Quote, fire and fury, end quote, if threats to the u. S. Continue. Fire, fury and power, the likes of which the world has never seen. Lawmakers on both sides slamming the president s response, calling on mr. Trump to be more measured as the crisis intensifies. It comes after u. S. Intelligence assessment that north korea has produced a miniaturized Nuclear Warhead that could theoretically fit inside its missiles. The tensions sparking talk of war, possibility of an arms race in the region. Others saying cooler heads will prevail. We have the Global Resources of cnn covering every angle. We begin with will ripley who has been inside north korea more than a dozen times. He joins us from north korea. A couple of developments just breaking here within the last fu minutes. We have just received word from the Chinese Ministry of foreign affairs. The First Response on the record to President Trumps fire and fury remarks and north koreas threat to attack u. S. Military assets in guam, of course, china very concerned an accidental war could break out on the peninsula. They are reiterating what they said during other times of tension. They can calling for calm. Let me read you the statement, i dont know if weve had time to make a graphic. The Current Situation is complex and sensitive. China calls on all relevant sides to uphold the broad direction of resolving the north Korean Nuclear issue through political means, avoid remarks and actions that could aggravate conflicts and escalate tensions. That message aimed both at President Trump and also at north korea. North korea responding to the flyover on monday of two u. S. B1 bombers. 30 of that island occupied by the u. S. Military, thousands of troops there, north korea saying they could potentially hit it with their medium to langrange missiles. Also a piece of breaking news out from north korea. They have released their longest held western prisoner, a canadian pastor who has been held there since early 2015. I interviewed him about a year and a half ago. Hae had been serving a life sentence of hard labor. Alisyn, i have to say, this may be an attempt by north korea to project their humanitarian side, their benevolence by allowing this prisoner to go free after 2 1 2 years. Thank you very much for keeping us posted on whats happening there. Meanwhile, President Trumps unprecedented warning to north korea of unleashing, quote, fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen, unquote, has lawmakers from both parties slamming his rhetoric. Cnns joe johns is live in bridgewater, new jersey, near the president s golf resort. Whats the statement coming from there today, joe . Reporter alisyn, this fire and fury statement from the president is, at the very least, certainly surprisingly strong langua language, arguably some of the most incendiary language used by an american president in decades. It was followed up almost immediately by another threat from north korea. The president did not make clear whether he was talking about rhetorical threats which come from north korea all the time or more physical, tangible, military threats against the United States. It was also not clear whether the president has sat down and talked to his advisers about this language, or if he was speaking more offthecuff. Listen. North korea best not make anymore threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal statement. As i said, they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before. Reporter the president s statement there quickly attracted bipartisan criticism from republican senator john mccain who said an american president needs to be willing, ready and able to act to back up his words. He said he wasnt sure President Trump is willing to act, at least at this stage. This is also likely to complicate the efforts of secretary of state tillerson in the region. Bill. Joe johns, thank you very much. The mounting tensions between the u. S. And north korea prompting neighboring countries to enable more weapons. This is daily life in seoul, but not words like this from the american president. Whats the reaction so far . Reporter theyre used to threats. Theres real threats about a mistake that could lead to conflict. Frankly, north korea doesnt need an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile to stage an attack right here in the region if they feel threatened, if the wires get somehow crossed, and the implications could be truly dire. The city of seoul, the larger metropolitan area here has some 20 Million People, just 35 miles away from the dmz, the heavily fortified border between south korea and north korea where north korea has its weapons lined up. Again, they can attack the region at any time if they want to. They know they would face incredible repercussions. Thats the only thing that would be holding them back. But given the heightened tension on the peninsula, heightened security concerns, we are hearing calls from the president of south korea for the country to up its defense capabilities and capacity, similar sentiments echoed by lawmakers in japan. Officials here are trying to lower the tension in the region. They havent responded directly about the incendiary comments made by President Trump, pointing the finger at pyongyang, calling for calm there and said north korea created the problem here. Alisyn. If u. S. Intelligence assessments are accurate, north korea is on a fast track to becoming a fullfledged nuclear power. The reclusive regime has purportedly produced a miniaturized Nuclear Warhead that could fit inside a missile capable of hitting the