Commander in chief, i think he felt it necessary to issue a very strong statement directly to north korea. I think what the president was just reaffirming is the United States has the capability to fully defend itself from any attack and defend our allies, and we will do so. So the American People should sleep well at night. Contrast with the president s own words less than 24 hours ago. North korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. For its part, pyongyang is threatening to hit the u. S. Territory of guam after flyovers from u. S. Bombers. Here is how americans are waking up feeling this morning. 62 now consider north korea a very serious threat to the United States. Thats up from march. Half of americans now think the u. S. Should take military action in response to the north Korean Nuclear tests and that is 43 who say the u. S. Should not. We have Global Coverage this morning. Lets begin with our will ripley in beijing. Will, given the fact that you have been to pyongyang more than a dozen times and spoken with and spent time with officials from the regime, what is your assessment of all we have seen transpire . Reporter well, they are going to respond. But we havent gotten the response yet. That could come at any time. It normally takes north korea around 24 hours to respond or perhaps even more from a particular viewed provocation from the United States. The north korean threat to possibly launch their missiles at guam came as you mentioned after that b1b flyover on monday. The u. S. Flew supersonic jets from guam a couple weeks ago. Now what we are waiting to hear is will north korea issue a strongly worded statement or will they take action . Could there be a demonstration, a show of force to try to push back against President Trumps assertions that the United States will rain down fire and fury. Also boasting about the size of Americas Nuclear arsenal. In the middle of this we have china, which is trying to urge all sides to remain calm. Theres a new statement thats just out within the past few hours from the Chinese Foreign ministry to cnn telling us, the Current Situation is complex and sensitive. China calls on the relevant sides to follow the broad direction of resolving the means, avoid remarks and actions that could aggravate conflicts and escalate tensions and make a greater effort to return to the correct path of resolving the issue through dialogue and nationation. Dialogue and negotiation is what china wants. What they dont want is to see an accidental war break out at their doorstep. No kidding. Will ripley in beijing, thank you. All of this comes on the heels of a u. S. Intelligence assessment of north koreas increased nuclear capability. Lets go to the pentagon, Barbara Starr is there with more. Can you break down for us exactly what this assessment says north korea has advanced on and also if all u. S. Intelligence is on the same page on this one . I dont think its a surprise. Theres some disagreement within the Us Intelligence community. You often see that. Different parts of the community have different views, different information. That would be no surprise. You would want to know all the various points of view. But there is an assessment from one segment that they have produced a nuclear warhead, that it is small enough now to be put on the front end of a ballistic missile. I think the key word is produced. Because what we are being told is theres no indication that production item, if you will, has actually been tested or that it would be able, right now, to be on a functioning missile that could be fired, reenter the earths atmosphere and solve all the targeting challenges north korea has to be able to hit a particular target, possibly thousands of miles away. Is it serious . You bet. North korea clearly on a very aggressive march to be able to put all the pieces together and have that credible attack option. You know, i think rip wilwill r referred to this many times. Many people assess north korea is seeing this as their deterrent. They want to be a Nuclear Power because they feel that nuclear card gives them deterrents against what they claim would be the possibility of a u. S. Invasion, something that no credible authorities out there think is likely. But thats the reason many say north korea is determined to go down this road. Barbara, in terms of any plans that you have heard of to beef up u. S. Military presence, forces in the region, in guam, for example, anything . Well, let me say, all of it can change at any moment. As we stand right here this morning right now, we are being told there are no current plans to beef up forces. There is, however, a long planned military exercise at the end of august that will be in the region, in south korea. The u. S. Will be participating. It will be very high profile. You will see more forces in the region, not just yet, but were keeping a watch on it. Barbara starr, you always are. Thank you. Lets go now to seoul, south korea and a call from leaders there. The newly elected president tried to boost up defense. Alexandra field is live for us. What are you hearing . Reporter for months now, the newly elected president has been calling for dialogue with north korea. He sees this as the way forward. Instead, he is getting a war of words. The president and top officials here are not commenting publically on the incendiary statements that came from the u. S. President donald trump. Of course, the United States and south korea are longstanding allies. South korea depends on the us for its defense. But the president did today repeat the platform that he has recently taken up. He is talking a lot more about what south korea needs to do to improve its ability to defend itself. Here is what he