Fell on hiroshima according to one group of experts. President trump reaffirmed the u. S. Commitment to protection its allies in a call with the japanese Prime Minister as south korea, meantime, takes the step of conducting live fire missile drills. We have a team of reporters and Analysts Covering the Nuclear Standoff and the increasing tensions on the korean peninsula. I want to begin with Cnns Barbara Starr at the pentagon because barbara, that statement we just heard from defense secretary mattis was both extraordinary and very carefully worded. Indeed, ana. Extraordinary because it was him out there in front of tv cameras standing at his side, of course, general joseph dunford, general of the joint chiefs and the chief military adviser to the president of the United States and neither of those men particularly cared for appearing in Television News cameras so the fact that they came out was very noteworthy. The message, very detailed and pretty specific saying that the u. S. Would support its allies ironclad commitment that the u. S. Would, if threatened, if attacked the u. S. , its allies and guam that it would respond with massive military power, but what does this all mean . This is still the key question because we have heard this before. The military options, none of them are good, we all know that. Any attack on north korea could lead them to a quick counterattack on seoul leading to tens of thousands of People Killed and it would be brutal and it would be ugly and still making the case for a military option and the reason is according to people who follow this, and officials that we talk to, they need to convince kim jongun that he cannot survive if he was to attack. Thats the key. Make him believe that his regime, not the north korean people, but his regime would be at risk. He is all about survival. The hope is if they can convince him that he cant survive, it could lead to diplomacy. We have heard from experts that the development of the Nuclear Program is some kind of insurance policy ken is enforcing here. I want to bring in ian lee. He is joining us from seoul, south korea and we learned south korea is now responding to pyongyang and i want to know more about these drills theyre conducting. What can they tell us . Ana, early this morning here in south korea, the military carried out two drills. The first was testing Ballistic Missiles that would be use to go in the infrastructure and the other test that was carried out by f15s and they were testing longrange air to surface missiles. A strong response to that north Korean Nuclear test. We also heard from President Trump who has criticized the south korean president moon jaein saying he hasnt had a tough response, and he said south korea is finding as ive told them that their talk of appeasement in north korea will not work. They will only understand one thing. And you know, ana, in the beginning president moon did come out with the softer approach to north korea saying he wanted diplomacy and dialogue, but he inherited a different world and one with a defiant north korea and defiant Nuclear Program and the United States with President Trump who was talking tough. So now were seeing this twopronged approach by the south koreans and one, they are conducting more military exercises and they say theyll work closer with the United States, and they also have called for the most advanced u. S. Strategic military assets and they havent specified what that exactly mean, but they want closer military cooperation with more exercises than on the other hand continue to isolate north korea diplomatically and economically through the international community, ana . Theres still this issue of confirming that this test is what north korea says it was. I know the u. S. Does have some ability to do some testing to try to find out exactly what it was, but theres been some kind of a snag as they were sending these sniffer jets. What more can you tell us about that . One of the typical ways they do this is the u. S. Military has plains with classified sensors onboard that basically collect air samples and they have to wait a couple of tests far Radioactive Material to rise from the earth and get into the airstream and they come into International Airspace and collect samples and one of the wrinkles here right now is the International Sources monitors that weve been talking to tell us they calculate the winds are to the north from this underground test site and that would tack a radioactive cloud over china and russia very difficult to get into that airspace. Barbara starr at the pentagon, and joining me now is cnn military analyst and former commanding general of the army forces in europe and also with us, retired army colonel and pentagon spokesman steve warren and Jennifer Ruben and a conservative columnist for the washington post. How worried are you and how worried should we all be that north korea might have the ability to attach a Hydrogen Bomb to an intercontinental ballistic missile. Thats of critical importance and weve also seen because as barbara just said, various seismic arrays that are measured the size of the force of this bomb from norway, all of the way to japan and there are seismic monitors that say this is a big one. That doesnt mean he can put it on a missile and make no mistake about that. Its much more difficult to have a Nuclear Weapon on the tip of an intercontinental ballistic missile, and they havent tested