u. S. Mainland. Cnns Barbara Starr has more on their advancing capabilities. Barbara, this is happening faster than we had been warned. Good morning, alisyn. The key words there are produced. They have produced some type of Nuclear Warhead device item, if you will. Whether it has been tested, which is doubtful, and whether it would actually be able to be put on a functioning missile launched and get to a target is still an open question. The question is how far along are they really, have they tested all this . As for a missile that would carry that warhead, we know they have tested Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles that could reach the u. S. , more enter mad range missiles that could hit guam. The big question is have they locked in all the advanced capabilities for targeting the missile and the warhead to a specific spot thousands of miles away . And could that missile and warhead survive the heat and pressure of reentering the earths atmosphere . These are key questions, key technical questions, of course. It all goes to what is the rhetoric versus the reality of the north korean program. Alisyn . Barbara, thank you very much for all of that from the pentagon. Lets bring in our panel. We have cnn political analyst david gregory, counterterrorism editor phil mudd. Will ripley, for people just joining us, you had breaking news about the First Chinese response to all this. Tell us what theyre saying. Ill read you the response once again. China, what they tend to do in situations like this, they stand in the middle and tell the United States to calm down, tell north korea to calm down. What they dont want to see is an accidental war break out on their doorstep. Theres growing fear here this morning that this is exactly where this path is leading, not that either side necessarily wants a military conflict, but one action could lead to a chain reaction. The statement reads, quote, the Current Situation on the Korean Peninsula is complex and sensitive. China calls on all relevant sides to uphold the broad direction of resolving the north Korean Nuclear issue through political means, avoid remarks and actions that could aggravate conflicts and escalate tensions. That aimed obviously at the effort to promote the issue r through dialogue and negotiations. Also that remark aimed at north korea as well. Theyve been putting out provocative rhetoric for years, threatening just this week to annihilate the United States, to retaliate if the United States tries to take out their Supreme Leader kim jong un. China is continuing to insist that they are not responsible for this. They place the blame for escalating tensions on the North Koreans, but also the United States and south korea for their military exercises. David, lets talk about President Trumps understanding of the region. On the campaign trail he alluded to the idea that japan should take care of this. After meeting with president xi, he said its more complicated than that. He once called kim jong un a smart cookie. Was he talking to his base from bedminster, talking to his voters in the heartland, or do you think he had any sense of talking to the capitals in beijing and tokyo . I think in this case the president is making a calculation and is thinking about this strategically. Whether its wise, i think he is being strategic because he is conferring with top military and diplomatic advisers on this. Theres been a process according to people ive talked to over the past months indicating there is a seriousness about this, to reach a diplomatic solution to all this. So i think in his mind he wants to meet kims rhetoric with his own overthetop rhetoric to send a message to china and to north korea that there is a new sheriff in town, that hes going to do things differently, that hes not just going to try to contain or try to negotiate with the north, but he might be crazy enough to call their bluff. I think theres something donald trump has made these comments in the past referring to the mad man theory of Foreign Policy that president nixon deployed, to puersuade the nort that he might be unusual enough to do this. I think what worries people is to draw this kind of red line, you want to be much more opaque. At the end of the day, i think serious experts on this see some kind of negotiation that leads to a containment of the north, even though im sure trump looks at this and says i want to do Something Different than Previous Administrations have done that hasnt worked up until now. Absolutely, david. In fact, his own tweets from 2013 say that very thing. Before he was ever a candidate, donald trump was putting out tweets like this about president obama, what he thought was lack of forceful enough response to north korea. He said where is the president . Its time for him to come on tv and show strength against the repeated threats from north korea. So thats what he vowed to do even before he was ever president , phil mudd. Now hes doing it. You know, if what david just spelled out is that President Trump wants to show that he, too, can be volatile, he, too, can be unpredictable, well,ist has gotten the attention of china, according to will ripley, because of the statement they just put out. I suppose, but its a mistake. Hes trying to project power. Hes done that with the mexicans on building the fence, with the canadians on nafta, threatened the europeans by opening questions to our commitment to nato; now more threatening to the chinese. Here is the problem. Its one of the most profound mistakes in any Foreign Policy decision, that is what we call the