said. I believe our given task is reform of the military. We need a complete overhaul instead of defense reform at a level of minor improvement or modifications. He made those remarks during a military ceremony. Thats a reflection of a platform he has taken up. It was the subject of a conversation he had over the phone with donald trump this weekend, talking about the need for south korea to be able to expand its ability to defend itself and to help defend the region as north korea presents a mounting security threat. Indeed, alexandra field live in seoul. Thank you very much. Lets go to where the president is. Hes on this working vacation in bedminister, new jersey. Caitlyn collins is there. The president is likely to get at least one briefing, an update from his National Security team today. Reporter were expecting that he will have his daily intelligence briefing today as he has every day. The white house has not confirmed that. There are no Public Events for the president today. The white house has not said if he plans to meet with staffers or advisers today. We know he is tweeting right on schedule. Today he continued with his Strong Language against north korea when he asserted the u. S. Nuclear arsenal is more powerful and stronger than ever before. This was something he wanted to modernize the minute he got into office. He was referencing an order he signed back in january that directed the department of defense to undergo a review of the nuclear arsenal. The president made this remark today saying that this review has started. We know it officially started in april. Its unclear what progress it has made in these last few short months. We know these reviews are mandated by Congress Every eight years. The last one was conducted under the Obama Administration back in 2010. Its unclear what progress they have made on that review so far. All of this comes in light of some polling by cnn recently over the past few days before the president made his remarks yesterday that 37 of americans approve of the way that the president has been handling north korea since he has been in office so far. About 50 of americans disapprove of the way he has handled north korea. Its clear theres no consensus over the way the president has talked about north korea. We will see that change in light of his fire and fury comments that we heard yesterday. Thank you very much. Joining us now is rear admiral john kirby who penned a new opinion piece on this for cnn. Com and a professor from georgetown. She was a Senior Adviser to a former ambassador to south korea. Admiral, your main argument here is that you believe the rhetoric we have heard from the president is playing into kim young un ki hands. Why . He wants to make this about the u. S. The foreign minister said this is about the u. S. And dprk. They want to make this about us versus them. Clearly, they view us as their chief threat. They are mostly worried about regime survival, not necessarily of preemptive attack on the United States. They want to protect themselves. When the president reacts the way he did so strongly, so harshly, he plays right into their argument. He justifies their desire to continue this program. He justifies kim jonguns propaganda that the u. S. Is out to get them and they need this Program Going forward. It was really again an unnecessary thing to say. I dont think helpful to the larger effort. Professor, theres interesting analysis in the Washington Post. A former u. S. Official, the last u. S. Official known to tour about a decade ago, the Nuclear Facilities in north korea. He is quoted as saying overselling is particularly dangerous. Meaning, dont write kim jongun off off but treating him as a bigger menace than he is could be dangerous. Do you agree . I do. Let me offer a different perspective from admiral kirby. While i do agree with him fundamentally, i think that President Trumps statements i think were all overreacting. I think it was a rhetorical statement. Its true north korea wants to make everything about the United States. But they would do that regardless. I think now that the statement was made, we should understand that its not necessarily bad for this president of all president s to simply say very clearly to north korea, this is whats going to happen. I think that message has actually not been as clear as it should have been. Do you think the president , professor, has been clear about what is going to happen . It seems like you are saying, send a clearer message to pyongyang. It wasnt clear to me. Yes. That is the problem with perhaps some of the off the cuff and sort of highyperbolic statement from this president. I do think its useful and its a useful message to china and perhaps even to russia. China wants at all costs to avoid any kind of use of force. I think now coming on the heels of these Ground Breaking sanctions, its not bad to let china know this president is very serious about using force if it is provoked or pushed to that limit. It might actually just be exactly with a exact ly what we need to get china to take further steps. It seems the president has said it before that the United States will go far, whether its what he has written in a statement on twitter. Do you agree with the professor that this will potentially move chinas hand . Im not sure that i do. I do think he has we have made very clear our strong position on north korea and the language yesterday was shrill and hyperbolic to the degree it didnt need to be. Theres a how do you explain madison, mcmaster, who are having more calm, balanced rhetoric. You saw secretary tillerson kind of try to put the president s comments in some sort of context and take a little of the air out of the tire. I think china knows very well where