Employees got fired. Lets talk, live in the cnn newsroom. Good morning, im carol costello. North korea says its carried out its most powerful nuclear test yet. The explosion registering the force of a 5. 3 earthquake. Kim jonguns government now claiming it can make Nuclear Warheads small enough to fit on to missiles. World leaders are strongly condemning the apparent test. With President Obama saying just moments ago there will be serious consequences. He also said, and im just getting his statement right now, that north Koreas Nuclear test is a grave threat. He says to be clear the United States does foot and will never accept north korea as a nuclear state. We have Suzanne Malveaux on this story. Shell join us in a little bit. Lets head to tokyo now for north koreas side. Will ripley has that. Hi, will. Hi, carol. That brandnew statement from President Obama comes after he was very busy during the overnight hours speaking on the phone separately with the japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe who is here in tokyo and also the south korean President Park where according to a white house spokesman, we have a quote from them as well, he, the president , reiterated the unbreakable u. S. Commitment to the security of its allies in asia and around the world. The president indicated the world would continue to consult with its allies and partners in the days ahead to ensure provocative actions from north korea are met with serious consequences. But those serious consequences, carol, what are they at this point . When you think about the fact some of the strongest sanctions ever are in place against north korea with even the naming of the north Korean Leader kim jongun having little effect in slowing down this fifth nuclear test in some ten years but also they launched three missiles just last week. They launched a submarinebased Ballistic Missile the week before. A reported hbomb test in janua january, in pyongyang after that test. I asked about international condemn nation. What they said, from a government official, not from somebody speaking freely is theyre prepared to tighten their belts and go hungry if they have to because their leader wants them to develop these weapons because its the only way they can protect their country from invasion from the United States. Thats the mindset the rest of the world is up against. You wonder what its going to take to stop this rapidly accelerating development of these weapons. What north korea wants, a miniaturized Nuclear Warhead they can put on these missiles. All right, Will Ripley Reporting live from tokyo. Im just reading more of President Obamas statement here. I do want to bring in my panel a little early to talk about whats happening in north korea now. Mike baker is a former cia covert operations officer. Colonel Sedrick Laleyton is a former air force colonel. And dave miller is a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson international center. He is also the author of the end of greatness, why america cant have and doesnt want another great president. All right. I do want to start with you, mike. What do you make of whats happening in north korea . President obama just coming out with a statement saying that the north Korea Nuclear test is a grave threat. Well, i mean, hes right in the statement. But its its kind of more of the same, you know, what theyre doing is consistent with what north korea and the north Korean Leadership has been doing for years, and theres a sense that the world isnt paying attention, the world isnt taking them seriously, and, you know, so, once again, theyre throwing their teddy out of the cot, in sort of a simplistic fashion, but this is a serious issue. This is their fifth nuclear test. By all accounts, they are getting the intelligence, the information they need for their weapons program. So yes, i mean, but we have little to no leverage. Frankly, we always do the same thing. We always say, well, china, china is the key here, china needs to deal with them. Well, thats not true either. China doesnt have the leverage i think that the administration or the Previous Administration also believes they do. So, aaron, what can the United States do, because this sounds like north koreas just ratcheting things up and its starting to sound really scary. I mean, i think this is just one of the many problems in a cruel and unforgiving world the next president s going to confront. A serious problem without a really good set options. I mean, four powers outside of the five permanent members of the security council, possess nuclear weapons. North koreas the most unpredictable. Sanctions working with the chinese, our own force posture, creating a presence in asia, all of these things are critically important. If a small country ideological and authoritarian is producing nuclear weapons, the real question is, short of a military confrontation, which is prohibitive, what do you do about it . An honest man and or woman would admit right now that the options for blocking a program thats already developed and perhaps, now, in the phase of producing the Delivery System that is very effective and precise, those options are just very poor. Okay, so colonel lleyton, im going to get to you. I want to go to Suzanne Malveaux first. Because the president of the United States sent out a very long statement. Youve had more time to read it than i have. What else does it say, suzanne . Its a very good point your panelists are bringing up here. Part of the statement talks about what are the consequences here. The president making clear there have to be consequences. He goes on to say we agreed to work with the u. N. Security council. Obviously theyre having an Emergency Meeting today. The other sixparty partners. He says theyre vigorously going to implement existing measures imposed in previous resolutions and take other actions including additional sanctions. This is something previously president bush and now President Obama have had to deal with, with north korea. And the sanctions have not worked. And so they really are in a situation where these are tough words. We have very strong allies. But it is not really effective. So you have this very strongly worded statement of condemnation. You have promises of doing additional economic sanctions. But the question still remains really, whether or not this is going to be effective. Colonel lleyton, my question for you, will there come a time when the u. S. Takes Military