North Korea: What Are We Waiting For?

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

By John Scott, Fox News

June 22, 2006

Transcript

John: A Fox News Alert—and the countdown may have already begun. National Security Adviser Steven Hadley says that North Korea could test that long-range missile, quote, at any time. In the meantime key former defense officials say its time to take out the missile right there on the launch pad. In an op-ed piece in today’s Washington Post, William Perry the former Defense Secretary and Ashton Carter write, “we believe diplomacy might have precluded the current situation. But diplomacy has failed, and we cannot sit by and let this deadly threat mature.” They advocate blowing it up on the launch pad, so if that’s the course of action we should take what are we waiting for? Joining us now, former congressman and 9/11 Commissioner, Tim Roemer. Congressman Roemer what do you think about that suggestion from the former Defense Secretary?

Tim Roemer: Well John, it’s certainly a provocative one, and an aggressive one. It might even be more viable if we only had one problem in the world today in North Korea. We’ve got problems in Iraq, we’ve got problems in Afghanistan, we’ve got problems with Iran trying to develop along the same course as North Korea, nuclear weapons. We’ve got problems in Somalia. I would say John, that one of the answers here is to keep all options on the table and if we can help build public diplomacy and support from the Russians and the Chinese and the Europeans for our position with North Korea, build some time but keep all options on the table. Another viable yet provocative option is to shoot it down once its launched and then go hit the test bed after its been launched. That way we look like we’ve been trying to build public opinion and that way we can build support for our policies in other parts of the world as well.

John: You just ran down a list of problems in the world, and I agree with you they’re all problems so if you take out, if you knock out this missile doesn’t that reduce the North Korean problem? Doesn’t it take one problem off the table?

Tim Roemer: It may take one problem off the table. It may create a bigger problem on the Korean peninsula. We also have tape of Ayman al-Zawahiri here today, we’re listening to it and it’s been on Fox News this morning, and he is saying the terrorists are going to continue to import terrorists and terrorist tactics from Iraq into Afghanistan. The United States military forces are doing more sorties and more strikes, I believe in Afghanistan than they are in Iraq from the skies today. We’ve got problems as we noted in Somalia, with the Islamists taking over Somalia in Mogadishu. I think the United States needs to be aggressive John, they need to have military options on the table, but we also need to work world opinion. We need to build consensus for our policies and especially when we’ve got problems in three or four areas due to some of the benign neglect to these areas during the last five years.

John: North Korea doesn’t have a lot of friends in the world; I mean who are we going to offend if we take that missile out?

Tim Roemer: Well we want to make sure they’re isolated. We want to make sure that they don’t have many friends. We want to make sure that the United States as seen as trying to work with the Chinese and the Russians on the North Korean problem, and then the Chinese and the Russians can help us on the Iranian problem. The President is in Europe today. He is trying to build support by the Europeans for his policies in Iraq. I think that is smart of the President. I wish he had been doing this a little bit earlier and more effectively. He’s talking about Gitmo and trying to address some of the problems down there. He’s talking about ways by which maybe the NATO and European allies can help in Afghanistan, to put more troops in there in the short-term. That’s smart policy.

John: Talking about Iran, the U.S., the administration is pushing for an answer for this package, this proposal package that’s on the table. The Iranians say they’re going to answer that in months I guess, the end of August. We’re pushing for an answer in weeks. What kind of leverage do we have?

Tim Roemer: Well I think we do have some leverage, and I think President Bush is trying to build that leverage and that support in the last few days and in the next few days with the European allies. I think that smart politics. I think we also got a lot of leverage; we’re trying to build that with the Russians as well. One of the options on the table with the Russians is to try to have them be working the Iranians for maybe some kind of civilian reactor that they could process some of the material in Russia for the Iranians to use in a peaceful way. I think we’re looking to the world like we’re trying to negotiate with other countries before we deploy the provocative military option.

John: Congressman Tim Roemer. Thank you.

Tim Roemer: Thanks John.

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