[Blitzer:] The New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson, is calling his trip to North Korea a success. He's on his way back to New Mexico right now. As you may know, I was the only TV journalist to travel with a former U.N. ambassador on what was described as a private diplomatic mission to the communist nation. I landed here in New York just within the past few hours after an extraordinary journey. The State Department and the White House, I have no doubt, they are eager to debrief Governor Richardson, but I understand our senior political analyst, Gloria Borger, is eager to debrief me as well. Go ahead, Gloria. Ask whatever you want, I'll tell you the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Sr. Political Analyst:] Well, I get the first crack at asking you the questions we've all here in THE SITUATION ROOM have been wanting to ask you while you were gone. And, Wolf, we know what a tense situation this has been on the Korean peninsula. Do you think that the North and the South Koreans, from what you were observing, were really on the brink of war?
[Blitzer:] Yes, I was convinced that it was the worst crisis since 1953 in the Armistice. Once the South Koreans said they were going to go with the live fire exercise and the North Korean military issued a statement saying if they did that, there would be a military response from North Korea with catastrophic consequents, I got very, very nervous. I had a tough time, after all these years as a journalist, getting a visa to get into North Korea.
[Borger:] Right.
[Blitzer:] But immediately, I was afraid I wasn't going to get out because I immediately assumed they would shutdown the airport and I would be stuck in North Korea if there were all out hostilities. For the North Korean military to back down later and say, you know, these exercises weren't worth a military response, that's significant. We'll talk a little bit about that in the next hour. But I will point out, Gloria, that at one point, it looked like we weren't going to get out, and I was thinking about other alternative routes. I know Governor Richardson was as well, maybe even finding a way to drive out of North Korea through China if, in fact, that was possible. But we were pretty worried.
[Borger:] You were worried that they were going to keep you there. I mean, was that a tense moment? What was the tensest moment for you, both as a journalist and somebody who was there accompanying Governor Richardson?
[Blitzer:] Well, I think the tensest moment for me, personally, was when I started watching North Korean television and listening to their radio. As someone who has covered the communist world back in the '70s and '80s during the height of the Cold War, and I began hearing some martial music on North Korean television. You know, very patriotic, very military. And I said to myself, are they preparing the North Korean people for some sort of war, once you hear that kind of music. Normally, they have very patriotic music going on North Korean television, but it's lovely and they've got women dancing and stuff like that. But this suggested to me that maybe there was a change and at that point I said, well, maybe the North Koreans are serious and they're going to start something. Once I heard that music, I began to wonder, am I going to get out of North Korea? On the other hand as a journalist, I said, well, it's probably a good location to be if there's going to be a war, at least I could cover it from one side.
[Borger:] Well, as it turns out, obviously, as well all know, there wasn't. And I guess we have to ask you, from what you were allowed to see, was the reality of life in North Korea, at least in the capital, what you expected? You know, we hear all of these stories about Pyongyang being so economically depressed and such a military case state.
[Blitzer:] You know, I had read about North Korea over so many years and spoken to people who had been there. I had the my little preconceived notions before I left, but I have to tell you, it was a lot different when I was actually in an eye-witness opportunity to see what was going on. I did not get the impression for 60 years or so, people had been predicting it's you know, eventual demise. At some point, this country was going to crumble, it was going to topple, the communist regime would go down. I saw no indications of that. I saw a lot of poverty. I saw a poor country, harsh economic conditions, lack of electricity. You go into a huge building, there may be heat in one room where there's a meeting going on, but in the rest of the rooms, it's cold. You have to wear your coat. You go into schools or the university. I went to the main university in Pyongyang, Kim Il-sung University, and the students, they're are all well dressed, but they're all wearing overcoats and they're all it's cold in there. You have no electricity. You drive outside of Pyongyang, we went into the countryside. You go through a mountain, through a tunnel, it could be a half-a -mile tunnel and you're driving through there. There are no other cars there, you're the only other car there, very few cars outside of Pyongyang. But you go through the tunnel, it is dark. There is electricity in the tunnel, no lights in there. You've got the lights from your headlights from the car, but that is about it. It underscores what's going on. They need power, they need electricity. They that's in part why they say they need these nuclear programs that they're engaged in. Although, the nuclear weapons program, obviously, is their number one priority right now. But it's a lot different when you see it up close. The people are not robotic. They're real people, young kids, sweet kids. And they're human beings, and you get that sense seeing it up close.
[Borger:] But you know, you're someone who's all about technology. I know you, you're tethered to your Blackberry, you work for television. What is it like to be somewhere where the technology is just not as omnipresent as it is here in America?
