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north korea. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." the showdown over the payroll tax cut lasted for weeks, but the stalemate ended in a matter of minutes today after house republican leaders bowed to overwhelming pressure and gave into the democrats. today, the house approved the bill that got almost 90% of support in the senate. president obama signed it into law and the threat of a new year's day tax hire for 160 working americans is over. let's go straight to dana bash who's watching this on capitol hill. must be pretty empty. it was exciting for a few minutes today. >...

Pyongyang, the united nations security council is meeting in new york on the korean crisis. it's late sunday, december 19th. >> south korea has promised to begin military drills at any time, and north korea has warned it will retaliate if they do. the u.n. security council today seemed powerless to stop it. >> six hours of talks in new york end without action. >> unable to agree on a security council statement regarding hostilities on the korean peninsula. >> at the pentagon a state of high alert. any hostilities between north and south korea could quickly involve the 28,000 u.s. military pers...

Thanks a lot. we'll wait to see what the security council does meeting there in new york. thanks, richard. the u.s. closely monitoring every move here between the koreas and here's the latest from barbara starr at the pentagon. >> the u.s. military and entire obama administration trying to ratchet down tensions on the korean peninsula. as long as south korea remains committed to conducting live fire exercises and north continues to say it will respond militarily, anxieties remain high. the pentagon is maintaining around the clock communications with south korea to stay on top of the situation ...