Oct. 18, 2006 Diane Sawyer spoke briefly with Ambassador Li Gun, deputy director general of the North Korean Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This is a transcript of the interview.
Dianne Sawyer: So, Mr. Ambassador, we keep hearing rumors of a second test. Ambassador Li: Mm hmm.
Diane Sawyer: hellip;Second nuclear test, do you know will there be one?
Ambassador Li: Even if there is a, a, a nuclear test, that is natural, so we don't have to care much about this issue. I think the test itself , uhhhh, will be natural.
Dianne Sawyer: And should not be a surprise to the United States?
Ambassador Li: That's right yes .We have facing many nuclear arsenals surrounding us; in South Korea and in nearby, Japan mdash; and they have had new exercises.
Dianne Sawyer: Do you see this as a dangerous situation?
Ambassador Li: We already demonstrated our mdash; we already announced that we have a nuclear mdash; nuke last year. But we just simply demonstrated peacefully that we have these nuclear weapons.
On the street, away from the halls of diplomacy, Sawyer spoke with North Koreans about their daily lives and their view of America.
You cannot imagine until you arrive in North Korea what it is like to see the rest of the world from their vantage point.
Everywhere you turn, you see giant posters of the great leader, Kim Il Sung, and his son, the dear leader, Kim Jong Il.
And when their faces aren't on the posters, there are flowers placed in their honor.
Walk through the streets, and everyone is wearing a pin on their lapel. And on the television, there's a flower again, with pretty music playing and phrases like, "Today the world is constantly envious of the North Korean people.
"
There is just a dim grasp of South Korea's success mdash; that the tiny nation now has the twelfth largest economy in the world.
And North Koreans have little knowledge about the vast riches of the United States, so we wondered what we would find when we out this morning.
With our translator, a constant companion here in North Korea, we walked up to strangers by the Potong River in Pyongyang, and asked, "Do you know America?
"
We got blank, confused looks.
"Do you know American movie stars?"
"No.
"
"What about Western TV?"
"No."
And when we said we were from the United States, some people were startled.
We talked to a young university student, who is studying the Chinese language. She said that she knew the United States and that it was a serious enemy of her country, creating hardship and food shortages.
I ask her why she thought the United States was an enemy.
She said because the United States had killed so many people in the Korean War.
Next I asked, what about now?
"Why would the United States want to hurt Korea?
The United States is a very big country," I said.
She answered, "Because you're afraid of us, of North Korea." We saw workers, students, mothers with children.
All the children seemed afraid of the blonde Westerner, even the little boys armed with swords.
And then there was the woman who told us she makes clothes. She was wearing, as everyone does, a pin of the great leader, Kim Il Sung.
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