CQ Transcriptswire

SPEAKERS: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. SUSAN RICE

[*] STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning and welcome to “This Week.

Breaking news overnight. A missile test from North Korea.

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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: How will the president and the world confront this nuclear challenge? The top question today for our exclusive headliner, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice in her first Sunday interview.

Plus, Obama’s diplomatic debut.

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OBAMA: It is a great honor for me to be here in Europe.

I’ve come to Europe this week to renew our partnership.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: That, plus all the week’s politics and a special expanded roundtable, with George Will, ABC’s chief diplomatic correspondent Martha Raddatz, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, plus prominent new media voices from both the left and right -- Arianna Huffington and David Frum.

And as always, the Sunday Funnies.

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(UNKNOWN): The Germans tried to make him feel at home. They offered to let him fire the CEO of Volkswagen.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello, again.

We begin today with the news that North Korea has tested a long range ballistic missile. The country’s state media claimed the missile put a satellite into orbit. But the U.S. Northern Command says the satellite dropped into the Pacific. U.S. officials believe the missile was really being tested to see if it could carry a nuclear warhead over Japan potentially as far as Alaska.

Speaking out against the threat of nuclear weapons in Prague today, President Obama slammed North Korea for violating U.N. resolutions. And he promised to act.

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OBAMA: Rules must be binding, violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: And joining us now for an exclusive interview, the official who will represent President Obama and the United States at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council this afternoon, America’s U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice.

Welcome to THIS WEEK.

RICE: Thanks, George. Good to be with you.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So what will this international response be?

RICE: Well, George, we have been in close consultation with our allies in Asia, in particular, Japan and South Korea about the appropriate response. We have consulted over the last several days, including this morning as well with the Russians and the Chinese.

So the U.N. Security Council will meet this afternoon in emergency session. I’ll be going up there straightaway. And we will be discussing the appropriate response. The United States believes that this action is best dealt with -- the most appropriate response would a United Nations Security Council resolution.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Japan wants sanctions, will the U.S. co-sponsor a sanctions resolution?

RICE: The U.S. is working very closely with Japan and we will be in consultation with our partners inside the council, trying to get the most appropriate and strong response we can possibly get.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But this is already a violation of U.N. resolutions -- two U.N. resolutions...

RICE: Yes, it is.

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... just to have this test. So what good does it do for the United Nations to come back and say, hey, we really mean it this time?

RICE: Now, well, the first resolution that is really the operative one was from 2006, when the North Koreans launched a missile and the United Nations Security Council demanded a halt to future missile-related activity and any future missile launches.

We feel very strongly that what occurred today was a violation of that resolution. So we will go back and work, George, to both toughen existing regimes, but to add to that resolution. In fact, that resolution did not...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So there will be new sanctions toughening...

RICE: George, we have 15 members of the Security Council and -- including the permanent five, so we all need to come together around this. But the United States’ view is, this is serious, it’s a violation, and it merits and appropriately strong United Nations response. We’ll be...

STEPHANOPOULOS: You mentioned...

RICE: ...working for that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You mentioned the 15 members. One of them, of course, as you mentioned, is China. China has made it pretty clear they don’t want any sanctions. And because of that, your predecessor, John Bolton, says that any kind of U.N. resolution is going to be close to meaningless.

Listen.

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JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: I think the real pressure has to be applied on China, which gives North Korea 80 to 90 percent of its energy and a substantial amount of its food and other humanitarian needs.

China has got the capability to stop this nuclear program, we’ve just never applied adequate pressure to them.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Is the United States prepared to pressure China?

RICE: We’re working very closely with China. China shares the same goal that we do, which is a de-nuclearized Korean Peninsula. China also is very proximate, on the border with North Korea, and shares our desire not to see this situation escalate, and to ensure that we can achieve, George, the long-term goal, which is de- nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through the six-party talk process.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But because China is right on the border of North Korea, they’ve been reluctant to really pressure North Korea. They’re afraid that if you turn the screws too hard on North Korea, the regime is going to collapse and there’s going to be chaos.

And is that why they are not going along with tougher sanctions?

RICE: Well, I think they have multiple concerns. They are looking at the large long-term goal of ensuring that we don’t have a nuclearized Korean Peninsula. There have been times when we have differed as to the best means of achieving that.

