Brown from malaysia, special correspondent Steve Sapienza reports on the social and environmental costs of harvesting palm oil, found in products ranging from cookies to cosmetics. One big reason the oil is so cheap to produce is the steady supply of migrant labor. It relies on 500,000 global workers to feed demand for the product and fuel malaysias economic prosperity. Woodruff ray suarez talks with journalist Phil Bronstein about his profile of the navy seal credited with shooting osama bin laden. He talks about going in the room, rolling in the room as he puts it and being kind of shocked at how tall bin laden was and having to raise his gun up to shoot him. Brown we get closing thoughts about the president s speech tonight from mark shields and david brooks. Thats all ahead on tonights brown and we get some closing thoughts about the president s speech tonight from mark shields and david brooks. Brown thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Brown another defiant act by north korea today. The nation carried out its Third Nuclear test, triggering new fears and a global outcry. The announcement blared forth on north korean state television. Main purpose of this nuclear test is to show the resentment of our people and army of the United States hostile actions that are no better than robbery. Our nuclear test is a fair selfdefensive action which does not contravene any International Law. Brown the underground blast took place at a remote location in the North Eastern part of the country. It was the communist regimes Third Nuclear test since 200 20062006. Seismic readings in south korea suggested this device was smaller than those used earlier bull it packed more explosive punch. The test came just weeks after a u. N. Security council vote imposing additional sanctions against north korea. That u. N. Action followed north koreas launch of a satellite in december. The u. S. And others had warned that the rocket could also be used to carry Nuclear Weapons. Todays nuclear test se the u. N. Security council back into emergency meetings to discuss yet more sanctions. U. S. Ambassador susan rice. The actions of north korea are a threat to Regional Peace and security, International Peace and security. They are not acceptable. They will not be tolerated. And they will be met with north koreas increasing isolation and pressure under United States sanctions. Brown in washington a state Department Official confirmed that pong jiang had informed the u. S. Of its intention to test a Nuclear Device but had given no date. Other nations joined in a wave of condemnation including the Russian Foreign minister who was in south africa. From what we have heard today, pyongyang violated its commitment and deserves condemnation because it ignored the norms of International Laws. Brown even china, the norths lone major ally voiced its, quote, staunch opposition. It urged north korea to return to its Six Party Talks on its Nuclear Program stalled since 2008 but pyongyang has continued its nuclear work despite enter smat pressure. With todays test, the countrys young leader kim jongun directly challenged other leaders in neighboring nations including south korea, japan and china. Back in washington, outgoing defense secretary leon panetta warned that those countries and the uses will have to contend with, quote, rogue states for some time. You just saw what north korea has done in these last few weeks. The missile test and now a nuclear test. They represent a serious threat to the United States of america. Weve got to be prepared to deal with that. Steven north koreas own Public Statement insisted todays test was only a first response. It said it will be additional actions to come but gave no specifics. Brown and im joined by ambassador charles Jack Pritchard, former u. S. Special envoy for north korea negotiatons under president george w. Bush. And james acton, a senior associate in the Nuclear Policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Ambassador pritchard, i guess one obvious question is why now . Its a great question. And i usually start by saying why not now . Let me explain that. North koreans have a very mature and Serious Nuclear weapon and a Missile Technology program. Theyre going to continue to do the research and development. When the time comes that theyre ready to do a test, theyre going to do that unless there is a political or a Foreign Policy reason for them not to do it. I mean theres been the questions about responding to sanctions. I mean even today people are wondering, is it tied to state of the union. Is it sort of a direct, you know, push against the u. S. . I dont think so. I mean, in 2009 we heard this exact same thing. It was a condemnation of their april 2009 missile launch. The North Koreans six weeks later conducted a Second Nuclear test in which they said it was because of the condemnation that occurred over their missile tests. You know, the response to that is thats nonsense. Nobody conducts Nuclear Tests because theyve been chastised over a missile test. More specifically, i would say if youre looking