Coastal city of sinpo, home to north koreas submarine base, u. S. Pacific command saying it was a failure, almost immediately after launch. And what i have experienced in the past when im inside this count country, its never reported in the statecontrolled media. Of course a successful launch would be a lead story with pictures of the north Korean Leader overseeing the event. Given that this appears to be this test appears to be a failure, probably most north koreans, the vast majority, will never know that it happened, ana. And, will, explain the difference between this failed launch and an actual nuclear test. Reporter so north korea has conducted a number of Missile Launches since the beginning of last year, three dozen missile tests. Its fairly easy for north korea to fire these. They probably dont have a warhead inside the trajectory, has them falling in the waters off the korean peninsula. There was a simultaneous missile
launch last month where three missiles landed within 200 nautical miles of the coast prompting a coastal village to do north Korean Missile drills for the first time theyve had mi Missile Drills since world war ii. So certainly troubling for the citize citizens . Gentlem in japan. Theres a lot of people looking at the radar to monitor these Missile Launches. Nuclear tests are different. These are conducted at an underground Nuclear Test Site. They dig these tunnels deep into the mountains and they can withstand a nuclear explosion. Weve seen the size of north Koreas Nuclear explosions according to analysts looking at things like seismic activity because these create an artificial earthquake essentially. The explosions are getting bigger. North korea is trying to develop a larger nuclear weapon. When the tests happen, the u. S. And south korea and china will send up Sniffer Planes and theyll put out radiation
detection equipment to try to see if radiation has seeped into the outside environment. In previous tests they have been contained to that tunnel area. The north koreans looked closely at what President Trump did when he dropped that moab, the mother of all bombs on the tunnels in afghanistan because in some quarters here it was perceived possibly as a threat that the u. S. May try to drop a similar bomb on Underground Tunnels in north korea. They wonder would the u. S. Actually try to attack their Nuclear Test Site, is that one of the strategic targets that could come into play . This really is things are always it tense on the korean peninsula. This is the most tense that ive ever experienced in 11 trips to this country. And we really dont know how the Trump Administration will respond and what kim jongun is going to do. We do know that the president of the u. S. , President Trump, has been briefed on this latest Missile Launch that failed, and
we he are expecting a statement from the white house any moment. As soon as we have that, of course, we will bring that to our viewers here. In the meantime Vice President mike pence is en route right now to seoul, south korea. Hes expected to land there in a few hours. Paul his there. How are they responding to this new development . We know theres going to be a National SecurityCouncil Meeting in it a little less than half an hour. This is a meeting where all the top leaders of the country will be trying to figure out what kind of response they can give to north korea. Clearly theyve had a lot of experience and practice of this. Its very difficult to see what kind of different statement we will see. They always say in the past they have a readiness posture. They say they will strongly respond if this continues but, of course, its very difficult to see what they can do beyond that and, of course, keep in mind there is political stalemate in this country at this point. There isnt a full president. Theres Jups An Acting President as the previous one has been imprisoned on a Corruption Scandal this is a very tricky situation that the Vice President pence is arriving in. The fact that the people he will be meeting, the Acting President , wont even be in power in a few weeks time. But certainly what the south koreans want at this point is guarantees, continued guarantees that we saw from the secretary of state, from the Defense Secretary in recent weeks, that the United States is going to stick by south korea. Ana . Paula hancocks and will ripley reporting from both south korea and north korea. We appreciate it. Stay with us. Back here in the u. S. The threat posed by north korea still looms over the trump white house. I want to bring in my panel now. Cnn Military Analyst and retired l lieutenant general, cnn intelligence and Security Analyst and form earp cia operative, and from the world
policy institute jonathan crystal. Jonathan, somebody asked President Trump if the massive bombing in afghanistan that will ripley referred to this week was a message to north korea. We heard will say some of the people in north korea certainly thought it was a message to them. Well, this was the president of the u. S. s answer. Will this send a message to north korea . I dont know if it sends a message t. Doesnt make any difference if it does or not. North korea is a problem. The problem are be taken care of. So, jonathan, what was your reaction when you heard that . I dont think its news. Dropping a bomb on a country that we have been bombing regularly going after terrorist groups and taliban fighters, the fact that its a larger bomb i dont necessarily tie those two things together. Now it could be that were showing the north koreans what we have in terms of our armaments and what were willing to use. Just as they are doing. North korea when they conduct missile tests, part of this is to show this is what were able to do. We will be able to target bases nearby. We havent seen evidence of that yet. Thats the message theyre trying to send when they assassinated kim jonguns halfbrother. A part of that was to show we have vx nerve gas and were willing to use that. Both sides have an interest in showing what they are capable of doing. And with the hope that it actually alleviates the tension and allows people to walk back. So, general hurtling, when we were hearing from will that these Nuclear Test Sites are underground, it does make you think about why they use this moab, the mother of all bombs in afghanistan because there were caves and tunnels, could the u. S. Military use that kind of weapon to attack the nuclear
sites in north korea . Ill push back a little bit on this, ana, and say they certainly could but it wouldnt be effective and it would not be the weapon that you would use to hit some of the tunnels and some of the complexes in north korea but there are other Weapons Systems the u. S. Has that could certainly do that. This whole discussion of the m. O. A. B. Has been interesting to me because i know why they use ed it in that particular area against that particular target and it was really coincidental that it occurred right at the same time this event was occurring in north korea and right after the Missile Strike in korea. It had no connection whatsoever. This was a Tactical Command earps call on the ground. Now thats the reality. The perception and the second and third order, if other countries believe that we would use weapons like this and certainly it does send a message but that was not the intent in this particular situation. Im sure of that. Bob, could north korea launch some kind of a nuclear test now after this failed Missile Launch to save face . Yes, i do, ana, and i think they will. As the president goes on about taking on north korea with or without the chinese, the north koreans, Normal Reaction will be to keep going and keep going stronger and we will continue launching nuclear weapons. Our problem is, and i keep on going back to this is absence of intelligence. We do not have sources in north korea. It all has to be done remeetly from satellites. Their army is quite remarkable. It can move divisions without us detecting them until the last minute. So whether they will or not is a supposition on all of our parts but my guess is as long as the rhetoric stays the way it is, theyre going to set up a