But we are unified with China and others in the six parties towards the goal, George, of ensuring that we roll back this nuclear program that North Korea is pursuing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But is there any evidence at all that North Korea is going to respond to any of this? They’ve been steadily adding to their nuclear program, in fits and starts at times, but basically they’ve been able, over the last eight years or so, to develop a nuclear capability, to develop nuclear warheads, and they seem determined to keep going on that track. RICE: Well, George, it is fits and starts. I mean, there have been steps that have occurred over the last years that have been progress. For example, they did take steps to dismantle the facility at Yongbyon, which was the principal reactor.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But then they restarted it.

RICE: No. We have seen some serious dismantlement. The problem that we face now is ensuring that there is a verifiable regime to ensure de-nuclearization. And that’s where the six-party talks have now stalled.

The challenge, George, is to convey with unity, as the president said today, on behalf of the international community that we will not stand for violations of international law which this launch today represented. That there will be consequences. And that, indeed, we will pursue together with resolve the goal of achieving a Korean Peninsula without nuclear weapons.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you can’t say yet what those consequences will be. And there is no guarantee that the U.N. today or over the course of next week is going to impose sanctions on North Korea...

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RICE: George, we need to continue to work closely with our allies Japan and South Korea, with partners in the Security Council to achieve united action. And that’s what we will do.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What bothers the United States more, the chaos if this regime collapsed or the current regime?

RICE: Our concern is to prevent North Korea from pursuing and disseminating nuclear weapons. We view North Korea as a proliferation threat. Its actions today underscore our concern about its development of not only a nuclear weapons capability, but the capability to deliver it. That’s what we’re most concerned about preventing, and preventing North Korea from sharing that technology with others.

STEPHANOPOULOS: One more question on this, you talk about the capability to deliver a nuclear warhead. The Northern Command said the satellite -- no satellite was sent into orbit. But this test did seem to be more successful than the last North Korean test, the stages the rocket did get over Japan.

Are you now convinced -- is the United States now convinced that the North Koreans have a missile that could reach the United States?

RICE: I think, George, what today’s experience showed is that they did not succeed according to our best assessment to putting that space launch vehicle into orbit. That, therefore, was something short of success for North Korea.

Our assessment is that their pursuit of a missile capability is of grave concern and that their aim is to achieve the capability to deliver a weapon as potentially as -- to North America.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do they have it yet?

RICE: I think we have to look at exactly what transpired today and make a new assessment of the consequences.

STEPHANOPOULOS: There are also, as you know, two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been in North Korean custody for more than two weeks. They were arrested for illegally entering, the North Koreans say, their territory. And they’re facing the potential of a trial that could land them 10 years of hard labor.

Two questions, are you confident they are safe and being treated well? And can the United States prevent them from being put into 10 years of hard labor?

RICE: George, we’re very concerned about the circumstances of these two journalists. We are communicating directly through the -- a third country that represents our interests in North Korea our concern for these Americans in taking every possible action that we can to ensure their safe and swift release.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And do you have any guarantees?

RICE: Of course we have no guarantees.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And do you believe they’re going to put on trial?

RICE: We don’t have any reason to be certain that they’ll put on trial. We remain hopeful that their release may be possible swiftly and safely.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But they’re safe?

RICE: To the best of our knowledge, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me also talk about the issue of proliferation in Iran, which the president also talked about today. He said that Iran poses a real threat and that we will continue to engage -- look for ways to engage with Iran.

This weekend, another one of your predecessors, this week Ambassador Richard Holbrooke had a brief meeting with the Iranians at the international conference in Munich. What is the next step in that engagement?

RICE: Well, the president has been very clear that Iran has a choice. Iran can rejoin the community of nations, it can halt its illicit nuclear program. It has a right to peaceful nuclear processing. But its behavior to date has indicated that it’s pursuing simply a peaceful program.

We have extended, as the president said on a number of occasions an opportunity, an open hand to Iran. And we hope Iran will seize that opportunity to take the steps that would enable it to be a responsible member of the international community.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But the U.N. effort to put sanctions on Iran has not been effective in any way. Is the U.N. process at a dead end?

RICE: No, George, actually I think on the contrary. The sanctions that have been imposed by the United Nations and implemented by the United States and others have had some significant effect on the trade and the banking and the financial sector inside of Iran, and we certainly remain open to consideration of possible future measures.

The aim here, though, is to marshal all of the resources at our disposal, diplomatic, economic, and other to try to make this choice as clear as possible to Iran, to give them a path to end their nuclear -- illicit nuclear weapons program, enter the community of nations, or, if in fact, they ultimately choose not to do that, then to bring to bear the full force of the international community to put pressure on Iran to stop.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Israel has made it very clear, including the new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that they believe Iran is fully going after a nuclear capability and that if the United States doesn’t act, they will act.