Action . Unfortunately, i think we have to be prepared for that, carol. Its a very difficult situation, david miller and mike baker and of course suzanne just pointed out. What youre dealing with here is the fact that there are so many limited options means that the military option, instead of becoming the true last resort, becomes the only resort in a very extreme case. You really dont want to go that far. So one possible thing they could do before that is to have a more serious blockade of north korea that would absolutely limit trade between china and north korea but the chinese would have to be willing to do that, and i dont see them going that far yet. Yes, theyve condemned this, but the next step is will they actually fulfill the idea of limiting trade to a much greater extent than they previously have. You have the situation with north korea ongoing right now. The Secretary Of State john kerry is now trying to negotiate with the Russian Foreign minister to company e to some sf agreement about how the United States and russia fight isis within syria. All of this is going on. While donald trump actually appeared on russianfunded television and he criticized american policy. I want to get into that right now. Donald Trumps Campaign says he didnt realize the interview would air on the kremlinbacked station since larry king asked the questions but it did. Jeff zeleny is here to tell us more about that and then ill return to the panel. This is the point in the president ial campaign when real events on the ground like in north korea really can shape the race as well. Donald trumps words on the russian president break from the traditional boundaries of american politics. Democrats now are outraged. Even many republicans are uneasy about these blurred lines of country versus party. Hillary clinton says this, praise for putin is the latest example of trumps lack of judgment. She says all americans should be alarmed by this embrace of the hostile leader. Lets listen to this, comments from yesterday when she was on the campaign trail. That is not just unpatriotic. Its not just insulting to the office and the man who holds the office. It is scary. It is dangerous. Trump is indeed embracing Vladimir Putin. In that interview on Russian Television with larry king, he poured cold water on the suggestion russia is meddling in u. S. Elections as many intelligence officials believe by hacking into that Computer Networks at the dnc and elsewhere. This is what he said. I think its probably unlikely. I think maybe the democrats are putting that out, who knows. I think its pretty unlikely but, you know, who knows. I hope if they are doing something, i hope that somebodys going to be able to find out so they can end it. Because that would not be appropriate at all. And carol, as you said, the Trump Campaign is push back on that appearance in a statement this morning from his spokeswoman. She said mr. Trump recorded a short interview with larry king for his podcast as a favor to mr. King. What mr. King does with the Interview Content is up to him. We have nothing to do with it. But, carol, this is unlikely to be the last word on this with so many republicans already alarmed and unsure about his ability to embrace National Security issues. And the latest news from north korea even adds to this. Its a new challenge for both candidates. But particularly for donald trump. I want to play just a bit more what donald trump said on russian state television. Because he was directly criticizing the bms administratiobama policies, so lets listen to that. Maybe the democrats are putting that out. Who knows. But i think that its pretty unlikely. But, you know, who knows. I hope that if they are doing something, i hope that somebodys going to be able to find out so they can end it. Because that would not be appropriate at all. Okay, so im going to go back to my panel right now. Aaron, mr. Trump said it was an accident, he didnt know his comments would be on russian state television. Should voters be concerned about this . Look, ive worked for republican and democratic administrations. I watched a lot of political campaigns. Rarely, if ever, have i ever seen a president ial candidate embrace a foreign leader, particularly one who may not be an enemy of the United States but is clearly belongs in the adversary category. And for mr. Trump who prides himself on not wanting to telegraph his moves and to remain unpredictable, the embrace of Vladimir Putin as a riskready strong leader who admires mr. Trump is, i think, well Out Of The Box of mainstream politics in this country. And injurious, im persuaded, to the interest of the United States. And whats driving it is very curious. Its not simply putins flattery of mr. Trump. I think there is a conviction on the part of donald trump that he is the worlds greatest negotiator, that he figure ms. Putin is a guy he can deal with. I think hes got that fixed in his world view well before the presidency. Lets talk about that a little bit more with mike. So would it be beneficial for the United States to establish better relations with Vladimir Putin . Could Vladimir Putin help us defeat isis . Well, i mean, better relations with any major power in the globe would be a good thing for us. But we have to be pragmatic. Look, this is like a neverending sketch from Saturday Night Live on both sides to be fair. The fact that donald trump would try to make a point, and i think what hes attempting to do, and its bizarre, is to say he disagrees with the Leadership Style of obama. So in contrast, look at Vladimir Putin. And then mike pence comes out and says, you know, donald isnt saying he likes the system. He doesnt particularly like the system that putin is running. Ive never seen anything like this before. But then you have Hillary Clinton, you know, saying that isis prays to allah every day hoping donald trump will win. We have entered New Territory here. But can we work with russia to defeat isis . I dont thing thats very likely. We have to understand that russia is operating according to its own best interests, as is china, as is north korea, everyone else. We seem to be in the u. S. Incapable sometimes of understanding thats what other nations do. So russia is taking care of its own agenda. We might be able to in very short bursts find an intersection with our interests crossed with putins right now in syria and in the middle east. 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