of war. it has given south korea until tomorrow to stop or says it will take military action. but south korea is not stepping back. it says it will continue these propaganda messages, and it is preparing for the high possibility that north korea will attack the speakers and target them when this deadline approaches tomorrow and here is what south korea has to say. if north korea continues on provoking our military as we have already warned, we ll respond sternly and end the evil provocation of north korea. south korea is in the process of working closely with the united states, and we know that the united states is monitoring the situation closely, pamela. thank you so much, kathy. victor, i want to go to you. we heard in kathy s report there that north korea is threatening military action if south korea doesn t shut down the loud speakers by 4:00 a.m. eastern time. do you buy it this time? we have heard threats before from kim jong-un against south
center for strategic and international studies. victor, thanks very much for coming in. so what s going on here? is this posturing by north korea or is there something bigger, more sinister going on? i think the first cut would be its posturing, trying to get attention. they want to try to push the u.s. back to talks. but the second cut is that if we look for the past month, north korea has been carrying out a series of short-range, long-range, anti ship, artillery shell, all sorts of different tests. and there seems to be a rising crescendo in the activity for the past month. i count about 90 missiles, short-range and long-range missile tests. and yesterday over 600 artillery shells. sometimes the north koreans do these kinds of things, just to get some attention, if you will. i remember when i was in pyongyang back this december, 2010, it was a very tense time, as well. it calmed down shortly thereafter, but it sometimes
back to the search for flight 370 in it a moment. first, tensions right now very high on the korean peninsula as both north and south korea engage in live fire military exercises. this is video of operation twin dragon, an annual naval drill involving the united states, australia and south korea. at the same time, north korea reportedly fired live shells into south korean waters. and that prompted south korea to fire right back. the white house condemned the north, saying, and i m quoting now, north korea s actions are dangerous and provocative. its continuous threats aggravate tensions and further its isolation. we remain steadfast in our commitment to the defense of our allies and remain in close coordination with both the republic of korea and japan. victor shaw is the author of the book north korea past and future joining me from the
that s what happened back in 2010. north korea fired at a south korean war ship and actually hit and killed south korean sailors and then fired at a town in a disputed area along the border. the tensions were sky-high at this time. let s not forget, victor. you know this well. that they re, what, almost a million north korean troops north of the dmz, the demilitarized zone. nearly a million troops, 30,000 american soldiers along the dmz. one miscalculation and that place could explode. i think that s exactly right, wolf. you put your finger on it. these things may seem like small things, but they are on a hair trigger. and because of the array of forces on the peninsula, you can get an action-reaction dynamic that escalates fairly quickly. that s something we want to avoid, of course. is kim jong-un really in charge or some general really in charge? i mean, from all the pictures we see, it looks as though he is