[Fredricka Whitfield, Cnn Anchor:] All right. So much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM. And it all starts right now. All right. Hello, again, everyone. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All right. Two of three American heroes who prevented a massacre on a train in Europe are now headed to Paris to take a private phone call from the president of the United States. President Barack Obama. Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos were scheduled to leave the French capital leave for the French capital, I should say, a short time ago. They'll be received at the presidential palace in Paris tomorrow as well. And Spencer Stone, the third American, well, he remains hospitalized after sustaining some injuries. So they, these three young men right here, along with a British national subdued a gunman who had emerged from a bathroom on a train from Amsterdam to Paris. And now you're about to see exclusive video taken from inside the train. And you are going to see one person who appears fairly bloodied on the ground. That we understand is Spencer Stone who sustained injuries, and then you're also going to see someone who we now know is the gunman who is hogtied. Hopefully we can pull up that video for you. Meantime you're still looking at those three American heroes who are soon to be honored. Well, earlier we heard from the British citizen the British national who helped out. He talked outside the hospital in Arras, France.
[Chris Norman, Subdued Gunman On Train:] I heard a shot. I heard some glass breaking, and then I saw somebody running down the aisle to the front of the train. I was facing towards the back. I then stood up to see what was happening. I saw a man with what I think was an AK- 47, anyway it was some kind of a machine gun or a submachine gun. So my first reaction was to sit down and hide. Then I heard one guy, an American, say go get him and I heard another American say, don't you do that buddy, or something like that. I think that was it. So then I decided that perhaps it was really the only time or only chance was to act as a team and try to take over the terrorist, I suppose he's a terrorist. And so what I then did is I jumped up and I was actually the fourth person to begin working on the terrorist. The other person who was there before me was Anthony Sadler, who is the student. I've clarified that Alek Skarlatos is from the National Guard in the United States and Spencer Stone is from the U.S. Air Force. Having done that sorry.
[Unidentified Reporter:] Are you trained excuse me for that?
[Norman:] Was I trained for that?
[Unidentified Reporter:] Yes.
[Norman:] No. Not at all. I think it was actually very rapid reasoning because he had a Kalashnikov, he had a magazine full, I don't know how many magazines he had. And my thought was OK, I'm probably going to die anyway, so let's go. What else is there to do? Either you sit down and you die or you get up and you die. It was really nothing more than that. I mean, we've seen enough of these kinds of attacks to understand that they will kill everybody once they get started. And my point of view was that two guys had already started working, doing and really started tackling him, maybe they needed some help. And my purely a survival. I said to myself, OK, maybe I have a chance if I get up and I help as well.
[Whitfield:] Incredible. That's Chris Norman there, the British national who then joined in on the three Americans that he was describing had already taken action, trying to take down that gunman. So let's bring in Nic Robertson. He's in France, outside the Arras police station. So, Nic, what more do you know? You're joining us by phone now. What more do you know about the two Americans who'll be making their way to Paris for their phone call and where the investigation goes from there as well?
[Nic Robertson, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] Well, Fredricka, as far as the investigation goes it's really happening not only in France where this man is now captive and taken to the French External Security headquarters in Paris where he's being questioned, the French authorities have
[Whitfield:] All right. Incredible detail on that. Thank you so much, Nic Robertson. Appreciate that from Arras, France. All right. So the heroes have a huge story indeed to tell. CNN's Polo Sandoval is joining us from New York. So, Polo, what more do we know about these young men? I spoke with the fathers of the father of Alek who says they go way back to middle school, they are buds, they are really like brothers, and they just wanted to have some good time together in Europe.
[Polo Sandoval, Cnn Correspondent:] That's right, Fred. Even from your conversation just now with Mr. Skarlatos, who said that basically the instinct kicked in for these three guys and they quickly switched into survival mode and you can now call them tourists turned heroes. And they're really that. Not only the rest of the country but really the whole world now quickly familiarizing themselves with these two men, and obviously the other individual that remains in surgery right now. Again it all started on that high speed train yesterday as it zipped from Amsterdam to Paris. A shirtless man armed with a box cutter and several firearms managed to fire off a few rounds, quickly getting the attention of these two individuals who quickly sprang into action a few moments ago. We also heard as well from one of these individuals, Alek Skarlatos, who was really doing some of the speaking right now for his friend who continues to undergo some surgeries before he pulls through. I want you to listen now, Fred, as really he just gives tremendous credit to his friend that he was traveling with on the train yesterday.
[Anthony Sadler, Subdued Gunman On Train:] He just reacted so quickly and so bravely. He was really the first one over there, even after being injured himself. He went to go help the other man who was bleeding also. Without his help, he would have died. That man was bleeding from the neck.
[Sadler:] He just went over there and saved his life as he was bleeding himself.
[Sandoval:] Fred, right now we are waiting hopefully to eventually hear back from Spencer Stone as he continues to recover. And then you also have Chris Norman. He's the British national here, Fred, really the backup for these three guys. He used his necktie to really restrain this individual before authorities could intervene. Let's go ahead and listen to a bit of what he had to say earlier this morning.
[Whitfield:] All right.
[Norman:] We've seen enough of these kinds of attacks to understand that they will kill everybody once they get started. I said to myself, OK, maybe I have a chance if I get up and I help as well.