them the way they need to test them. I am very concerned and all of the National Security apparatus is concerned that they continue to advance their program i think again, kim jongun continuing to make threats and trying to get his face on the world stage. Secretary mattis statement seemed to be carefully worded as a former spokesman for the pentagon and someone who used to help craft these messages. What stood out to you . It was a very carefully worded message and he used a very good balance of some carrot and some stick. He reassured our allies, south korea, japan and others that we were with them and that our commitment to them in his words was iron clad. He also threatened the north koreans, but he only threatened them so far. He talked about overwhelming response and overwhelming force. He was careful to say that we are not interested in the annihilation of korth korea and they spent a lot of time thinking about how to calibrate this message so as barb starr said earlier that the north Korean Leader himself may well feel threatened, but perhaps the north korean people, whether or not they hear this message, we wont know, but this isnt for the north korean people. Its for the leadership. Jen every, the president s last tweet about north korea this morning reads the United States is considering in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with north korea. We know china is its economic driver for north korea. Its also our biggest trading partner in america. Is that a viable option . No, its not and its unfortunate that the president has gotten into the habit of making these over the top, ridiculous, empty threats because what hes doing is losing credibility, and not establishing it. No one believes what he says when he says Something Like that so why should the north koreans believe him when he says anything else. If he would stop making ridiculous promises or getting in front of the cameras, that would be a start and we saw that with general mattis. Secretary of defense mattis, and the other thing that he could do would be to avoid picking a fight of all time of our ally south korea and not only is he promising to pull out of a trade deal. Hes also accusing them, as i said, earlier of appeasement. That just warms the heart of the north koreans and they see us separating from their allies and thats not the way to go about it either, and the president needs to get a whole lot more discipline if were going to get through this. Has the president backed himself into the corner with the fire and fury remarks . And now this new trend to end trade and that doesnt seem like a realistic option. Weve said from the beginning, that this is all about controlling the tempo. In basketball terms, controlling the clock. You, we, the United States have the ability to actually control the tempo on all of these operations and by having blustering remarks, it puts the initiative on the part of the other side, kim jongun. The United States is going to need many, many allies and not only is it continuing to insult north korea, but the insult as jennifer just said to our allies and to a degree, japan and also to china and russia are involved in this and theyre all members of the sixparty talks when we were talking to north korea. Diplomacy has got to come first. I think steve would join me in saying this is not a military fight we want as the secretary said earlier, well take it on if north korea would threaten the United States and we have to get diplomacy on this first in order to try to tamp this down and as jennifer just said, were allowing others to take the initiative especially north korea when someone is blustery or brash or insulting to not only our enemy, but our allies. Youve talked about the importance of diplomacy here and he writes this morning, south korea is finding as i have told them that their talk of appeasement with north korea will not work. They only understand one thing. What is that one thing, colonel . The president clearly wanted to finish that and they only understand one thing and that is power, force or strength and something along those things. The general and jennifer are right on the money when they talk about the damage that it can do if we start speaking about our friends and allies right now, what the north koreans would like to do is drive a wedge into the u. S. South Korean Alliance and drive a wedge into the Japanese Alliance and so what we want to do is be very careful about how we word everything from tweets to more official statements because we risk helping the north koreans drive that wedge. What we saw from secretary mattis today was, in my view, a nice example of more statesmanship which is really whats required here. Statesmanship, thats that blending of the military, the diplomatic, the economic, all of the different types of power that we in america can bring to bear to a problem. Blending all of that together, calm, cool, collected, measured statements from the secretary of defense, this is the type of statesmanship that we need to see right now. Jennifer, the president has talked to some of our allies and we know he spoke to the japanese Prime Minister and he has tweeted at china. He said china is trying to help and having little success. He said he was disappointed to china and he said theres nothing for us, for north korea and we will no longer allow this to continue and china can solve this problem. Is china helping . Are they not