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The collapse of the regime which would lead to a south korean and u.s. expansion of our domain and move us closer to chinas border. and so they dont like that option. and they dont want warfare, but they would like the united states to leave the korean peninsula. so they are like a guy with a skeleton key jiggling the key in the lock trying to make the lock turn. they have pressure on the united states, pressure on north korea, there is a risk of war, they have their troops mobilized, they are r...

Those on this panel who say hes an irrational actor. the general made a very important point that when we talk about north korea, we also cannot tune out the historical lessons of the iraq war. the lesson that kim jong un and before him his father learned with that invasion, was that in order to preempt u.s. aggression, you have to first have a nuclear program. if you are on the road or in the case of iraq, not even on the road, but potentially according to u.s. intelligence on the road to a nuc...

Intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead on that missile, but that this may be a ratcheting up of the situation that could lead to a very, very difficult and tense standoff and possibly a war. now, if that happened, and weve been talking about this in the past few days, its very difficult to see how it ends. and keep in mind, just for example that there are almost 30,000 u.s. service men and women in the korean peninsula, so there are many u.s. men and women, that is not includi...

Yes, we could try to prevent other countries from getting nuclear weapons. but north korea has nuclear weapons. >> ken, to be clear, in terms of next steps, now that they have miniature rise eized this nucle warhead is the next step perfecting the technology that would allow reentry? >> its not clear that they have actually tested this minl ch miniaturized warhead, so there are many other technological steps before they get to the point where they have a reliable icbm nuclear missile. so it does...

All americans and they do not appreciate it. >> we spend a lot of time talking about presidential credibility and its instances like this where its paramount. you raise an interesting point about mutual assured destruction being somewhat rational. but the fact that we have a regime that has spent the better part of the last few decades starving hits own people, that s not rational. >> soviets did all sorts of terrible things to their people too and we were still able to maintain stability with t...

Would then respond with artillery and missiles across the demilitarized zone. that is the most likely option other than a general war on the korean peninsula. >> ken, before we let yyou get out of here, going back to the initial assessment from the intelligence community, how many agencies are we talking here and with what degree of certainty? >> craig, we dont have that specificity. those are very good questions youre asking, but the "washington post" has reported that the defense intelligence ...

That is not a feasible option. there may be other options out there that we dont know about yet. but that one isnt feasible. and from the north korean perspective and the way they negotiate is that they are very aggressive in theaeir goern yap negotiations. so when you threaten north korea, you increase the likely head that they will take some kinds of preemptive action that initiates war. he wi we dont want to stumble into a war on miscalculation. >> stand by for me. i want to bring in peter al...

Our relationship with north korea now moving forward? >> it means well move into a period ever mutual deterrence. that is to say were going to have to accept the fact thateve. that is to say were going to have to accept the fact that if their capability stands, that in the event of war on the korean peninsula, the united states home land is not safe. and therefore this makes deterrence more complicated. can tdeterrence work? sure. it worked in the cold war. but the question then was would they t...

Its a very powerful tool that has been aproved. >> it seems prattthe president strategy is to try -- be more aggressive and take steps to convince the north korean regime to step back. >> thats exactly right and i think thats what the president should be doing. im glad hes talking to his counter part. >> when you say he doesnt have a strategy, that seems to be a strategy. >> im saying a diplomatic strategy. i certainly agree talking to china is a very big part of it. our goal in korea is to have...