commitment, certainly on the part of secretary mattis and the pentagon to dialogue, a diplomatic economic covert action in lieu of threatening little rocket man with potential nuclear attacks. so i think the notion of talking to the north koreans, the south koreans are relieved. they were worried about what president trump might do, so are the japanese. the u.s. armed forces are an enormously powerful institution. over 2 million men and women. they re actually getting prepared to fight if the united states or our regional allies are attacked. that s their sole mission. and i think they are leaning forward now without any overt planning, getting ready to back up diplomacy with hard military power. talk to me finally about a point you made a few weeks back about kim jong-un s sister going to the olympics and the coverage and interest she generated in south korea. we have no understanding for that here. no, i think kim jong-un s
they feel the government in its way of doing that is to divide them and conquer them. by appearing to give some concessions, they feel the government is in effect trying to buy some of them off. we re actually seeing the effects of that on the streets, people saying, look, there s been too much chaos now, the government has given us a little. he won t stand again. that should be enough. it s those kind of divisions that are now pulling real anger on streets here, fareed. a fascinating turn in the story. up next, a former member of president mubarak s cabinet. what is going on in the corridors of power did egypt? i got into one of the best schools in the country!
budget, it s being hollowed out. your foreign policy budget has been cut. understandably you have these cuts, you wouldn t be able to do afghanistan or iraq again you wouldn t able to do the i don t accept that for one single moment. i d like to take this opportunity on a u.s. television station to say clearly britain is maintaining its world role. we re maintaining it in cash terms. our defense budget, 35 billion pounds a year is maintained throughout this parliament. that s a small real terms cut. but we will remain one of the five biggest spenders on defense anywhere in the world. we have one of the best resource networks of embassies and ambassadors in the british council anywhere in the world. we have huge reserves of hard power and soft power. we re actually spending more in terms of combatting cyber security problems. which i think is one of the growing threats in our world. we have one of the most powerful and respected aid budgets in the world. don t understatement that.
the world to support egypt in making the democratic transition, but i think it is not in the right of president obama or the american government or any other government to dictate on egypt what to do. if mubarak leaves, the military stays, the regime stays in power, the ones who oppose the reform stays in power. does anything change? well, i personally believe that the best scenario for egypt is for president mu bbarak to sy and finish his term. it is a very clear and strong message for the transition. since his speech action have been taken on the ground. i believe that egypt needs that transition. i believe that mubarak can do that transition. i personally believe that he will pick towards this changes to be done. and we know it s not easy. but i believe the alternative is
egypt is not run by the mubarak family but a military dictatorship. since the coup of 1952 all of egypt s presidents have comed from the armed forces. military leaders enjoy huge privileges and a fat budget in the current setup. and they will work very hard to preserve that position. in fact, right now what appears to be happening is a consolidation of military power. civilians and business leaders in the cabinet have been fired and new cabinet is 50% military. the governors of egypt s provinces are 80% military. the military leadership has economic reforms because the reforms threaten the industries which the army owns. it has also opposed political reform because it fears losing its tight grip on power. as events unfold it appears while having to sacrifice mubarak the military intends of stay firmly in power.