Korea a rogue state, highlighting chinas unsuccessful efforts to rein in the north and criticizing south korea for what he described as talk of appeasement, saying north only understands one thing. A south korea official reacting saying south korea has experienced the tragic war and will not give up the denuclearization of the peninsula and will continue to pursue peace. Heres what the president said a short time ago. Mr. President , will you attack north korea . Well see. Well see. Nbcs gehrig haig is at the white house for us. Were hearing from the president. Lets talk about in total what were hearing, what he is saying. Well, after that cryptic message from the president a short time ago, two new tweets floim, outlining a little more about how the white house may respond to this nuclear test. The first, rather, from the president a short time ago, saying, i will be meeting with general kelly, general mattis and other military leaders at the white house to discuss north korea. Thank you. Note that the president doesnt mention his secretary of state or u. N. Ambassador. Although its possible either of those people could be attending as well. Then secondly the president says, the United States is considering in addition to other options stopping all trade with any country doing business with north korea. This, a potentially ratcheting up economic pressure on north korea. The treasury secretary steven ma nuchen outlined this in a little more detail on fox news this morning. I did speak with the president and its clear this behavior is completely unacceptable. Weve already started with sanctions against north korea. But im going to draft a sanctions package to send to the president for his strong consideration, that anybody that wants to do trade or business with them would be prevented from doing trade or business with us. Alex, you know who does a lot of trade or business with north korea . Thats china. So the president has long tried to tie china and north korea together to put pressure on cajole the chinese into cdoing more to contain north korea. We hope to find out a little bit more about this plan and what else the white house is considering after that meeting breaks up. Unfortunately, no detail also yet from the white house when it is expected to start or conclude. All right, gehrig, thank you for keeping an eye on that for us. Lets go now to china where we have the very latest from beijing. Janice, with a good evening to you, what are the chinese saying about this con firmged nuclear test, if anything . Well, china has officially sided with the International Community in condemning this latest test by north korea. South korea, their president going so far as to say that he is, quote, utterly disappointed and infuriated. South korea has reason to be. Seen as perhaps the most vulnerable to these provocations by the north and their president moon jaein has been quite conciliatory, in wanting to urge north korea to return to the negotiating table. But there is the sense in the region that perhaps this test was aimed less at President Trump than at chinas president xi jinping. Seen as a possible kingmaker in negotiations if they are to happen. Because china has the leverage with washington that pyongyang does not. There is a sense of urgency, though, the progress that north korea has realized over the last year or so has come under sanctions. So there is the sense that sanctions have been ineffective. And of course will effect what can happen next. President trump tweeted that reference to trade and suggesting the u. S. Will not do trade with any country doing business with north korea. That is seen as a swipe at china. Continuing to put the pressure on beijing to try to rein in the north. The problem of course as ever with north korea, there is very little room to maneuver. Cyberattacks being seen as one possibility. But energy sanctions could apply more pressure. The problem of course is the suppliers of energy to north korea are china and russia and to this point, neither side has been enthuft yaftic or willing to put so much pressure on the regime that it would force its collapse, alex. Okay, but janice, in perspective here, how much leverage do the chinese have in pressuring kim jongun . Thats been the golden question for the last several months. As the pressure has increased from President Trump. There are not strong diplomatic relations between beijing and pyongyang. The two sides have never met. Xi jinping has never met with kim jongun. There seems to be a deterioration in the level of interaction between the two sides. Theres still communication on the military side. But diplomatically, china does not hold as much sway as it perhaps used to. Economics will be the main tool here. But, again, china does not want to put so much pressure on the regime that there could be utter collapse in north korea. China of course worrying about refugees flooding across the border. But also about how it would change the geopolitical balance within the region. Alex. All right, thank you, janice for that. Lets turn now to the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and a warning from the fema administrator on the funding needed to rebuild. It is a wakeup call for this country for local and state elected officials to give their governors and their Emergency Management directors the full budgets that they need to be fully staffed to design Rainy Day Funds, to have your own standalone individual assistance and public assistance programs. This is a wakeup call. People cannot depend solely on the federal Emergency Management agency to be responsible for a majority. States do a lot of work. But i think we all have to collectively sit there and after this event figure out how to collectively improve. And meanwhile houston mayor Sylvester Turner on his concerns about the contamination left behind. Most of those Super Fund Sites are immediately outside of the city of houston. Certainly we would hope the epa