King thinks the U.S. should show North Korea some military muscle maybe down the road, but Democrat Anthony Weiner favors a diplomacy first approach. And the two New York congressmen join us now to talk more about the administration's position. Nice of you to drop in on a holiday.</s>REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: Good to see you, Paula.</s>REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: Good morning.</s>ZAHN: I know you have so much constituency work you must do in between sandwiching in family time.</s>KING: Well, we're always working.</s>ZAHN: I'm surprised to see the two of you sitting on the same sofa. You don't often agree on things.</s>KING: Well, you brought us together.</s>ZAHN: Good. Happy to bring you together. Secretary of State Colin Powell has yet to call the situation in North Korea a crisis, but a potential presidential candidate, Joseph Lieberman, got on the air yesterday and had this to say about what he views as a very dire situation there. Let's listen.</s>SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: It's a crisis because clearly it's a critical part of our foreign policy in Asia and on the Korean Peninsula that North Korea not become a greater nuclear power. And the policy that the administration has followed thus far has made a difficult situation into a dangerous one.</s>ZAHN: Do you agree with that?</s>KING: No, I spoke...</s>ZAHN: I know that you don't necessarily agree with everything the Bush administration has to say on this one. But are they playing this the right way?</s>KING: I think they are and I strongly disagree with Senator Lieberman. I mean, you know, we can define crisis, but what Colin Powell was saying is this is not a crisis of today or tomorrow or next week. We do have a window of opportunity here of several months. And I think during that time diplomacy is very important. But I think the Bush administration has handled this right all along as far as putting pressure on North Korea, on bringing out the fact that North Korea started violating its agreement almost four years ago as far as enriching uranium and also it's forced countries, for instance, like Japan, to take notice of what North Korea has been up to and it's forced North Korea, actually, to try to normalize relations with Japan, it's admitted to the abduction of families. But I think the Bush family is putting -- the Bush administration is putting a spotlight on the North Koreans which I think is very, very important. And it's moving this forward in a way which I think is positive in the long run.</s>ZAHN: You just referred to the Bush dynasty. You didn't mean to do that.</s>KING: No, listen...</s>ZAHN: Is isolation and containment going to work?</s>WEINER: Well, I really don't know for sure exactly what the Bush policy is right now. I know that when the Clinton administration left town they were on the verge of another round of treaties with the North Koreans that essentially took the North Korean need for economic development above all else and used that as leverage against them. Right now you have the Japanese and the South Koreans who are both arguably right on the front line of this, both very displeased with the way the United States has handled it. I mean part of the problem is you cannot look at a cookie cutter approach in dealing with these problems. When North Korea was lumped in with Iraq as an axis of evil power, it's true, they're both exporters of trouble, but they're completely different in the way that they look.</s>ZAHN: But what are you suggesting Japan and South Korea want? Military action?</s>WEINER: Well, I've got to tell you, well, South Korea certainly is, frankly, enjoying a greater era of detent with North Korea than they ever have and the last thing they want is the North Koreans to believe they're about to be invaded, which a lot of people believe is what led to North Korea walking away from the agreements they had with the Clinton administration.</s>ZAHN: Peter is shaking his head no, no, no, no.</s>KING: Yes, I disagree completely with Anthony. The fact is that North Korea started violating its agreement with the Clinton administration back in 1998. It was in 1998 that they began to enrich the uranium. So this was going on for three years. Unfortunately, the Clinton administration didn't pick it up. So it was the Bush administration which brought this out, which made it known. As far as Japan, Japan is very pleased with American policy because it's only because of Bush's policy that North Korea's gone to Japan, tried to bring about a normalization, admitted its tremendous human rights violations against the Japanese over the last 30 years, which they never would have done before whatsoever.</s>ZAHN: How much responsibility should former members of the Clinton administration assume for the position North Korea is now in today?</s>WEINER: Oh, well, I don't know. You know, arguably the time of the greatest easing of relations between North Korea and South Korea, between North Korea and the rest of the world, was when we essentially formulated this policy of engaging them, getting them not to enrich uranium, not to open their power plant in exchange...</s>ZAHN: But Peter just said this all started back up in '98.</s>WEINER: ... in exchange -- yes, but actually that's not true. Immediately after the treaties were entered into, they were seen as largely successfully. As a matter of fact, there was another round of negotiations that were going on. You cannot simply say to North Korea we're going to isolate you. Is there any nation on earth more isolated right now than North Korea? It's clearly not working.</s>ZAHN: But the view is, at least in the "Wall Street Journal" this morning, that ultimately North Korea stands a better chance of cracking than Iraq would do through a policy of isolation and containment.</s>WEINER: Yes, but I...</s>ZAHN: Peter, a final word on that?</s>KING: Yes, I think it's right. But also, again, I go back, Anthony, and the Clinton administration was wrong. They were enriching uranium. At the same time this grand agreement was announced, North Korea was violating it...</s>WEINER: Well...</s>KING: ... year after year after year and we did nothing about it.</s>WEINER: One thing we...</s>KING: That's why we do have a threat today because of that.</s>WEINER: One thing we mustn't pursue is the Peter King formula of threatening to use force, because all that's going to do is ratchet things up to a point that we are unable to defend South Korea, Japan and risk a destabilization of the area.</s>KING: No, I...</s>WEINER: That's not a solution.</s>KING: No, what I have said is we have to have the ultimate threat of force because it was a Democratic secretary of state 50 years ago who brought about the Korean War by saying we would not use military force to defend South Korea. It was after then that the North Koreans attacked the South. I don't want history to be prologued. I don't want us to make that same mistake again.</s>ZAHN: Gentlemen, we're going to have to leave it there. Representative Peter King, Representative Anthony Weiner. Is it true you're just some, won some sort of bachelor award in Washington?</s>WEINER: Oh, look at the time. And AMERICAN MORNING is starting to wrap up, isn't it?</s>ZAHN: Like one of the most available congressmen...</s>KING: Continue to...</s>ZAHN: I don't know. He won't even, it was in the paper last week.</s>KING: It is well deserved. He is, every guy's hero in Washington is Anthony Weiner. Women love him.</s>WEINER: Is this necessary to do? Do we have a break coming up or something?</s>ZAHN: There is a break. You are saved. Leon is standing by.</s>LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: No, we've got nothing to do. We've got no place to go.</s>KING: He loves it. He loves it.</s>ZAHN: He's embarrassed. We made him blush.</s>WEINER: With friends like you, I've got to head down the street to Fox. I thought that's what they do there.</s>HARRIS: Hey, wait a minute.</s>ZAHN: Take care. Happy new year to you.</s>KING: Happy new year to you, Paula.</s>ZAHN: Appreciate you're dropping by.