country and a diverse country in terms of its linguistics and its accents and its traditions and the ethnicity of its immigrants, at the same time there's something that makes everyone a brazilian. that in many ways is what is remarkable about brazil and all the -- even today, people in the southern part of brazil will be dismissive of the northern part of brazil and vice versa. one can find the same thing in the united states. i think what is remarkable about brazil is that like the united states it is able through its diversity that it can present an image of itself that everybody

can understand, everybody knows they are brazilians. >> thank you. i would like to remind you of something which this was the last event of our program this year, and i'm grateful to ambassador shannon and the others for being here and have helped participate in this. this sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the assassination of chico mendez. chico mendez was not known in brazil when he was killed. today mendez is honored in brazil at the national institute for studies, policymaking in the amazon, one of the 26 national heroes of brazil named by the brazilian congress. we have associated ourselves to

a group of institutions that will host a memorial service this sunday at 4:00 at holy name catholic church on 11th street, the announcement on our website, and i hope that those that are interested can join us there. with that, i would like to thank ambassador shannon very much for being here with us, and i would like to thank you for having been with us throughout this year that is closing now. we are very grateful to you. i wanted to recognize especially two people that have been working with me, michael who was here yesterday, and annika cardenas, who is also working

with us. thank you very much. happy new year. and please, i would like to recognize and with gratitude the presence of ambassador thomas shannon here today. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> next on c-span, a look at the situation in north korea followed by a hearing on security following the navy yard shooting in washington dc. stonesifer.th patty later, washington journal live with your calls and the day's newspaper headlines. >> on the next washington journal, we discussed the federal reserve's decision last week to adjust it on buying program. our guest is the economist ip.zine's gregoery then advice for preparing your 2013 federal taxes and a look at new taxes taking effect next year. we are joined by kevin mccormally. washington journal live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> all this week, we will bring you encore presentations of our

q&a program. today, watch former michigan republican congressman and reagan and and stray show and -- reagan administration budget director david stockman here on c-span. >> what we know of the founders at core is, the guys that were against the cost to duchenne were the religious conservatives of the day -- against the constitution were the religious conservatives of the day. they wanted to have religious tests for officeholding and so forth. the founders were mostly christians, but why did they take the approach they did? why did they ultimately come down where madison came down? they agreed that no faith including their own was beyond faction. the prescription was essentially a multiplicity of sects. that is s-e-c-t-s.

in terms of government funding and religious institutions, i would say there were some real issues to work through and figure out. the rules that govern this area during the clinton years were different. they changed over time. some people think that was a good thing and some people think that was a bad thing. there are some really important issues that people fight about and fight about with some legitimate this agreement. >> christmas day on c-span, current and former heads of the white house offices on the separation of church and state at 12:30 eastern on c-span. on book tv, joe sacco with an illustrated account of the great war. that is at 5:00. on c-span3's "american history tv a from 1967, follow bob hope

as he travels for his annual uso tour of southeast asia including stops in south vietnam. back scottto welcome snyder with the council on foreign relations. his area of expertise, u.s. and korea policy. i want to begin why -- by asking you about the kim jong-un family and the implications on the north korean government. what is happening? guest: it is a confiscated situation. he found his uncle guilty of state crimes and has had him executed. is the son of kim jong-il, the previous leader and the grandson of the founder of north korea. he actually has three brothers, two older brothers.

one is in exile essentially. he goes back and forth. is presumablyther in north korea but we really haven't heard much about him. kim jong-un also has an aunt who is reported to be very ill. i think the concern about the execution of the uncle and the onus of the aunt is that they were two of the three main mentors that had been expected to help kim jong-un learn how to be a leader in north korea. they are both kind of sidelined. you still have the top north korean general sitting on top of the military, presumably as an advisor. it is obviously a messy situation. we haven't seen in terms of

urgings or executions, this being done in public in this way. historically, for example when , hejong-il amassed power didn't kill his family members. they were just sidelined to european diplomatic posts, things like that. the fact that the uncle is executed does represent a serious departure from the way the kim family had done his family business and leadership in the past. > also, to be so public about this. guest: it was announced internationally before it was announced domestically. in the past, these purges have all been behind the scenes, behind the curtain. au have a situation where public spectacle has occurred in front of all the north korean people. i think it sends a message to every north korean leader that kim jong-un is in charge and that they challenge at great

personal risk. revealsame time, it family divisions that go up to the top. historically those divisions had been kept behind the scenes. the north korean publicity machine really focused on unity. to have this kind of family division at the top also raises questions about the special leadership. this is one photo -- caller: --host: this is kim jong ends uncle before he was executed. as you look at this picture, what do you see? see him basically being taken presumably to the firing squad. at this point, the judgment has been rendered. really quite a