rational actor model. Hes threatening because he knows we dwarf the North Koreans military capability and economy. Hes assuming theyll view this rationally, that theyll say any military engagement with the americans will be a huge mitts take and could eventually end the regime in north korea. Thats a mistake by President Trump for the simple reason that you do not understand how the adversary will interpret your message. Let me give you one different interpretati interpretation. The north Korean Leader says the president is serious and might consider toppling my regime . What does he do then . He lashes out to defend himself. As soon as you use language like this, alisyn, you threaten the prospect that the adversary interprets the language in ways you never anticipated. The mad man theory of leadership as referenced there, depended on Henry Kissinger playing good cop to nixons bad cop. No secretary for easts affairs, no secretary of Asian Pacific affairs. But we do understand that Rex Tillerson, our secretary of state at the moment, on a surprise trip to guam had comments to say. He was flying from kuala lumpur to the pacific island, maybe predicated by the president s comments to go calm that down. Well play that sound when it becomes available. In the meantime, chris cillizza, how about that diplomatic effort . If in the art of the deal, in Donald Trumps world, when you open with fire and fury, where do you go from there . Yeah. When you start at ten, its hard to get louder. Im with phil mudd in that i do think the danger here is that trump is 50 of this equation. Hes not 100 , and during the campaign the big thing after the campaign was, see, you guys, the media, take trump seriously but not literally. His supporters take him literally but not seriously. Sorry. The other way around. The point being, they know he just says stuff. Hes not going to do it. Build the wall, hes just talking. We like that hes willing to say those things. We like that he starts up on ten, bill, not on two. Its a harder game when youre talking about foreign powers, particularly when youre talking about a rogue nation like north korea. Bill is exactly right. We dont know how this is going to be interpreted in pyongyang. Sure, if they look at our military might versus theirs, a rational decision would suggest they do not provoke in any way, shape or form. But when you have the president of the United States saying things like fire and fury, does kim jong un say, i take him seriously, but i dont take him literally. What if he takes him the other way around . Thats always been the question with trump. What would this mean, taken out of the context of a campaign where hes saying things about this person or that person and put it in the context of world affairs, and then where are we . Thats the question were asking today. The bigger question is not so much how north korea ultimately absorbed this message. Its how china does. China is a rational actor and china doesnt just think in terms of the next couple months but thinks in terms of years, in terms of a relationship with the United States. And the power dynamic in the far east, in that part of the world. So china can ultimately use its influence to try to calm things down. The other piece of this is you have to look at our recent history. Phil has dealt with these issues directly. In the period of the iraq war, you have libya after the invasion of iraq give up its nuclear program. There was an intelligence assessment at the time that indicated iran had slowed down a little bit after the invasion of iraq, the projection of u. S. Power. In the end, the administration under president obama negotiated with iran about its Nuclear Capability to try to push that down the road. With a regime like north korea that has continued to advance, i still think were looking at negotiation david, hold on one second. We do now have the sound coming from secretary of state Rex Tillerson. Hes just arrived in guam. This is a surprise visit. He has just spoken about north korea. The tape appears to be freezing at the moment. I can tell you he has said that the president has issued strong words against north korea and that he said north korea does not seem to understand any diplomatic talk. Well play that directly for you as soon as we have it. Will ripley, its interesting, secretary of state Rex Tillerson is really trying to thread a needle. What he has been saying is that hes been working on a peaceful Pressure Campaign. That was before the president s words. Here he is now. The president said that north koreas threats against the United States with fire and fury like the world has never seen. Is this part of a diplomatic strategy, or did you find those remarks to be well, i think, you know, the u. S. And International Community with respect to north korea has actually had a pretty good week. We had a unanimous u. N. Security Council Resolution to strengthen sanctions against north korea with china and russia joining us in that vote. And then at asean, a lot of strong statements coming out of asean that i think reinforced, the Global Community has expressed its view that north korea really needs to stand down this program. I think in response to that the North Koreans rhetoric has ratcheted up. I think what the president was doing is sending a strong message that kim jong un will understand. I think the president wanted to be clear to the north korean regime that the u. S. Has an unconditional ability to defend itself, will defend itself and its allies. I think its important he deliver that message to avoid any mys