we are on this. I dont think that president xi will be bullied or coerced by rhetoric from the president of the United States. I do agree with the professor that they dont want to see conflict, they done want it see american troops s and they don want to see a reunified peninsula thats done violently. I dont think they can be bullied into changing their behavior. They need to do more, china. They do need to step up. They have unique influence they need to use on pyongyang. But i dont think that bullying them is the way to do it. Senator lindsey graham, who has been known to be hawkish, said this on cbs this morning. Do we have that . Two scenarios where we would go to war with north korea. If they attack guam or some other American Interest or our allies or if they try to keep developing an icbm with a Nuclear Weapon on top to hit the homeland, we would act. By all accounts, north korea has at least done the latter, has continued the development and furthering of this program. What do you make of that assessment . Well, this is the point. This is why its not necessarily a major crisis that suddenly erupted yesterday with these comments. We have been in this mode for well over 15 years. The point is, i think we we have to have a little perspective. This is not an issue of the state Department Defense want to have diplomacy and now we are considering these other options. These are all parts of tools of one tool kit. They can actually they should all be pursued together. Sanctions is a coercive tool. Negotiations and offer for negotiations is a much more open one. Remember, north korea thus far has rejected negotiations. If we want north korea to change its interests and to understand that pursuit of Nuclear Weapons and missiles is undermining its survival, not going to increase it as the argument is, then one of the only ways is to show them we are serious about ending north koreas survival if it continues on this path. The question is, does the rhetoric do that or do they need to see action in there . Thank you very much, professor. Nice to have you. Admiral kirby as well, thank you. Still ahead, this the world has never seen. Those words like the world has never seen from the president , we heard them yesterday about north korea. He actually has used that phrase quite a bit about a lot of other things. Were going to dive into that rhetoric. The president touting the u. S. As most powerful in the world, a move to also rally his base. Aleppo before and after the syrian city left in ruins by a devastating civil conflict just starting the long road to recovery. We will take you inside. Hey, is this our turn . Honey. Our turn . Yeah, we go left right here. woman vo Great Adventures are still out there. Well find them in our Subaru Outback. avo love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Get 0 apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 Subaru Outback models. Now through august 31. music stops bell rings secretary of state Rex Tillerson says this morning he does not have concerns over President Trumps escalating threats and rhetoric about north korea. China in a statement this morning calling on both sides to tone down the rhetoric. Lets talk about the big picture. Author of the truth about trump, Michael Dantonio is here, and Alice Stewart and eril lewis. Michael, its interesting when you look at the phrase the president used which is like the world has never seen before. Thats what he used talking about north korea yesterday. In fact, he used the statement those words twice yesterday also talking about the opioid crisis. He has used that in the past. Listen to this. Opioid Overdose Deaths have nearly quadrupled since 1999. It is a problem the likes of which we have not seen. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. You have written a lot about the president , studied his rhetoric and tone. What should we make of the similar statement being used over and over again in things very different than north korea and then applying it there . Well, im reminded of his phrase truthful hyperbole, which is in the art of the deal, the book that he actually didnt write but he had someone else write in the 1980s. I think had is all of a piece with the president. He likes certain phrases. He likes to promote things as larger than life. We remember the piece of chocolate cake he had with president xi being the most beautiful cake anybody ever saw. This is to some degree just almost like a set of verbal ticks that he has. Its always to make something bigger and more dramatic. The problem, of course, is when you are president of the United States, every sentence matters. Were now we have gone from a president who was kind of the paradone of cool, so much so that obama was criticized to it, to a president who is as red hot as a president can be in the way that he speaks. The American Public is to be forgiven for experiencing a bit of whiplash. The last thing i would like to say is i had one conversation this morning with someone who said she had been up at 4 00 a. M. Worried about whats going on with north korea. Secretary tillersons comments about people not losing sleep are welcomed. I dont think people should but some are. Certainly. Certainly some are. I mean, michael calls him verbal ticks the president has. But you have to think about who is around him, h. R. Mcmaster, chief of staff kelly. Where is he in all of this . Are these words that they would sanction . This is an important question. How do we go from these verbal ticks and words like strength and fire and fury and so forth, how does that translate into, say, instructions for the diplomatic corps or the military . We heard Rex Tillerson the other day, the secretary of state saying to north korea