CNN/ North Korea, the Tinderbox

Blitzer Dispatch: Richardson says it's a 'tinderbox'


By: CNN’s “The Situation Room” Anchor Wolf Blitzer
Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) - It's Saturday morning in Pyongyang and we're getting ready for another intense day. The situation here is very fluid right now and a lot of nerves are being frayed because of the tensions between North and South Korea. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is getting ready for important talks in the next few hours with Kim Gye Gwan, North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, the man who invited him to Pyongyang.
Richardson is urging restraint everywhere he goes. He's really worried that this situation is, in his words, a "tinderbox" where one miscalculation could lead to all-out war. He says he's never seen the situation so tense in all his visits to North Korea over the years; he agrees it's the most serious crisis since the 1953 Armistice which ended the Korean War.
In my conversations with North Korean officials, they insist it's all the fault of South Korea and the U.S. They say they are being provoked and won't stand for it. Clearly though, they are anxious to send a message to the United States through Richardson and presumably through me and CNN as well.

On Friday, Richardson met with Ri Young Ho, the vice foreign minister for US affairs, and they talked about what can be done to ease the crisis. One event that's been added to Richardson's schedule Sunday is a meeting with top North Korean military officials, which is an important development.

On a personal level, all the North Koreans have treated me and my CNN photojournalist Miguel Castro with the utmost courtesy and respect. Still, we are restricted on where we can go, we don't have access to the internet or cell phones. The accommodations are very clean and nice, and the food is delicious, I can't complain about that. It is bitter cold outside, lots of snow on the ground, reminds me of my hometown of Buffalo, New York. North Koreans seem very energetic, you see people with shovels cleaning up the sidewalks, the streets, it's a massive operation but they're doing it all by hand.
That's all from Pyongyang for now. We'll see what happens in this big meeting over the next few hours with Kim Gye Gwan, who's been a major player in past negotiations with U.S. delegations.