would be on the ground now to take a look at those Super Fund Sites to make sure contamination is contained and limited. The Drinking Water was never a question. Our plants continue to function. So the water no one had to boil any water in the city of houston. The water system is safe. Lets bring in howard dean, former governor of vermont, former dnc chair and an msnbc contributo contributor. And susan del persio. I want to talk north korea first before we get to Hurricane Harvey. Howard, when you first saw the president s tweets today, what was your reaction . Well, you know, again hes a bit inept. Youre not going to cut off trade with china. The American Economy would suffer terribly. If you did that. So hes got to hes not going to do this because hes 70 whatever he is years old and hes not going to change but he really should think before he tweets. The problem with this is its an empty threat that he cant carry out. You cannot cut off american trade with china short of a war between the two which is incredibly unlikely, although with trump, who knows what will happen. What about you, susan, how do you interpret the president s tweets today . Well, the president s tweets were the president s tweets. We see that. Was more concerning was his comment when he was asked i think you showed at the top of the hour, the question was are we head to war with north korea and the answer was well see. The New York Times reported today the Trump Administration is considering severing its trading pack with south korea. Thats last thing we need to do is create more enemies in that peninsula. Its just that he creates problems theres always a big enough problem, he doesnt need to add to it. Earlier this week, the president tweeted that talking is not the answer with regard to north korea. Then his secretary of defense mattis almost immediately contradicted that, saying were never out of diplomatic solutions. Susan, at a moment of extreme International Tension like this what does that kind of Public Division look like to our allies and also to our enemies . Well, its something that the International Community, those who are with us and against us, take advantage of. Because it looks like we dont have our act together as a country. That were in disarray. And were all not on the same page. Thats something i think frankly north koreas taking advantage of and chinas taking advantage of. Of our own administration not having everything line ed up. The same thoughts to you, howard, how do you describe all this division . First of all, susan is right, this business about cutting off trade with south korea, undoing the trade agreement, is just unhinged. That doesnt make any sense at all. He couldnt have possibly talked to anybody in the white house that has any brains before he did that. I mean, its just unbelievable. Second of all, i think susan is also right about the relationship with our allies and our not so allies. Heres the big problem. He keeps tweeting this stuff. He is going to trump is so famous for blaming others for things that are actually his own fault. What hes doing is undermining the power of the United States. Because if you keep tweeting that youre going to do something about something and hint youre going to do something militarily and you dont, youre in the same position barack obama was when he said there was a red line about chemical weapons and then didnt do anything about it when they crossinged the red lines. Trump is doing exactly the same thing with these ridiculous tweets. Cant he just hold off for five minutes so we can talk to general maltess and general kelly before he gets off on these rants . It is damaging our country and its damaging our safety because it emboldened our enemies. We have to think both those gentlemen you mentioned, were hoping they might wait until they have that meeting, scheduled for some time today, well keep an eye on that and what comes of it. All right, switching gear what did you make of the president s second trip to texas yesterday . I think somebody probably got a hold of him and said this is what president s actually are supposed to do and i thought people on the ground were pleased that it came. Although theres a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes thats pretty awful. One is that the governor of texas has a big Rainy Day Fund which he wont said he wont spend on helping recover from this. He refuses to call a special session of the legislature but he was fine with calling a special session of the legislature to put in the bathroom bill. This is a guy whose priorities are upside down and im maized he gets away with this in texas. President s overall, do they get dooffers or was this president just going back to try to fix something that he did, and you think this will be the more impressionable interpretation of his approach to texas, the second trip . The second trip will be what people basically remember in the short term. But heres whats different, alex, when we look at natural disasters in the past, whether it be bush and katrina or obama and sandy, is that this president is going to be running for reelection three years later and going to be judged on what he has done over that time. So he was out there this week saying were going to build back stronger and better and faster. What happens when there are people out there three years from now and still dont have their home built . Because as we know from sandy and katrina, the rebuilding takes a long time. And he will be up for reelection in three years. So its interesting timing. The fact is he won that state by ten points and the reality is theyre projecting years it will take. Right. So do you think this will affect people when they go to the ballot box ultimately howard in texas . I do. Texas is 48 latino. Its also a latino population that votes more republican than most of the rest of the latino population, especially if he overturned the dream act. Although i have to confess ive been saying