Updated

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," May 27, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: North Korea is threatening more. And, yes, only two days after testing a nuclear device, North Korea is threatening to attack U.S. or South Korean warships if any ships from North Korea are searched as part of an effort to intercept weapons of mass destruction.

And there is more ominous news. North Korea has announced the truce that ended the Korean War is no longer valid.

North Korea is the most secretive regime on earth. And tonight, you will get a sneak peek into North Korea that you have never seen before.

Joining us live is Curtis Melvin, PhD student at George Mason University and the creator of a Web site northkoreaneconomywatch.com, which I have been too. It's fascinating, since I read about you.

You have taken pictures of North Korea, is that right, from the air, from Google?

CURTIS MELVIN, PHD STUDENT: Yes, Google Earth is a fabulous product. And, basically, it allows us to see inside North Korea, which is something that those of us who have traveled there really want to do more of. There is so little access that we have, and this really is helping fill the void.

VAN SUSTEREN: So you have been there twice. The first picture we've got, these are burial grounds?

MELVIN: That is actually the first nuclear test site. This is located in the north east of the country. And, basically, we have before and after satellite footage in the area, and so we can tell that this is where a test occurred, and also triangulate that information with seismic data.

VAN SUSTEREN: Let's put up another picture and we'll have Curtis identify it.

MELVIN: This is the missile launch platform which is also in the northeast. It's near the nuclear test site. And this is where a lot of interest has been drawn since April, when North Korea tested their long-range missile.

VAN SUSTEREN: And the next one?

MELVIN: And this is a satellite photo provided recent to me. This is not actually part of Google Earth. This is a commercial satellite image that a journalist friend of mine sent me.

As you are aware, last year the American government made a deal with North Korea to disable the Pyongyang reactor, and they made a big show of destroying the cooling tower.

And so this is a satellite photo that was taken after the cooling tower was destroyed which I posted online.

VAN SUSTEREN: People don't realize this, just how rare it is to get inside North Korea, and that you actually take these pictures, you have to figure out exactly what it is, because the place is so sealed off to world.

MELVIN: Mm-hmm. And North Korea is a very mysterious place, and so many exciting things have happened to be interested in in the last 20 years. "Exciting" is probably not the right word.

But since the famine happened, there has been a tremendous amount of social change in the country.

VAN SUSTEREN: In fact, one of the pictures you show is one of the graves from the famine. How many estimated died during the famine of the '90s?

MELVIN: The numbers vary significant from 300,000 to 3 million. I think the best number was put together by Marcus Nolan at the Peterson Institute, and he brings that in at about 1 million using some very innovative forensic techniques.

VAN SUSTEREN: And, of course, the money and the aid they get from other countries, particularly China, and the thought is that they siphon that off and do it for their military development and their nuclear weapons program at the expense of the people.

MELVIN: We have seen in the last four years and radical change in North Korea's trade, in the composition of North Korea's trading partners.

China used to be about 37 percent of North Korea's trade. Now they are over 70 percent. Japan used to be their second largest trading partner, and they have dropped out of the top five now.

VAN SUSTEREN: We have one picture of Kim Jong Il's home. Can we put that up? That was fun to look at. (LAUGHTER)

I am sure that he is ecstatic that you have that picture up there of his home.

MELVIN: So this is an elite compound in northern Pyongyang. Kim Il Song did live here.

VAN SUSTEREN: The father.

MELVIN: The father. And it is easy to spot these things, because, obviously, they have very nice houses, artificial lakes, forests. And it really does highlight the economic gulf that separates the political elite from the ordinary people of North Korea.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is that a water slide?

MELVIN: That is a huge water slide, and it is the only water slide at a residency in North Korea. That's in the compound.

VAN SUSTEREN: One of my favorites is that Chu Che (ph) tower only because when we went there, they showed it to us. And so it is fun to see. There it is right there, at least, one of the towers. I assume that they have many towers.

MELVIN: That's the most prominent one.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is that in Pyongyang.

MELVIN: Yes, that is right in the middle of Pyongyang, and it's across the River Taedong from the most prominent statue of Kim Il Sung in the country. So it is a very politically charged area that a lot of North Korea and every tourists are taken to.

VAN SUSTEREN: One of my favorite pictures that I've ever seen in North Korea, the ones that they show at the satellite picture at night, and they show South Korea all lit up, and North Korea is virtually black, there is no light.

MELVIN: Yes. It speaks volumes, doesn't it?

VAN SUSTEREN: It does. There is no light, no power, no electricity. The people there are just dying.

MELVIN: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Anyway, Curtis, thank you.

MELVIN: Thank you, it's been a pleasure.


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