CNN "American Morning" - Transcript

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

President Obama is homeward bound after a busy week in Asia. His final stop was South Korea, where he announced plans to send an envoy to North Korea for direct talks on its nuclear weapons program.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has had plenty of experience negotiating with North Korea, making numerous trips to the communist country. And he joins us now from Santa Fe, New Mexico, this morning.

Governor, it's great to see you, again.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: Thank you, John.

ROBERTS: Steven Bosworth is going to be -- Steven Bosworth is going to be the high-level envoy going to North Korea on the 8th. His goal is to have bilateral talks with North Korea, to try to bring them back to the six-party talks. Do you think he'll be able to bring them back?

RICHARDSON: Yes, I think he will. What Bosworth is going to try to do is get the North Koreans to agree to come back to the six-party talks, and that's the objective of the six-party countries, to get North Korea to get rid of their nuclear weapons, to stop exporting nuclear materials. North Korea has refused to go back to those six- party talks, saying they want to talk directly to the United States, face-to-face.

What Bosworth will do is basically say, "You have to return to the talks for serious negotiations. The negotiations with me are only going to be about you returning to the talks."

But what's interesting, John, is that the president has signaled a new policy that he's not going to be negotiating with North Korean perpetuity, where they agree to take certain baby steps on disarmament, and then they behave, misbehave, and leave the talks and come back for concessions -- he said he's ready to have a massive agreement with North Korea, but only after six-party negotiations, and one where there's verification if they are going to get rid of their nuclear weapons, which is our objective in the region.

ROBERTS: Well, Governor, if the objective is to get rid of nuclear weapons, what would be the problem with having direct talks with North Korea, just the United States and Pyongyang, as opposed to having it in the context of the six-party talks?

RICHARDSON: Well, the problem, John, is that every country in Asia that is part of the six-party talks, South Korea, Japan, China, have enormous stakes with security in North Korea. They're not going to want to be left out. For instance, if there's going to be an agreement with North Korea eventually, South Korea has been providing a lot of the food aid that is necessary in North Korea -- which, by the way, there's some analysts saying that in March or April, North Korea is going to face another food crisis.

But one of the things you learn about dealing with North Korea, which I have over the years, is you never know what they're going to do next.

They've negotiate in their own time zone, in their own frameworks. But I think this is a good step forward, to send ambassador Bosworth, who's a very experienced diplomat in Asia, to basically persuade them to get back to the six-party talks. I believe, probably, an informal understanding was reached that if Bosworth went and had bilateral talks that the North Koreans eventually would return to the six-party talks.

ROBERTS: In their joint appearance yesterday, President Obama and South Korea's President Lee said that North Korea could win massive aid and better global understanding if it scrapped its nuclear plans. Is that an argument that Kim Jong-Il is likely to buy? You know, if he gets rid of his nuclear program, what else does he have to bargain with?

RICHARDSON: Well, again with the North Koreans having their own unique negotiating style, the big card for Kim Jong-Il and the North Koreans is their nuclear weapons. The fact that they're exporting nuclear materials. They want to leave that card to the very end. If they're going to give it up, they're going to want a lot of food assistance, energy assistance. They're going to want to end sanctions from the United States. They're going to want a new treaty with the United States, getting rid of, basically, the disarmament agreement from the Korean War.

So what I think we need now is to try the North Koreans, negotiate with them, in a different context. I think that's what President Obama is doing in saying, look, we're not going to just sit with you and you're going to leave the talks, get concessions, come back. We're going to look maybe at a grand bargain.

But, again, I'm not privy to that internal discussion. But it seems that he's forged a new path. And I think it's got a good chance of succeeding.

ROBERTS: Want to ask you about something else, governor while we got you here. There's a big hearing in the House foreign relations committee today, to talk about whether or not the embargo against Cuba should be lifted. You told us on this program not too long ago that you think it's time to lift the embargo. But opponents of that idea say, listen, Raul Castro, Fidel Castro, they haven't changed at all, they're the same bad guys they always were, why reward them by even talking about lifting the embargo?

RICHARDSON: Well, I do what's best for U.S. foreign policy, and I believe the embargo needs to be lifted. It's not working, it's counterproductive, and it hurts us in Latin America. But you know when you negotiate with the Cubans; you want to get something in return. What I think a first step should be is - is get rid of the travel ban.

Let Americans travel in Cuba, but at the same time, push the Cubans to take some human rights and Democracy steps. But, look, I think we should always do west best for us. I think that President Obama is taking some initial steps to reduce the tension. But, look, I think this embargo isn't working. And let's do what's best for America and get rid of it. But at the same time, get something in return from the Cubans.

ROBERTS: All right. Governor Bill Richardson, good to see you. Thanks for coming in this morning. We appreciate it. By the way, we just want to say again, we were talking about Peter Hoekstra coming up, we accidental put up a picture of Raul Castro, no conspiracy there, and we had a computer glitch here so. Our apologies again. Kiran.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source