[Chetry:] 28 minutes after the hour. Breaking news we're following for you today. The country of Kyrgyzstan says the U.S. has six months to leave an air base on its soil. It could prove to be a major blow for the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan. It is the only U.S. military central base in central Asia and it's a major re-supply hub for the war in Afghanistan. The U.S. says that it is still working with the country to keep that operation open. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arriving in Beijing just moments ago. Before leaving she spoke to CNN and offered a blunt message to North Korea. Warning Pyongyang if tough talk is an attempt to tear apart U.S.-South Korean relations, think again.
[Clinton:] Now if North Korea is calculating that somehow they're going to drive a wedge between the United States and the Republic of Korea, they are badly miscalculating. Our alliance is, you know, stronger than ever and it's not only about our mutual security, but it's also about how we're going to deal with the global economy and so much else. So I think that there's a testing period and a kind of, you know, wait and see attitude about how this is going to move forward. And we're hoping that North Korea will see its way clear to reengage and, as I've said repeatedly, if we can get to the point where denuclearization is verifiable and complete, there are tremendous advantages waiting for North Korea, not only a bilaterally normal relationship with the United States, but I think a lot of international support and aid that could come to the people of North Korea.
[Chetry:] And again, that was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talking to our Jill Dougherty John.
[Roberts:] More breaking news this morning, Kiran. Word of a nuclear breakthrough in Iran something that could be a major wake-up call for the U.S. and its allies. Scientists now say Iran has reached, "nuclear breakout capability." That mean that they have enough enriched uranium to build a single atomic bomb. Chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour joins us now. So what do you make of this. The IAEA said it had underestimated the amount of enriched uranium that Iran had about by about a third.
[Christiane Amanpour, Cnn Chief International Correspondent:] Well, that is what the press reports are saying. I just spoke with the IAEA. And they're saying put several things, factually out now. Basically what Iran has they're saying, because they measured it, their technicians are there at the nuclear facilities, is a certain amount of low enriched uranium. They're saying that in order to convert it to bomb capability, you have to be highly enriched uranium, which, they say, Iran does not have the capability right now. It would have to significantly modify its enrichment capability, its technical capability there in order to be able to do it. So they're saying, yes, they have that amount of low enriched uranium, but we have no evidence that it's being used for anything other than what they say it's being used for which is eventually what they say their peaceful program. Then they also say, when asked about this underestimating the amount of low enriched uranium, They say the IAEA, that they base their original estimate in November on what the Iranians told them they had, but this stuff was all, "in the plumbing." It was all being worked through the system of the enrichment process and when it had come through, then there was more, so that's what they're saying. It's not that they don't feel that they were sort of deliberately underestimating it, that this was according to what they had expected.
[Roberts:] So just to be totally here, low enriched uranium has enough juice, if you will, to run a nuclear reactor for power generation capabilities but not enough to create a nuclear bomb?
[Amanpour:] Correct, in order to have a nuclear weapon you have to have highly enriched uranium and that takes a much more sophisticated step-up in terms of technical capability. And what they're saying is we have our experts, we have our technicians, the monitors are there, the cameras are there and this won't happen without us knowing about it.
[Roberts:] Let's switch to North Korea. You know, of course, Hillary Clinton talking just a couple of moments ago about North Korea. You know the saber rattling that's been coming from the north toward the south. What is going on over there? Why are they rattling the sabres? Why are they rattling the cages so hard?
[Amanpour:] Well, if you go back a few months, noticed that the sabres started rattling frankly from South Korea. With the election of the new much more hardlined president before the summer. That really put North Korea on edge. Followed by the illness of Kim Jong- Il, to which about which we still know quite little. It's an opaque system to say the very least, but what was happening, beginning this time last year, was a systematic move towards denuclearization. If you remember, I went with a team to witness that at Pyongyang's Yongbyon nuclear plant. We saw it being closed down. In June, we went and we saw them blow up their cooling tower. All part of negotiations between the United States and the six parties. Then the U.S. took them off the terrorist list and things sort of have gone south ever since. A lot of the saber rattling came from the new South Korean president who was very hard lined toward North Korea and then nobody quite knows whether there is a struggle for leadership or succession.
[Roberts:] Yes, what about that because the Secretary of State was saying when she arrived in South Korea that the administration is worried about a crisis of succession there. Does it sound like Kim Jong-Il is about to bow out?
[Amanpour:] You know, it depends on who you talk to. There are some people who think they know exactly what's going on, but most people say they don't really know. People suspect that there will be some kind of succession battle. They don't know exactly how ill he was. They know that he was out of commission for a while. There is a picture that profess to show him back in the job but who really knows.
[Roberts:] But it's a still photograph, not a video.
[Amanpuot:] And there is at least one article, one article in the press out there that says that he's anointed his youngest son, but we really don't know. We really don't know at this precise moment. The objective facts that we knew was that the Yongbyon had been closed down, the cooling tower had been blown up. The system had stopped working and, you know, it's it sort of started to fray at the edges, that move towards denuclearization and many are saying that it points out both Iran and North Korea, the urgency of the new U.S. administration to start again engaging, to get these things out in the open. Because you can't have guesswork on such serious things.
[Roberts:] Yes, you are going to have more transparency. Good to talk to you this morning, Christiane. Thanks for coming in.
[Amanpour:] Thank you.
[Roberts:] Kiran.
[Chetry:] Well, Congress has scolded banks CEOs receiving government handouts for flying private jets, for handing out big bonuses but are lawmakers practicing what they preach? Wait until you hear what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several other democrats did on a trip to Italy. Our special investigations unit is on the case. Also could R&B; star Chris Brown be in more trouble with police? Why a new photo may mean new charges. It's 35 minutes after the hour.