[Sandoval:] So it's incredible, Fred. Finally I should mention just how humble not only these three young American men are, as well as the other British and this other Frenchman that we have not yet been told exactly who he is and what role he played, but really it's interesting because they call him heroes, they're very humble about it, these two, to even almost shrug it off but call them for help, Fred.
[Whitfield:] Yes.
[Sandoval:] And they will likely answer.
[Whitfield:] Yes. I love what Chris Norman said. He said, you know what, I figured I was probably going to die. I'd die doing something than doing nothing.
[Sandoval:] Right.
[Whitfield:] Pretty powerful stuff. And then in the end they all survive it which is even better of course. All right. Thank you so much, Polo Sandoval. Appreciate it.
[Sandoval:] You bet.
[Whitfield:] All right. Meantime, in another part of the world, overseas. It looks like tensions between North and South Korea may be easing today. North Korea had given the South an ultimatum to stop its propaganda broadcast by this morning. Well, now both sides are holding talks. North Korea still has its frontline troops in what's being called a wartime state. Earlier in the week there was an exchange of artillery fire over the DMZ. The heavily fortified area separating the two. Well, CNN's Kyung Lah is near the DMZ. So, Kyung, last we spoke, the talks have been going on for six hours. Where do they stand now?
[Kyung Lah, Cnn Correspondent:] They have still they are still continuing. And these talks, and I should correct if I said six hours. It's more like eight hours.
[Whitfield:] Wow.
[Lah:] We're about to hit eight hours of negotiations for these discussions and they are continuing well into the night. It is 2:10 in the morning here in South Korea and there's no indication that they're going to be letting up any time soon. If history tells us how long they're going to go on, it's still going to be several more hours. There is some very from what we understand these types of negotiations have not happened since 2007. And these are the very first for Kim Jong-Un. To send in someone who is basically his right hand people. So he is sending them in. He wants to have a dialogue with South Korea. We are told that 24 hours before that deadline was set to expire, South Korea got a message from North Korea. Eight hours before the deadline was set to expire. They finally agreed on the conditions and they set this meeting. The meeting still going on. But, Fredricka, you mentioned the tensions here on the Korean Peninsula, at least the posture has not changed. People are still not allowed into this area where I'm standing and in a nearby town about two hours way from here right along the DMZ people are still in underground bunkers. So the posture hasn't changed. The reality at least between these two Koreas has not changed at all.
[Whitfield:] All right. Kyung Lah, thank you so much. Appreciate that. All right. So let's a closer look at the crisis between the two countries. Gordon Chang is the author of the book "Nuclear Showdown." And he's a columnist for Forbes.com. All right. Good to see you. So we're accustomed to seeing this kind of brinksmanship between the two Koreas. But while it remains unusually tense is it at all promising that when you talk about face- to-face talks for eight hours and counting now, that has to mean something.
[Gordon Chang, Author, "nuclear Showdown":] It is promising. And I think it's because both sides have a powerful incentives to keep the talks going, to try to reach some agreement to avert the worst outcomes. And so I think that we are going see if not an agreement now, probably you know, in a day or two. I'm not so sure that they can come to terms so quickly, but eventually I think that they will be able to come to some understanding.
[Whitfield:] And what would that agreement look like. I mean, what are they trying to nail down or come to terms with?
[Chang:] Well, the North Koreans would like those loud speakers to be taken down. I don't think that that's going to happen. But the South Koreans might stop the broadcast. Now what the North Koreans could do, that's another issue because there are the landmines that they planted. They want to prevent their own soldiers from defecting across the Demilitarized Zone to South Korea. So they are not really willing, I think, to take some of those counter measures out. That's going to be difficult for the South Koreans to accept. They're going to want something tangible out of Pyongyang.
[Whitfield:] And would there be a third party involved here, I mean, to kind of mediate or is it strictly the North and South, and they have to either agree or break off talks and go their separate ways?
[Chang:] Yes, this is going to be North and South Korea and really nobody else. For instance, the North Korans are not going to want the Americans involved, and also the North Koreans have really cut relations with China, first of all in the diplomatic level starting from 2013, but also there's been an attempt by Kim Jong-Un, the ruler of North Korea, to cut the military-to-military ties. And we saw that with the execution of a four-star general, about six or seven months ago. And that general was killed because he did not want to cut off relations with Beijing. So this is going to be a North-South discussion and nobody else really involved in this.
[Whitfield:] Well, Kim Jong-Un feel like, you know, he is being undermine, if he were to be the one to agree to certain terms because it seems even as you talk about the executions, I mean, he wants people to fear him, and especially wants them to fear, you know, him across the border. So is there a real incentive for him to want to agree to anything?
[Chang:] I actually think that he needs a victory. He, I think, created these provocations in the beginning of this month because he wanted to bolster his rule. And the problem that he has had over the last year and a half, two years or so has really been with the military. That's where we've seen the most executions recently, especially with the defense minister a couple of months ago. So it is going to be difficult for him to come to terms, but he is eventually going to have to do it because for him I think that an all- out war with South Korea, that's not very likely. And he certainly can't have that and eventually he'll need to have something, some concession from South Korea, because he did create this crisis in the first place.
[Whitfield:] All right. Gordon Chang, fascinating stuff. Thank you so much. Appreciate your expertise.
[Chang:] Thank you.
[Whitfield:] All right. We'll have much more from the NEWSROOM right after this.