Ted Turner: I Saw Truthfulness in Soviet Leaders' Eyes, Can't Tell if Kim Jung Il is Despot Until I Meet Him

Here is an excerpt from a transcript of a jaw-droppingly narcissistic interview by Wolf Blitzer with one of the most influential shapers of the mainstream news. Note that he is referring to one of the only two purveyors of genocide against one's own people in history, Kim Jung Il. Perhaps he missed the tour of gas chambers where horrific chemical experiments are conducted on human beings.

WB: You spent some time recently in North Korea, Ted. Did this agreement come to you as a surprise?

TT: No. No, I talked with quite a few of the North Korean leaders and South Korean leaders, too, and spent really the most time with the head negotiator for North Korea. And I was really over there to try and persuade North and South Korea to make the DMZ into an international peace park when they sign a peace treaty, which I anticipate will be fairly soon, now that we have these six-party talks. We have agreement there. But I had a great time. I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere....

WB: But this is one of the most despotic regimes, and Kim Jung Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn't that a fair assessment?

TT: Well, I didn't get to meet him, but he didn't look...in the pictures I've seen of him on CNN, he didn't look too much different than most of the other people I've met.

WB: But look at the way he's treating his own people.

TT: Well, hey. Listen, I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin, and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars. But I didn't see any brutality in the capitol, or out in the DMZ. We drove through the countryside quite a bit to down to P'annumjom and Kaesong. We traveled around. I'm sure we were on a special route, but I don't see ...there's really no reason...North Korea's got enough problems with their economy and their agriculture. I think they want to join the Western world, and improve the quality of life for their people, just like everybody else. And I think that we should give them another chance. It doesn't cost us anything. They already have agreements, and North Korea never posed any significant threat to the United States. I mean, the whole economy of North Korea is only $30 billion dollars a year. It's less than the city of Detroit. It's a small place, and we do not have to worry about them attacking us.

WB: You know, they have a million troops within literally a few miles...

TT: A half million.

WB: Well, best estimates are a million. A million troops along the DMZ...

TT: Yes, and we have a half a million troops, of which 28,000 are Americans, and they've been there for fifty years. One of the things I've said in both North and South Korea is, it's time to end the Korean War officially, and move on and get those hundreds of thousands of young men that are sitting there back building hospitals and roads and schools in both North and South Korea, and improving the gross national product. It's just a waste of time and energy for them just to sit there.

WB: I think the bottom line, though, Ted, and I think you'd agree. They had this opportunity in the nineties, when they signed this first agreement, and they cheated. They didn't live up to it. Now they have a second chance. I hope you're right. I certainly do.

TT: Well, I hope I'm right, too. But, you know, in the Bible, it says you're supposed to forgive seven times seventy, or something like that.