nuclear test very soon. And i want to go back to will for that because i know, will, you have been there on the ground this past week, and you have witnessed and heard of other Military Movement from north korea. What do we know about the preparations that have been happening very recently leading up to a potential nuclear test . Reporter well, we are not allowed to get close to the Nuclear Test Site but the Satellite Imagery from a couple days ago had showed vehicles, personnel, equipment at that Nuclear Test Site leading people who have been observing this Nuclear Test Site for quite some time to their Analysis Shows they believe its primed and ready for a sixth nuclear test. As far as responding to actions by the United States, we heard some very strongly worded responses to the uss carl
vincent, which isnt anything new. North korea has many times threatened a Nuclear Attack to rain fire on the United States and its allies. So thats not new. What is new there was a Special Forces Operation that pyongyang conducted last week. It was the same day that we saw the images of the Special Forces were released on the same day we saw kim jongun in person at the Ribbon Cutting of a new sky scrape earp he ordered built here in pyongyang at the moment we were attending this event with the north Korean Leader, their state media put out these images of kim jongun overseeing Xan Dough Commandos Jumping Out of a plane. When i was chatting with Government Officials at the Military Parade yesterday, i was told that Special Forces Operation was in response to tweets from President Trump about north korea and about china needing to solve the north
korean nuclear problem. Those same officials also said that, frankly, theyre not concerned about increased economic pressure from china. Clearly Chinese Trade is helping this country in the capital city. Were not allowed to get outside of the capital. We dont know what life is like. Clearly their Living Standard is lower but we dont know because were not allowed to go there but Chinese Trade with north korea jumped up nearly 40 in the First Quarter of 2017 and despite five Nuclear Tests china has been reluct aant to really expert a tremendous amount of economic pressure on this country because they dont want to see a destabilized regime, a humanitarian crisis of north koreans flooding across their border, but they also most certainly do not want to see any sort of Military Conflict between the United States and north korea. In the chinese view that would be catastrophic. Lets go back through what we know of the last year or so. We know the last actual nuclear
test was in september of 2016. Meantime this year there still has been a lot of activity of these Missile Launches that weve seen. In fact, this would be the fifth Missile Launch attempt just since february. And what were learning about this latest Missile Launch that failed is the u. S. Defense official now telling us that early indications is that this failed missile was not an intercontinental ballistic mi missile. General hertling, whats your take on that information . What we saw in the parade today, both the cia and the dia analyst, Defense Intelligence agencies, are looking at the films and the Satellite Imagery from the parade today. There were a couple of key items that occurred in the parade, one was a longer missile that went through the parade longer than the kno8 and kno14. It was brabd new. It was the first time they showed submarine launch Ballistic Missile. Thats important because its showing that their Missile Program is growing. But if they wanted to literally show that they had a successful launch, what theyre most concerned about is something called a cold launch. Thats with solid fuel versus liquid fuel in the rocket. I dont mean to turn into a geek here but what it does, it allows the north koreans to pull a missile out and fire it immediately because its been prefueled as opposed to taking a missile on the launch pad and then taking a lot of time to fuel it up. When that happens, its not detected. They can also launch it out of a canister like a submarine so it will pop up and then the rockets ignite and then it goes on. Thats the most important thing theyre looking at now as well as connecting a Weapons System to the missile which they have not done yet. I would guess my guess would be this was a shortrange Ballistic Missile they fired out
at sinpo. We do know this was the same area they launched the last one that scud missile of some sort from the Submarine Zone there on the port city of sinpo. Thank you so much for that analysis. Everyone stay with me. We need to squeeze in another break. Much more on our Breaking News. North korea with a failed Missile Launch just hours before Vice President mike pence is due to arrive in south korea. We will go live to maralago where the president has been briefed and also to china, a country with enormous influence on north korea. Well have much more on this day ahead. If you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Plus had less major bleeding. Both made eliquis the right treatment for me. Ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you. It has long been called storm of tiny bubbles, the champagne of beers. If youve got the time welcome to the high life. Weve got the beer miller beer
to suzanne who is in florida with the president. Weve learned the Vice President was also briefed before he lands in south korea. What more can you tell us . Reporter we are getting a report from a Senior Administration official aboard Air Force Two traveling with the Vice President on his way to seoul, south korea. I want to read you what we have at this moment here that the Vice President , mike pence, briefed on what the Vice President s office called a failed Missile Launch from north korea, that pence was in contact with President Trump, and that this was relaid to recorders aboard the plane, that pence was briefed on the situation in north korea within an hour of his departure from anchorage, alaska. Air force two was flying. Expected to land, arrive about 3 30 p. M. Local time or 2 30 eastern time. We know that when he does land on his agenda, ana, hell be talking with the Acting President of south korea about the situation. As you know the president he briefed and informed. We are expecting a Paper Statement from the president himself on this. Also to let you know had is something that they were preparing for at maralago, certainly expecting much more. Not a failed test but a sixth nuclear test that did not happen but the deputy traveling with the president here in florida who has been briefing him. This is not a nuclear test. Officials are saying its still possible. That could happen at any moment. To beijing. Matt riv