'Meet the Press' transcript for July 26, 2009

MR. DAVID GREGORY:  This Sunday:  She's logged 100,000 miles traveling around the globe as secretary of state, pushing President Obama's foreign policy goals as his top diplomat.  This week in Asia she confronted U.S. adversaries, trading barbs with the North Koreans...

(Videotape)

SEC'Y HILLARY CLINTON:  There is no place to go for North Korea.  They have no friends left.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  ...and warning Iran against its nuclear ambitions.

(Videotape)

SEC'Y CLINTON:  If the United States extends a defense umbrella over the region, they won't be able to intimidate and dominate as they apparently believe they can once they have a nuclear weapon.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  From the wars abroad in Afghanistan and Iraq to the battle at home over health care, what influence is she having on her former political rival, now the president of the United States?  Our exclusive guest for the full hour, the former first lady of the United States, Democratic senator from the state of New York and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But first, here she is, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  Welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.

SEC'Y CLINTON:  Thank you, David.  It's great to be here with you.

MR. GREGORY:  Glad to have you.  And you're here for the full hour, so we have a lot to get to.

SEC'Y CLINTON:  Well, with your preview into it, there's a lot to talk about in the world today.

MR. GREGORY:  Absolutely.  So let's get right to it and talk about some of the hot spots around the globe that you're dealing with.  First up is North Korea, and got tense this week.  Here was the big headline:  "Clinton and North Korea Engage in Tense Exchange." It actually began on Monday during an interview that you gave to ABC.  Let's watch a portion of that.

(Videotape, Monday)

SEC'Y CLINTON:  Well, what we've seen in this constant demand for attention. And maybe it's the mother in me or the experience that I've had with small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention, don't give it to them.  They don't deserve it.  They are acting out, in a way, to send a message that is not a message we're interested in receiving.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  Now, the North Korean reaction was rather personal, and The Washington Post wrote about it on Friday.  We'll put that up on the screen. "The war of words between North Korea and the United States escalated with North Korea's Foreign Ministry lashing out at Secretary of State Clinton in unusually personal terms for `vulgar remarks' that it said demonstrated `she is by no means intelligent...We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady...Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl.'" What were they thinking?

SEC'Y CLINTON:  Well, David, I think what's important here is the clear message that we're sending to North Korea, and it's one that is now unanimous. The Security Council Resolution 1874 made official that North Korea must change their behavior and we have to get back to moving toward verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.  Now, as you know and as you've reported, they've engaged in a lot of provocative actions in the last months.  But what we, China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and literally the unanimous international community have said is it's not going to work this time.  We're imposing the most stringent sanctions we ever have.  We have great cooperation from the world community.  China and we are working closely together to enforce these sanctions.  We still want North Korea to come back to the negotiating table, to be part of an international effort that will lead to denuclearization.  But we're not going to reward them for doing what they said they would do in 2005 and 6.  We're not going to reward them for half measures.  They now know what we in the world community expect.

MR. GREGORY:  But it's interesting; if the posture of this administration was more engagement, even negotiations with our adversaries, it struck me this week that this was a ratcheting up of the rhetoric against North Korea.

SEC'Y CLINTON:  Well, we want to make clear to North Korea that their behavior is not going to be rewarded.  In the past they believe that they have acted out, done things which really went against the norms of the international community and somehow then were rewarded.  Those days are over.  We believe that the six-party talk framework which had everybody included is the appropriate way to engage with North Korea.

MR. GREGORY:  But they say--if I can just stop you, they say we're not playing in that group anymore.

SEC'Y CLINTON:  Well, that's what they say.  And I think they are very isolated now.  I saw that when I was at the ASEAN meeting, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.  I was in the same room with a representative from North Korea who launched a broadside attack on the United States, blaming us for literally everything that has ever gone wrong in North Korea going back decades.  I listened; everyone else just didn't even look at him.  I was struck by the body language.  They don't have any friends left.  And what we've seen even Burma saying that they're going to enforce the resolution of sanctions.  And when the North Korean representative finished, I just very calmly said North Korea knows what it must do and what we are expecting from it.  I talked with my counterparts from Russia, China, Japan, South Korea at length during the time I was in Thailand.  We are all on the same page and we are all committed to the same goal.

MR. GREGORY:  Can we say at this point--since it's so difficult to deal with North Korea, going back to President Clinton, who said that he would stop them from getting a nuclear bomb--after these missile tests, after the belief that they have seven or eight nuclear bombs, that an effort to keep them from going nuclear has failed?

SEC'Y CLINTON:  No, I don't think so, because their program is still at the beginning stages, and there are several important factors here that has led to the unanimity of the international community.  It's not only that North Korea has, against the international norms, IAEA and other requirements, proceeded with this effort, but they also are a proliferator.  We know that for a fact. So it's not only the threat they pose to their neighbors and eventually beyond, but the fact that they're trying to arm others.  And then there is the reaction in the region.  I mean, if you're sitting in South Korea and Japan, who are two of our strongest allies with whom we have very clear defense responsibilities, and you see North Korea proceeding, then you're going to be thinking, "Well, what do I need to do to protect myself?" So it is destabilizing for Northeast Asia, which is why I think you'll see a continuing pressure which we think will eventually result in some changes in their behavior.

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