at a concurrence of time, its not the state of the union. Its the two weeks prior to the inauguration of a new south korean president. Brown to another part of the world. Well get back to that. Let me ask james acton, the north korean official news agency referred to this as a miniaturized and lighter Nuclear Device with greater explosive force than previously. What does that mean . What can we tell about the actual device . Good evening, jeff. Most people believe that pyongyangs longterm goal is developing a Ballistic Missile along with a Nuclear War Head that can threaten the United States. In order to do that, you need a militarized physically smaller and lighter Nuclear Device. Pyongyang is claiming that its successfully done that. What i want to emphasize is we dont have any kind of independent confirmation of that at the moment. All we know from the seismic and the shaking of the earth after the test, this was an explosion. What we dont know is the size of the device. We dont know the material from which the devise was made. In fact, we dont even know definitively that this was larger than the previous two tests. It probably was. But it would take some time for the seismologists to estimate the yield accurately. Brown do we know, to say anymore about the bottomline question here which is how much of a threat are they, to the region and ultimately to the larger. The rest of the world including the u. S. . Well, i think the test today marks a quantitative change. It demonstrates that pyongyang is moving along its arc of developing Nuclear Weapons that can threaten the United States. It already has Ballistic Missiles that can threaten the region. If it can fit a Nuclear War Head on to those, then it can directly threaten some of its neighbors. It doesnt mark a fundamentally new departure. North korea has tested Nuclear Weapons and plenty of missiles. Today marks an intensification of threat rather than a fundamental change in the nature of the threat. Brown you mentioned, ambassador pritchard, south korea. I also want to bring up. Of course, the world condemned this right away. The most interesting perhaps was china which had explicitly called on north korea not to take this step. What does that tell you . Well, take a look over the last sixandahalf years since the first north Korean Nuclear debt nation in october of 2006. The chinese came out much stronger then. They had come out and unanimously joined the others at the Security Council condemning the North Koreans on several occasions now. So theyve developed a pattern of trying to warn off north korea from doing this but ultimately they are not going to unilaterally apply the type of pressure that would cause the North Koreans to end its missile and Nuclear Programs. Brown the North Koreans think they can go ahead. The North Koreans understand the calculations that the chinese have made. They know exactly how far they can go. Brown do they. One of the questions, if i may, is we got new leadership in china, so the question becomes, will he take on what conventional wisdom says will be a status co approach to north korea or is he going to be a little bit more angry, if you will, at the North Koreans and how is that going to manifest itself . New leadership in china. New leadership in south korea. New leadership in japan. Of course a new leader in north korea. Also partly a new regime in the United States. Youve got secretary kerry who will come at this in a slightly different point of view than his predecessor. Well have to see how that plays out as well. Whats the sort of detective work that happens now to figure out more about the things we dont know . How about particular test. Right. As i mentioned previously, all we know is theres been a test. We have a very rough estimate of how big the bang was. What we dont know is whether the device was made from plutonium or highly enriched uranium. That sounds like a minor technical issue but it actually has hugely important policy consequences. North korea only has a small amount of plutonium. It actually would be very, very hard for it to produce more. So part of the reason why north korea wants to shift to uranium is because it would allow it to increase its arsenal relatively quickly. So if this turns out to be a highly enriched uranium test, then north korea has demonstrated its ability to expand its arsenal. So a lot of countries including the United States are going to be using radiation detectors to sniff the air to see if theres any leakage from the test. And work out from those radioactive materials what it can learn about the nature of the device that was detonated. Brown this is relatively easy to figure out once you get the detectors . I mean, you know, firstly, theres no guarantee there will be leakage of material. Secondly, even if there is, theres no guarantee youre detected. You know, we didnt detect any material from the 2009 test. If you do detect it, then its quite likely that youll be able to distinguish between highly enriched uranium and plutonium. Its possible but not completely guaranteed by any means that you