dramatic picture, especially because this was in the major paper of record. so, usually the north korean people didn't get this kind of first-hand immediate view of what was happening. host: his crime was what? guest: he have a long list of reputed crimes. i think the most serious ones the north korean media reported that he was trying to launch a coup. he was also accused of philandering and drug use and many others offenses. that i measure, one think ought a lot of attention internationally was the crime of selling natural resources at cheap prices. as would presumably be to china. removal alsohis

has some implications for the north korean relationship with china. host: you mentioned this is how it played out in the north korean state-run media. can you read this and tell us what the caption says? guest: it -- i can't. host: right here. it -- it is partially blocked. i don't think i have enough. is part that is viewable [korean] but i can't figure out from that word. host: the fact that this was seen in north korea is important because why? guest: historically this sort of purge has happened behind the scenes and we found out about it weeks or months later through rumors. in this particular case, it is right there, real-time.

everybody knows. generally speaking, what has been reported so far through to atedia that has access least north korean voices or refugee voices, one of the shocking things is that this was a family affair. he did this to his uncle. host: here is a picture of him back in february. guest: yes. there are also pictures of jang as an advisor to his father. he has been a figure who has been visible to the north korean people as an advisor for a long time. koreanse, the north state media is now busy expunging his image from their official record. so we have seen documentaries for instance going on to the korean state media that had previously had pictures of jang song-thaek where he has been

airbrushed out. there is an effort to go through the archives, the korean media removed from been the internet or expunged of images with jang song-thaek. oft: this is another scene kim jong-un and family members. why was he selected to replace his father is the korean leader? the best report we have on that is really from a japanese individual who served as kim jong-il's sushi chef. that at that point , the first son was out of the picture. he had been caught publicly and during japan on an illegal visa. or without authorization. as a result of that, he was

removed from consideration. he was the first son, the one that people might have normally thought would be the inheritor of power. between the second and third sons, the rumor is that kim jong-un has greater leadership qualities. he was much more aggressive in terms of his personality. may be better suited to be the leader then the second son. we arere talking --host: talking with scott snyder. our focus is the situation in north korea and also u.s. korean relations. this is a photograph just to get our audience a sense of how quickly this transpired, this is from december 8 as kim's uncle was taken away from a workers party meeting area and within two weeks, he is murdered. guest: the announcement was on december 4 that he was being removed. show.s in essence is a

it was really put on to show the world and the north korean people and he was being removed. the decision had already been made and was already moving forward. what i think surprises a lot of people was the rapidity and the fact that he was executed. host: did he know this was going to happen? that that would be his fate? guest: it is hard to know. wonder lookingto ,t him and historical images standing behind kim jong-il and behind kim jong-il and, where did he think he really was headed? economic important trade delegation to south korea in the early 2000's. people had thought of him as person who might

be able to somehow help lead north korea in the direction of economic reform. some analogies have been made to chinese purges during the mao era. it is almost as though jang song-thaek challenged the leadership but the anti- reformers won rather than the pro-reformers at least in terms image and the expectation the international community had for his potential roles. our guest is scott snyder, a graduate of rights -- rice university. he also studied at harvard and is the author of a number of books. i want to share with you the comment of secretary of state john kerry. he was traveling in the region last week. he was interview on abc and he responded to the execution of kim jong-un's uncle in korea.

>> it tells us a lot about how ruthless and reckless he is and insecure he is to a certain degree. it tells us a significant amount about the instability internally of the regime, that the numbers of executions -- this is not the first execution. there have been a significant number of executions taking place over the last months which we are aware of. must importantly, it underscores the importance for all of us of finding a way forward with north nuclearizerder to de- the peninsula. >> what does it tell you about him? we know so little about him. >> we don't know. north korea remains relatively opaque. it is not easy. we do have insight. the insights that we have tell us that he is spontaneous come a spontaneous,ll --

still worried about his place in the power structure and willing to eliminate any adversary. host: the comments of secretary of state john kerry. scott snyder, let me begin on the point he was making which regards what is next in terms of the region, the nuclear capacity of north korea and the potential instability that all of that could lead to. guest: sure. the prospect of internal instability in north korea is really a double-edged sword. as power is not consolidated come it is going to be power for -- hard for external parties to engage with north korea in ways that could lead to a definitive solution to north korea's nuclear problem. is one aspect of it.