[Blitzer:] They have the technology, but they don't let you have access. I didn't have access to the Internet, didn't have access to a cell phone. We could see CNN International in our hotel room, but that was about it. I had a hard line phone in my hotel room, I could make calls to the United States at about $10 a minute; I could not receive calls from the United States. And we always had North Korean officials who were with us watching all the time, and I stress, all of the time. So it's a strange environment. But they treated me with respect. They were nice, they spoke English. I never felt intimidated or worried about my personal safety. I was worried about a war erupting, and as a result, I didn't know I was going to get out of there. But they know how to deal with it. They're pretty sophisticated, the North Korean elite, the leadership. I was impressed by that. And as I said, they dealt with me. And we had a reporter from "The New York Times" who was there, our photographer was there. So all of us, you know, we dealt with the situation as it is. It's not a very transparent society, as you know.
[Borger:] Were the elite you were talking to asking you questions about President Obama, the politics in this country? Were they essentially using you as a source?
[Blitzer:] They wanted to know what I thought about all those kinds of things. But I think more importantly, they certainly wanted to convey a message through Governor Richardson. He may have been there on a private visit, they he said he was a private citizen. They didn't think he was a private citizen, they thought he was a representative of the United States government. They certainly wanted to convey messages through him to the U.S., to the Obama administration. But I think they also were also trying to me, "The New York Times" Sharon Lafraniere, who was the other reporter for "The New York Times" they obviously had their own agenda and they tried to convey that. But they were picking my brain. You know, how strong is President Obama? What about Hillary Clinton? What's going on in Washington? Stuff like that, and so, they were curious. But I had a sense they had a pretty good sense of what was going on. They followed these things, the situation very closely. They knew all about CNN and they certainly knew all about "THE SITUATION ROOM." We'll have a clip for you later about well, let me play that clip for you right now.
[Borger:] OK.
[Blitzer:] When I met with Richardson went to meet with the chief nuclear negotiator of North Korea, Kim Kye Gwan, and as he introduced me, this was the exchange that we had. I'll play it for you.
[Gwan:] It's my first time to see you after
[Cnn. Blitzer:] Thank you very much. Thank you for letting me come here with Governor Richardson to North Korea.
[Gwan:] I am personally very happy to be able to meet with you, Mr. Wolf, who I presume to have the same power as the American president.
[Blitzer:] Thank you very much for that compliment. I don't think it's true. But it was very nice to hear from you. We hope that CNN will have an opportunity to come visit North Korea on many occasions.
[Gwan:] I think you're the only one who has THE SITUATION ROOM, except President Obama.
[Blitzer:] Thank you very much. And thank you very much. In the hotel we're staying, we can watch CNN International, which is very nice to be able to see what's happening here in Pyongyang watching
[Cnn. Gwan:] So, this time, you're here with Governor Bill Richardson, and next time I'm inviting you to come to Pyongyang again.
[Blitzer:] Thank you very much. And I hope either this time or the next time, you and I can sit down for a CNN interview. Our viewers in the United States and around the world would be grateful.
[Gwan:] Why not?
[Blitzer:] As you hear, Gloria, he answered in English, "why not?" I took him up on his offer. So they invited me to come back, I'll go back at some point. They're gearing up in 2012 for the 100th anniversary of the birth Kim Il-sung, the founder, the father of North Korea. They're going to have huge events going on. Maybe I'll go for then, maybe I'll go back earlier. I just hope one thing, Gloria, I don't have to go back for a war.
[Borger:] Right.
[Blitzer:] We're going to talk about what's going on the ground right now, whether there's an opportunity to ease this crisis somewhat in the next hour. But it's in short, it's a fascinating, fascinating country. I hope you and a lot of other folks have a chance to visit it at some point down the road.
[Borger:] Somehow, Wolf, I think that was his first press availability. What do you think?
[Blitzer:] Yes. No, he was pretty sophisticated. All of these North Korean leaders that Richardson met with, they knew what was going on. I was sort of impressed with that. But we'll continue the conversation
[Borger:] We will.
[Blitzer:] in next hour.
[Borger:] Sure.
[Blitzer:] Thanks very much. We're monitoring other important top stories, including a suspicious odor forcing evacuations at the United Nations. We're going to tell you whether anyone was at serious risk. Also, a long-time senator slamming some Supreme Court justices, why he says and I'm quoting I'm quoting him now, "the court has been eating Congress' lunch." And the government establishes controversial new rules that could impact your Internet access. We'll have the details coming up.