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Is absurd. >> cnn's ben weederman is monitoring all of this for us. ben, how frustrating and challenging is this for the south korean leadership trying to de-escalate this while the president seems to be making things worse? >> reporter: traditionally rosemary, relations between seoul and washington were good. they saw eye to eye on the threat posed by the north korean nuclear program. but certainly since the candidacy of donald trump, the signals have been much different from the united states. you'll recall that it wasn't long ago that president trump accused the south korean leadership of a...

I think people would be concerned, but not particularly exercised. what's different and you heard it from ben's description was this very specific threat from the north korean foreign minster that they might conduct an atmospheric test. it doesn't sound big, but it's a big difference. they have all been contained underground, radio activities contained and you are not worried about the winds. the atmospheric test which they agreed to ban in 1963, early days of the cold war is a different thing. hard to control. hard for north korea to pull off. will definitely raise the stakes for the united s...

Between some of the leaders of syria and iraq with the trump administration. obviously the u.s. does rely on help to battle isis. certainly that is -- those sort of relations are now under threat. >> well, listen, i think coming on an official line coming from the iraqui government, for example, they have asked the united states to reconsider the ban. they said they are going to look into measures they're going to take, but it is a give-and-take relationship. the iraqis need the united states as much as the united states needs iraq, and there's the realization on the official level. but on th...

It on the screen. a country of about 8 million people. that's 40,000. .5% of the population. if you look at the united states, that the equivalent, take a look at this. equivalent of 1.5 million u.s. military reservist. that's a major decision on a relatively small country like israel to go ahead and authorize that kind of deployment for a ground invasion. >> that right. as you said, that's a significant number. and it tells me that they are preparing for possibly, as they see it, the worset that may require them to go into a place like gaza. again, i want to point out that as ben weederman sa...

determine their own destiny in a new and democratic libya. >> no details from the president as to exactly how gadhafi died. there are clearly many, many questions about that. i want you to take a look at that. this footage shot today in gadhafi's home town. sirte. it appears to show gadhafi in custody and still alive up against that truck. it is jumpy, hard to follow. we do see this man purportedly gadhafi, in this semi upright position. clearly under duress. quite possibly mortally wounded. the most detailed account we have thus far at cnn. detailed but unconfirmed, is that he was w...