on the other hand, it may be leadership as currently configured is going in the wrong direction. in which case, if there is instability, it could lead to a different kind of leadership and that might create better circumstances for trying to achieve the objective of denuclearize and north korea. the political circumstances were different from east and west germany but there continues to be talk about the possibility of at some point uniting north and south korea. what are your thoughts on that? , the: there is no doubt differences between south korea and north korea are considerably greater at this stage than the differences between east and west germany. the economic gap is greater. een north and south korea. the way that people have been socialized is much different. the north korean people would have an even greater challenge

and jury of difficulty integrating with south korean -- and degree of difficulty integrating with south korean society. the south korean society has been growing, but it may not be cost ofgh to handle the the absorption of north korea on its own if it is a sudden change in north korea. host: the other point of 's comments, the amount of executions happening in north korea. do you have any comments on that? publicthe number of executions have at least doubled. aides were executed in advance of his detention and trial and execution. host: our line for

independents. good morning. at the publicly available information we are able to see, not necessarily intelligence, it seems to me that north korea is run like organized crime. you have all of these different parts of the government that run different stuff and bring in hard currency for their own benefits. you have what looked like a sanctioned public hit coming from the top. it seems like an organized crime family like the old days back in new york. what are your thoughts? there are a number of analysts who have drawn that analogy. if you look at the types of products that north korea has been exporting, including illegal manufacture of drugs, illegal cigarettes, even counterfeiting of u.s. currency,

there are many ways in which the product line parallels that of a crime family. there is no doubt that north korean state operatives have been engaged with organized crime counterparts as far as a network to be able to do this kind of distribution. what might be a little unique is that you have a family and a regime that is being controlled by those regime -- those interests acting as a nationstate. that has presented a number of problems, particularly trying to get at those issues. another aspect is the china- north korea relationship has shielded north korea from perhaps some of the measures that could be taken more proactively in order to a dress some of -- in order to address

some of those issues. from new yorkus city on our independent line. good morning. caller: north korea knows that againstll not be whatever action it is doing. china would never allow a democracy ordered with the west. it would never allowed north and south korea to unify. there was a story of a similar execution in bangladesh. the guy was condemned to death and they killed him overnight. it was in 1970. the west talks about situations and things about which they want to talk. china's interests are

directly affected by north korea. it does not look like kim jong- un is subject to me in relation by china. manipulation by china. that kim jongrned on his out-of-control just like secretary kerry is concerned that he is out of control -- that kim jong-un is out of control just like secretary he isis concerned that out-of-control. how much can the u.s. and china work together to try to a dress this issue? -- address this issue? leery of thea headstrong kim jong-un? they really wanted and

tonomically minded leader take the helm and follow in china's footsteps. has abdicated -- has advocated a line of trying to hold onto nuclear capabilities. host: from florida, and daniel is next on the -- from florida, el is next on the democrats ' line. screen thered your -- she said keep your comments brief. child, the korean incursion

into south korea, the chinese- led incursion into south korea i becamefirst time aware of military matters and global things. -- and god love dennis rodman -- he is the best ambassador america can have anywhere. here is the problem. what about when richardson, when ,e was governor of new mexico handed over all of that nuclear s.formation from loss alamo he said -- los alamos. extubated --on -- excavated that ground.

thing, north korea is a nuclear power and you have greta -- gretarend --gre van sustren running over there. host: thank you. let me go back to his second comments. dennis rodman is still over there today. guest: they call a basketball diplomacy. i see a lot of basketball, but not much diplomacy. it does not appear that the united states has been able to figure out a way of effectively ofching onto rodman as a way achieving any objectives. one of the most prominent ones is whether rodman cannon facilitate the release of a korean -- whether rodman can facilitate the release of a

korean american. rodman indicated he might take that up, but then he stepped away from that. in terms of the broader exposure, it is fascinating to watch kim jong-il and dennis rodman sitting next to each other. i do not know if it is effective from the north korean perspective. --is the one instance is looksce where kim jong-un like a kid. and all the other pictures, he is falling -- following and his grandfather and father's the steps and portraying himself as a leader. host: this is a comments. it is called north korea's dennis rodman problem. work, no part to the north korean can travel thomas speak, or worship freely. as many as 2.5 million north oreans died of starvation

related illness in the mid-19 90s. 1990's. 200 thousand still languishing in prisons. 200,000line unburied -- still languish in prisons. the dead lie unburied. picture of the a situation inside north korea in 2000.te 1990s and up to the situation in parts of north korea has gotten better. there is no question that the north korean leadership structure imposes severe forms of inequality and desperation on the lowest people in that structure. the political present camp