helping . Are we going to end trade . Are we not going to ad trade . Do you find there say clear sense of where this president is going at this point . There certainly is not a clear sense, and were not going to end trade in china that would have precipitated a cries of huge dimensions. Part of the problem is the president has no idea that there is a language of diplomacy that when he speaks, believe it or not, people do take him seriously and its not a real estate deal where hes trying to bluff a bank into giving him more money or stop a competitor from bargaining against him. Do you think hes bluffing here . In large part its a bluff. Were not going to cut off trade with china and everyone who does business with north korea. Thats dangerous because then it becomes a question of what is he bluffing about and what has he done . One thing that is very important and we havent touched on, we have decimated the state department. We have a secretary of state who is trying for whatever reason, i think, to shrink, to almost delegitimize his own department. We dont have a Korean Ambassador and an assistant secretary for the east, and we can use diplomatic hands and voices any people on the ground in south korea to talk to the government there when the president says Something Like this. So we are really putting a stumbling block in front of ourselves. Were making ourselves less effective in the international, diplomatic realm. Got to leave it there. Thank you all. Coming up, the emotional moment when a houston flood victim is reunited with the man who rescued her. Wow nice outfit. When i grow up, im going to mars. Were working on that. Some people know how far they want to go. A personalized Financial Strategy can help you get them there. See how access to j. P. Morgan investment expertise can help you. Chase. Make more of whats yours. To j. P. Morgan investment expertise can help you. Choicehotels. Com. Badda book. Thats it . He means book direct at choicehotels. Com for the lowest price on our rooms guaranteed. Plus earn free nights and instant rewards at checkin. Yeah. Like i said. Book now at choicehotels. Com reminds me of how geico hasd been saving people money for over 75 years. Hey, big guy come on in let me guess your weight win a prize sure, why not. 12 ounces sorry, mate. Four ounces. Ive been taking the stairs lately. You win, big guy. Sorry, scuse me oh, he looks so much more real on tv. Yeah. Over 75 years of savings and service. Get your rate quote today. Welcome back. Youre in the cnn newsroom. Turning now to the long recovery after Hurricane Harveys destruction. President trump marking a national day of prayer for victims of the catastrophic floods in texas and louisiana. The president and the first lady attending Church Services this morning in Downtown Washington as more texans return to flooddamaged homes and started clearing out the massive piles of debris. Houstons mayor says 95 of their city is now dry. Thats the good news, but there is a long way to go, so lets get right to rosa flores. Tell us more about houstons Recovery Efforts today. You know, that water is receding, people are starting to get back into their homes and putting them in the curb, but take a look at Buffalo Bayou right now. It is still way over its banks and its still a raging river and that area where you see those light lamps, those are actually part of a running trail that right now is still under water. According to authorities about 36,000 rescues happened. That doesnt count all of the Good Samaritans that tried to help their neighbors. Well, we met up with one woman who had an impromptu reunion with a man who rescued her. Take a look. I was right across the street. Oh, yeah. Those are the people who came and got me out of the water. My son couldnt come get me. They dont even know how to speak english, but they came and got me, and i want to thank them because i called for help and they couldnt get to me, but that young man said dont worry, mommy, i got you. I didnt know his name. He pushed me on the walker from here all of the way five blocks in the water way up to his neck and he had on my neck at the same time. This is my hero right here. This is my hero. [ applause ] thank you so much. Because you didnt have to do it, but you did, and i appreciate you so much, and [ applause ] and when i fell in the water his baby say, oh, im so sorry, shes 4 years old. Mommy, we didnt want to hurt you, so i want to thank them for looking out for me and they brought me to my pastors house and that was the only way i was going to get out of this water. [ speaking spanish ] he says that everyone is family. It doesnt matter what race you are. He says that everyone is family. Reporter these are photos taken by riveras family at the height of the storm. Thats how high the water was in that area. I should also add, ana, that javier was not only saving miss evelyn, he also had his pregnant wife and his three daughters with him. Wow. Rosa, what a touching story. Thank you so much for sharing with us. And keeping those people in our thoughts and prayers is so important right now as they try to get back on track with everything. Thank you again. Coming up, a congratulations and some advice. In his final moments in the oval office, president obama left a private letter for President Trump and we now know what it said word for word. Thats next. Rry used some. 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