might be able to get some indication of the design of the device. But that will just educated guesswork and dont expect governments to be forth coming about that. Let me ask you briefly as the u. N. Goes back into session to look at sanctions, what more can be done at this point . Very little on an international scale. In 2009 they came out with some very good sanctions, but it didnt really influence the North Koreans actions. I dont think theres any marginal addition to the sanctions that are in place. Theyre going to call on the North Koreans to blink, if you will. Very little from an International Point of view. Necessary but wont produce an outcome. Brown ambassador Jack Pritchard and james acton, thank you both very much. Thank you. Woodruff we have more about todays nuclear test on our web site, including a dispatch on reaction in seoul, south korea, from our Partner Global post, plus links to previous newshour stories on north korea. And still to come on the newshour, white house spokesman jay carney; Palm Oil Production in malaysia; osama bin ladens killer; plus, shields and brooks. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan the manhunt for a former los angeles policeman erupted into a firefight today. Authorities said christopher dorner, wanted for three murders, has barricaded himself in a cabin in the Big Bear Lake area, 80 miles east of the city. When Police Showed up, gunfire broke out. Ey received information from the person reporting that the stolen vehicle was stolen by an individual that appeared to be very similar to christopher dorner. Immediately we conducted a ground and air search for this vehicle. They were able to locate it at highway 38 and glass roads where the suspect in the vehicle fled into the forest. Shortly thereafter, this individual barricaded himself in one of the cabins there and an exchange of gun fire occurred. During that exchange of gun fire, two officers were injured. Sreenivasan we get more from public radio. The reporter spoke to us a short while ago from the scene of the activity. Frank, thanks for joining us. Bring us up to speed. What happened today . Well, it was in the early afternoon that a police got reports of a truck being commandeered in the big bear area. Now, this suspects truck had been found there a few days earlier burned out. This truck that he was driving apparently commandeered, and the police took after him and chased him into the woods into a cabin. They have him surrounded now. Sreenivasan what has he been doing for the past couple of days . How did he get access to this truck . Well, he commandeered the truck from a couple of women. For the last few days police have been in a massive manhunt in Southern California. Hundreds and hundreds of officers looking for him. And there was a lot of question because his burnedout truck was found in the big bear area a few days ago. There was a huge snowstorm and people were wondering how could he survive out in this snowstorm . There have been reports that he was held up in one of the cabins not far from the command post where police were. Then he shows up today on a Mountain Road in this commandeered truck that he has taken to this cabin, this remote cabin. Sreenivasan ive heard the audio file of a fire fight today. What happened . Two Police Officers were not sure what agency just yet wounded by the suspect according to police. We dont know their condition. But there was this fire fight that took place. Swat officers from around Southern California have been in the big bear area heavily armed. Of course dorner himself a former Police Officer heavily armed himself according to police. Sreenivasan frank from Southern California public radio thanks so much. Thank you. Sreenivasan in iran the government said in iran, the government said today it is ready for a comprehensive agreement on allowing u. N. Inspections of its nuclear sites. But it said the west must recognize its right to continue a Nuclear Program. The countrys foreign minister said the u. S. And others have no right to criticize iran or north korea. As long as those who issue warnings are themselves violators of International Law they cannot expect to have a world free of Nuclear Weapons. We believe there should be a collective and International Movement to destroy all weapons of mass destruction so that everyone will be able to use the latest science and technology for peaceful purposes. Sreenivasan iran has insisted its Nuclear Program is for power generation. The u. S. Says tehran is bent on building Nuclear Weapons. President obama is set to bring home 34,000 u. S. Troops from afghanistan by this time next year. White house and pentagon officials confirmed it today. The decision marks the next phase in the administrations plan to end the u. S. Combat role in afghanistan by 2014. There are currently 66,000 american troops in afghanistan, down from a peak of 100,000. A sharply divided Senate Armed Services committee moved today to approve chuck hagel for defense secretary. The Party Line Vote on the former senator was 1411. His fellow republicans challenged ha