system is still operating in a major way. north korea is unquestionably the worst governed country on earth by almost all the indices that are out there. everyone should want to see improvements in north korea. the human rights situation is the subject of the u.n. human rights council's inquiry that has been in place over the past few months. they will be releasing a report in march on the situation. enable furtherht actions by the international community to condemn what just happened in the north korea. ist: "washington journal" carried nationwide on xm 120. .ur guest is scott snyder

this is a tweet from james. please show the picture of north and south korea at night. this is an infamous photograph taken several years ago. you can see the difference between north and south korea. scott snyder. guest: the picture is really germanic. it shows the energy problem that north korea has. it shows south korea looking more like -- the picture is really dramatic. it shows south korea looking more like an island. joining us from north carolina. good morning. snyder. mr. in 1952. korea what do you think the odds are that we will have to go to war again with north korea?

the second question is, if we that chinae the odds and russia would participate in that conflict like they did the last time? looking at that picture, it looks like korea in 1952-1953. in south korea, there were lights over it just like here in the states. guest: the big difference in the 1950s was that there were night many lights in south korea that would've been able to show up on this kind of satellite image. i am increasingly worried that there is not a peaceful pathway to solving this problem with north korea. it is a matter of concern because even though there are few options for effectively dealing with north korea from a

policy perspective, i think there is a risk of being in and also acquiescing to north korea continuing to develop the capability of having ability that could reach the united states. have stepped back from north korea to a certain degree. thea seems to be sending message to north korea that it will not honor it treaty obligations -- is treaty obligations under the framework of 1961 if north korea provokes an attack. abandonednot formally that treaty obligation. it is still in effect in a partial way.

,ost: our guest, scott snyder the council on foreign relations. there was a recent blog you theed on friday with could this be a korea-chinar u.s.- relations? guest: it is pushing, to a certain degree, debate in china over the possibility of a policy approach that would be more aligned with the u.s. and south korea. whether or not china would ultimately be willing to take that would involve dealing with potential instability in north korea remains to be seen.

the: you can read that on counsel for former relations website. our guest, scott snyder. joining us from ohio. good morning. caller: i am skeptical of mr. snyder's view that north korea is a loose cannon. the north korean leader doesn't dare get out of line or china will slap him down. i really believe that north korea is a proxy for china to these ofwest's resolve these certain policies we have is these are the -- vis a v certain policies we have. there are certain allies we

would back up like the philippines. the saber rattle laying that goes on there shakes loose valuable information for china to evaluate. thank you for taking my question . guest: there are divisions on how china deals with north korea. china is increasingly put on the defensive. the u.s., south korea, and japan have tried to use those provocations as a way of any potential effort by china to do anything like that. certainly, they are sending the message that north korean provocation carries costs for

china's own national security interests in case china did not always recognize that was the case. williamr next call is joining us from massachusetts on the republican line. good morning. caller: i have been listening to your show for a little while now. it is terrible what north korea has gone through. it is well over 100 years now that they have literally been enslaved, especially since the end of world war ii. it is since 1905 when the japanese moved in. not help north korea. they have been living like this well over 100 years. i know the united states is leery of war. we have been to iraq and we are still in afghanistan. but who else, if not the united states, is going to free the north korean people? i believe china is tired of the

-- kim regime. what else can north korea do besides rely on the united states or nato? if we got together with china and russia and reassured them that we are not there to threaten china or russia, but just to get the god awful kim regime out. thank you for allowing me to make my comments. host: thank you. guest: the problem in dealing with china is precisely this issue. hasnorth korean leadership taken advantage of that situation on many occasions to gain resources and to graduate regime survival. the question really is -- the geostrategic question -- is what

can the u.s. and south korea and due to close that gap and change the context that will allow the international community and allow north korea to move in a direction that might have a different future. can i go back and ask you about the dennis rodman question? why has he developed this relationship with kim jong-un? what does it potentially mean in the long run? guest: it is a peculiar relationship. no north korean leader has had a relationship of this sort with any american. the opportunity to visit north was in partally brokered by individuals who recognized that kim jong-un had an interest in the nba. rodman took advantage of it.

there were several competing efforts to try to get nba representatives to north korea. rodman was the one who took advantage of it. in the coming weeks, we are and ato see another visit game involving other former nba players that is going to be held on january 8, kim jong-un's earth day. .- birthday there will be expanded interaction. it will depend on the eye of the beholder whether that game and spectacle will be one to help us -- help enhance the standing -- enhance the standing of kim jong-un. host: we go to california, the independent line, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. my question is regarding north korea and what their role is in