that for eight years and it hasnt materialized yet. Can i ask you both to give a grade to the president and his hurricane response thus far . Howard, you first. I would say the cumulative grade is a bminus because he got a d for the first time and a aminus for the second. Okay, susan. A bplus because government is delivering right now and thats the most important thing. Theyre taking the most immediate responses. Okay, you two, always good to see you, thank you. If north korea was really test ago ing a Hydrogen Bomb, hg of a difference is that . You dont let anything lkeep you sidelined. Come on thats why you drink ensure. With 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. Ensure, always be you. Heri think i might burst. Totally immersed weekenders. Whatever kind of weekender you are, theres a hilton for you. Book your weekend break direct with hilton. Com and join the summer weekenders. Im about to pop a cap of mmm fresh in that washer with unstopables inwash scent boosters by downy. And if you want, pour a little more, because this scent lasts for 12 weeks, which is longer than any relationship ive ever been in. Right, freshness for weeks unstopables by downy. For a fresh too feisty to quit. For years, at t has been promising fast internet to Small Businesses. But for many businesses, its out of reach. Why promise something you cant deliver . Comcast business is different. We deliver superfast internet with speeds of 150 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than at t. We do business where you do business. Back with this breaking news, nbc confirmed a short time ago north korea has tested an advanced Nuclear Device. This would make it the sixth nuclear test. The north says it was a Hydrogen Bomb which can be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. With a welcome to you, from what we know so far, how powerful was this test bomb . We dont know exactly but what we do know is that the seismic event that accompanied that blast was larger than in previous iterations. Last nuclear test was in the mid5 range. This was in the mid6 range. Thats an order of magnitude greater, based on how the Richter Scale measures it. We dont know for certain about what the carat riftics of this weapon were. But we do know they have significantly boosted the yield of their nuclear explosives. The u. S. Geological survey says it was 6. 3 so youre right on the money with the numbers there. The picture of what you called a peanutshaped device. The north is claiming its a Small Nuclear weapon and this could be mounted on an icbm. First of all, tell us what were looking at here. What you see in the picture. Is there any sign its a fake . Theres no sign that i know of from the picture that its a fake. What theyre clearly trying to convey with this accentuated waist and two bullbous ends is this is a twostage weapon. Its not a rudement airy onestage device. What theyre looking to convince us of is that theres a first Nuclear Weapon that then detonates a fusion weapon. A thermo Nuclear Weapon in the second stage. Thats a greater yield. Its what sophisticated u. S. Nuclear weapons use. So really theyre trying to convey to us that theres this advanced technology that theyve mastered. We cant confirm they did it. It could be full of cotton balls. But, you know, the larger yield suggests theyve gained that capability. We know they were seeking fusion fuel. And we know, you know, we know theyve krolcrossed these lines successively throughout the spring. So this fusion youre describing, is that what makes the difference between an atomic bomb and a Hydrogen Bomb with the Hydrogen Bomb being the more powerful . Yes, thats right. In this kind of weapon, a fission, a nuclear fission, first stage, explodes and then compresses and ignites the second stage which is full of fusion fuel. Essentially that helps the fis cy le material burn up at a faster rate so when the weapon explodes it doesnt stop the chain reaction. So when they burn up faster, it can greatly increase the yield. Essentially what this will mean is they will be able to build more Nuclear Weapons with less plutonium and uranium, with less fissile material, and have a greater yield while they do it. It also helps them to make it smaller. Lets talk about what we know with regard to the tremors. So last year, the test that they did, 5. 1, 5. 3. This year what were seeing is 6. 3 by the measurement we mentioned earlier. That mean theres been an escalaties lation in this past year. Is that surprising to you, the pace with which they seem to have increased their ability . As i mentioned earlier, they keep crossing these likes and they keep doing it sooner than we in the open Source Community expected. Theyve tested a range of highly sophisticated missiles throughout the spring. Theyre switching from liquid fueled missiles to solid fueled missiles. This means theyre more survivable. So theyve crossed these technical thresholds and we think theyre doing it now with the nuclear warheads. If theyre doing it more quickly than experts like you expect, is that because theyre getting help somewhere . Are they doing it on their own, you think . Theres still no indication north koreas receiving large amounts of help from foreign countries. We think, for example, they may have procured the transporter erector larger, the trucks they use to launch their missiles, from china, but thats not doing to help them develop these kinds of sophisticated warheads. Theyre getting very good at some very difficult technical tasks. Theyve made enormous strides in their missiles production the missile bodies, in miniaturizing the warheads. Even if they were getting plans from elsewhere, which we cant be certain of, theyre still becoming extremely capable. We cant know for certain that we can just isolate the country, cut it off from foreign sources and stop the program. Thats not a realistic option at this point. The chilling prospect of north korea being able to take offensive