Richardson: North Korea is picking weapons development over economic development

>>> the united nations security council is meeting to talk about north korea and what to do after the country carried out the third underground nurk lar guest. let me bring in bill richardson that just returned from a trip to north korea and u.s. ambassador to the u.n. and former energy secretary. good to see you, governor. good morning

>> thank you, chris . nice to be with you.

>> i am wondering if you got any indication when you were there they were thinking about doing this.

>> well, we d we tried to persuade them against further launches and nuclear tests , but they basically said that in response to the security council restrictions and sanctions that were imposed before, that they were going to proceed with this test, and we tried to say to them you're going to be isolated. you're not going to get the advantages of the internet and google and eric schmidt , the ceo of google was with me who was treated like a rock star there. so what's happening is what the north koreans did was basically send a signal that they're going to continue to be isolated and they're picking weapons of development over economic development and that's unfortunate.

>> the white house issued a statement exactly to your point saying we have warned north korea about the damaging consequences, the further isolation that's caused by the failure to live up to international obligation. each time we see one of these nuclear tests , it further isolates the country of north korea . as you well know, even china told them not to go ahead with another test, so i guess what more sanctions do anything? what can the u.n., the international community do?

>> well, there has to be a pay back for what north korea just did with this underground nuclear test . yes, more sanctions, but the key is going to be china china really has not done as much as they should in terms of curbing food and fuel. i think they'll be up against the wall and they probably will take that step. i think as you said, chris , after these additional sanctions, what next? we can't continue to isolate north korea because they have nuclear weapons . they have a million and a half men in arms. they have missiles. they're a danger in northeast asia . so what needs to happen is a new kind of diplomacy, new kind of dialog. i think south korea , the new leadership in china and south korea in the region needs to step up with the united states and develop a credible diplomatic strategy, one that involves north korea saying to them, look, this nuclear path is going to be totally against your interests. let's find ways to at least lower the tension. what you don't want is a country with nuclear weapons agitating the way it is, but i have dealt with them for years and i have succeeded in negotiating with them. you still don't know where they're coming from. they don't think like we do. they're unpredictable. it is uncertain how much power this new leader has from his father. it looks like he is following his father's path but there is a little glimmer of hope. he was educated in the western countries . he moves as a political leader a lot better than his father did. you see him reaching out to his people, talking about helping the economy and doing something about poverty. maybe we shouldn't shut it out totally. after these sanctions at the u.n. we should say, okay, let's talk. what is it that we can do to seek common ground?

>> so many in the u.s. on this new foreign policy team obviously we already have the confirmation of john kerry . let me switch gears a little bit and ask you about chuck hagel as somebody who was in the cabinet and who knows what the confirmation process is like. what do you make of how this has been going?

>> this is incredible. i was confirmed by the senate twice as u.n. ambassador, secretary of energy, and usually here is the differences. national security team, secretary of state or defense, are generally confirmed without any opposition. this has been a tradition with presidents. in the hagel case, look, it is important the question on policy and i know senator hagel was questioned on israel, on iran. i think that's legitimate, but some senators went as far as getting personal and not just personal but unsubstantiated charges on the floor of the senate in hearings. that's never happened. i think that's a function of a tea party that is still a major player within the republican party circles and i don't think the republican's strategy is to stop them. so that's unfortunate, and that's going to mean more problems for further cabinet nominees that the president still hasn't sent up and just this idea that bipartisanship is going to be hurt dramatically is probably going to continue, and that's terrible for the country.

>> former governor bill richardson , great to talk to you always. thanks so much.

>> thank you. thank you, chris .