And Admiral Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said the thought of such a strike concerns him. Does it concern you?

RICE: I think we share Israel’s very grave concern about the threat that Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program poses, not only to Israel and the other countries in the region, but indeed to U.S. national security.

I don’t think it’s productive to speculate about what may transpire. As I said, and the president has said on a number of occasions, our aim is to use all of the elements at our disposal, including direct diplomacy, to offer Iran a path away from an illicit nuclear weapons program.

But obviously if that path is not chosen, we have not ruled out any options.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But are you confident that Israel will not strike without U.S. consent?

RICE: George, as I’ve said, I will not speculate about what the U.S. or others might do. At this stage our focus is on steering Iran to the extent we possibly can towards a different course.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What kind of contact have you had with your Iranian counterpart at the U.N.?

RICE: I work in an environment where there are 191 other member states. And I actually have encountered on a couple of occasions my Iranian counterpart in the course of my work up at the U.N.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don’t intentionally avoid him in any way, as previous ambassadors haven’t either, in fact Ambassador Negroponte had what he considered a useful relationship with his Iranian counterpart.

RICE: No. I -- we’ve run into each other on a couple of occasions and I’ve had an opportunity to have some brief exchanges.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But no negotiations yet?

RICE: No negotiations.

STEPHANOPOULOS: On Afghanistan and Pakistan, the president spoke out yesterday against this new law in Afghanistan which -- where Shiite women are subject to Sharia, Muslim law. He said it was abhorrent. And Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, said he’s going to review it.

At the same time, human rights activists have been circulating a video, and I just want to show a brief part of it, because it’s horrific, of a Pakistani woman being beaten by the Taliban in the northwest part of Pakistan, of Swat, Pakistan that’s now controlled by the Taliban.

So far the United States has not responded to requests for comment on this incident, why not?

RICE: George, I think obviously we’d be very, very concerned at any instance of abuse of human rights. And this would appear to be such an instance. The president spoke out very forcefully about the -- our concern about the law that has passed in Afghanistan.

And whether we’re talking about Pakistan or Afghanistan or any other country in the world, the United States is very firm in insisting that human rights must be respected universally, and this sort of behavior would be inconsistent with that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But the concern here, is that the part of Pakistan where the government has signed peace agreement, basically the Taliban, and the concern is that this is giving them a safe haven, even though they’re receiving billions of dollars of U.S. aid.

RICE: Pakistan is as -- has the most immediate stake in preventing the spread of extremism within its own territory. The actions of al Qaeda and the Taliban and their allies threaten Pakistan on a daily basis, even as they threaten us as well.

So our aim in the new policy that the president has unveiled which got unanimous support from all of our NATO partners was embraced and endorsed earlier this week in The Hague by more than 80 countries, is focused on supporting both Afghanistan and Pakistan in their efforts to root out this sort of extremism.

And the assistance that we will be providing Pakistan, both economic and military, will be tied to Pakistan’s ability and willingness to continue to do as it has been doing, which is to try to root out these extremists.

STEPHANOPOULOS: We’re just about out of time. Just a quick question, General Gration...

RICE: Gration.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Gration, excuse me, President Obama’s envoy to Sudan, has been over there this week trying to get aid organizations back into that country. Has he made any progress?

RICE: He is working with -- talking to the aid organizations. He has had -- he has visited Darfur and some of the gravely affected internally displaced camps there. He has also spoken with the authorities in Khartoum.

His aim is to support our efforts and that of the international community to ensure that the people of Darfur have the lifesaving humanitarian assistance that they need. I think it’s too soon to assume that we have concrete indications of progress.

But he is pushing very hard. This is something of grave concern to the president, to the secretary of state, and myself and others, and we’re working very hard to reverse the decision, the very unfortunate decision to expel these 13 international NGOs, which is leaving people vulnerable.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And if he fails, is the U.S. prepared to impose a no-fly zone?

RICE: The U.S. will look at a full range of options to enable the international community to support those vulnerable citizens, and those that, frankly, were vulnerable before this expulsion.

The president and the vice president, secretary, have expressed grave concern about the ongoing genocide that has preceded this latest action and will be looking at the full range of steps to try to prevent further killing and dying, and to support the north-south peace agreement that is also critically important to implement.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Ambassador Rice, thank you very much.

RICE: Good to be with you, George.