CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Mike Turner

Interview

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WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. History will be made this week when leaders from North and South Korea meet Friday in the demilitarized zone between the two countries. The talks are also expected to lay the groundwork for an upcoming segment between North Korea's Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump ahead of the meeting.

They made a dramatic announcement saying they would suspend their nuclear and long-range missiles. According to the "Washington Post," officials are slightly skeptical about that announcement, expressing concerns that Kim Jong-un could be trying to set a trap for the U.S.

This morning President Trump tweeting out, "We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea. Maybe things will work out and maybe they won't. Only time will tell, but the work I am doing now should have been done a long time ago." That from Trump. I want to bring in Congressman Mike Turner. He is a Republican from Ohio and a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Good to see you, Congressman. So, in your view, is it believable that Kim Jong-un will give up his weapons or is this temporary, perhaps even conditional?

REP. MIKE TURNER (R), OHIO: Well, I am a skeptic when it comes to North Korea having served on the Armed Services Committee in the past 10 years and looked at this issue in the Bush administration, the Obama administration and now the Trump administration.

I'm obviously very concerned. It is a regime that's not truthful. They're going to cheat and certainly their motivations are always to be questioned. They're not a regime that we would want to have nuclear weapons.

However, we are faced with a situation where they do, and I think this administration has rightly turned the pressure to China. There would not be a nuclear North Korea if it wasn't for China. Even the regime would not exist if it wasn't for China.

[14:40:01] So, the administration has built up our military presence in South Korea. Significant military exercises have occurred. There's been initiation of talks between South Korea and North Korea, and obviously the CIA director has reportedly met in North Korea.

This all leading up to trying to apply pressure on the regime so that they see there is a turn where they need to denuclearize the peninsula and certainly the United States is going to stand firm on that as its principle.

WHITFIELD: So, take a listen to Republican Senator Bob Corker earlier today on CNN about the current state of tensions with Russia.

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DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that the U.S. should be preparing for an armed conflict with Russia?

SENATOR BOB CORKER (R) TENNESSEE: What I'm saying is, look, our relations are at that low point, the lowest since the Cuban missile crisis. Our leadership knows that. Secretary Mattis knows that. And, therefore, the rhetoric, the kinds of things we're doing to deconflict in Syria are very important, because things are hot right now between us. And it's not that we should be preparing, it's that we should be aware that miscalculations could lead us to a very bad place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: At least two tense things here, North Korea and Russia. You had called, in fact, for further sanctions on Russia, gas attack in Syria and a tank on a former spy in the U.K. So, are those meant to send a more terse message to Vladimir Putin?

TURNER: I think so. The question whether we should be preparing for conflict with Russia should be that Russia has been preparing for conflict with the U.S. for quite some time with the modernization of particular weapons, its ground forces and equipment, its armament, its weapons exercises, including nuclear weapon exercises.

I think what our response needs to be a coordinated response with our allies. But we also need to be reinvesting into our military. We're coming out of the period of the threats of sequestration, and we need to be preparing not for a conflict but to deter. Our allies are such that they would not be successful.

At the same time their behavior in Syria, in the Ukraine, what occurred in London, all are issues that are going to be unacceptable to the rest of the world, and I think sanctions are the appropriate response to that. You cannot be at the table as if you are an equal when you are executing behavior that is unacceptable.

WHITFIELD: So, Ambassador Haley had promised last weekend that more sanctions are coming. How concerned are you that President Trump never followed through on those additional sanctions?

TURNER: Well, I don't know what the internal deliberations are at the White House. I don't know what they are considering. I know that, as you reported, I certainly am for additional sanctions. I believe this is rising to the point where there is a pattern.

When we have, you know, chemical weapons being used in London, we have chemical weapons being used in Syria, clearly that shows that Russia is outside of the international norm. These are weapons that are to be banned, that are not to be used.

And here we have Russia acting as if even with our Russian allies they could go on the streets of London and use them to kill an individual. This is something that I think requires a very strong response.

WHITFIELD: Congressman Mike Turner, we'll leave it there. Thank you so much for your time.

TURNER: Thank you.

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