-- do those islands or japan have the ability to shoot down an icbm? interestingis an set of questions. north korea has not figured in the island dispute between china -- china and japan. the u.s. got involved with vietnam and it is possible to imagine north korea might try to find ways to take advantage of the existence of other disputes in the region to further its own interests. it intersects in terms of the thative priority of issues u.s. leaders bring with them

when they visit and talk with chinese leaders. the u.s. has to prioritize. is it more important to address that issue or the north korean issue? to using those islands as a way of striking down any kind of icbm from north korea, there are already other assets in place that are being notloped that would necessarily require or need use of those particular islands in order to try to achieve that objective. the u.s. investment in that area has been more in alaska and northern areas of japan. also, we have just seen the announcement last spring of a new deployment of high altar to air defenses in guam -- high altar today aired defenses in --

altitude air -- defenses. host: the president and vice president traveled to the dmz zone. how many troops remain on the south korean border and what is their mission? guest: only a small portion of those are right at the dmz. of theor of generative u.s. forces stationed in south korea is to determine north ofean aggression or invasion south korea. they also have a broader regional stability contribution to make together with the u.s. troops in japan. host: a quick follow-up on reunification of north and south korea.

what are the current tactics in seoul for reunification? governmentst the literally tens of billions of dollars. that is a tough question to try to deal with right now. i see a greater rhetorical devices by the current south korean president on the need to achieve reunification. there are a lot of additional preparation is needed on the south korean government to be able to handle that particular event to allow the. -- to be ableland to handle that particular even tuality. ethel.rom oakland, caller: i was at the army base

and they were shipping stuff to these countries, chemicals that were not supposed to be shipped overseas. i was a ship clerk. i worked at the army base. in sanout of local 250 francisco. i worked as a longshorewoman and ship clerk. all over the terminals in oakland, california. i shipped the chemicals to north korea and south korea. they were shipping stuff overseas. host: thanks for the call. did you want to respond?

do not have a direct response to that comment. arth korea is perceived as proliferation risk for shipment of conventional arms and nuclear missile components to other parts of the world, including iran. that feeds back into the north korea is a mafia state. host: our independent line. scott. good morning, i agree with scott, the speaker i see on my tv right now, that korea is a rogue nation and this nut.uy is kind of a i agree with one of the callers that called in and said korea is a puppet government for china to to protect oure

interests in south korea. we have a weak president. he likes to do things diplomatically. he has the tools and hand. almost everything we buy is from china. china is in the best position to deal with the rio. --t: we will get a response china is in the best position to deal with korea. host: we will get a response. thank you, fred. government isnese perplexed on how to deal with kim jong-un. they seemed to do better with his father and grandfather. that is the decisive issue.

it is really the danger in terms of instability in north korea. can we afford to have that sort of problem in the middle of northeast asia, one of the fastest growing economic regions in the world. host: information on north korea is difficult to come by. is kim jong-un firmly in control? grasp of hisa country's military leadership? guest: that is a tough question for us. host: scott snyder us of

and they give are us again, and again. it is nice to see you all. this important hearing is actually the second in a series of hearings. take all enable us to closer look at federal security for federal facilities. three months ago, as we know, aaron alexis reported to the washington navy yard with a tentative -- with the intention to inflict rain and suffering with anyone and his past. we do not know now, and we may never be entirely clear on why this tragedy came to pass, but hopefully the lessons learned from a will or by the foundation for preventing teacher tragedies like this one. let's take just a moment to recap our aaron alexis copy access to the navy are then allowed to successfully enter the facility that fateful morning. in 2007, aaron alexis joined the u.s. navy, as with other servicemembers he a background

check was performed and he was granted a low level security clearance. after a discharge from the navy to thousand 11, alexis was hired by defense contractor that confirmed he possessed the balance security clearance. this marked him as a test for the individual -- trustworthy individual. it was provided with an id card his accessthorized to several buildings, including building 197 at the washington navy yard. shortly before 8:00 a.m. on november -- october 16, aaron alexis drove to the red -- front gate of the washington navy yard and displayed his access card. he was admitted by security, parked his car, and walked to building 197. hele entering that nothing encountered to additional security layers, a turnstile that required a that a -- a

valid access card, and a security guard. toortunately these were prevent unauthorized access, not to screen for weapons. wereeople working there trustworthy because they had security clearances, and had been vetted. eight minutes after alexis late security he began shooting coworkers using a shotgun that he had successfully concealed. in the wake of the shooting of the washington navy yard this can really begin a review of security passages and procedures highlighted by the attack. our first oversight in the caret -- security cleared process and that federal agencies have enabled them to determine who should have access to sensitive information or facilities. at that very wake board ways to improve the process and were reminded that quality cannot be sacrificed for speed. the purpose of today's hearing is to review how we physically secure the --