dictator kim jong-il had a stroke, he s trying to pass power to his son, kim jong-un, so the north is feeling particularly vulnerable and oversensitive to anything that it sees as a potential threat, and south korea carrying out live fire artillery exercises in waters the north claimses aits own just a few miles off the north korean coast, something the north reacted very badly to, that s why they fired artillery in november and that s why i think they re likely to respond militarily if the south exercises go ahead now. when asked why people here inspect united states should be concerned about this, wolf blitzer who is in pyongyang said this is perhaps if not one of the but the most dapg rungerous regions in the world right now because of these exercises. the danger here is if the south goes ahead and the north responds, there is no question, the south will retaliate. i just came back from seoul and all my conversations with diplomats there and south korean officials the south kore
island, i don t think bonby i d there s a tension level i can only stress is serious. we ve been covering this on the network. who is really in charge, kim jong-il, is it his son, is it the military? who would be in charge as far as stopping or starting any retaliation for these exercises in south korea? there s no doubt that kim jong-il is in charge of everything here and there s the succession process under way with his yupgest son kim jong-un. that will take awhile. on this issue the military plays the maimer role and in it the military will be responding and the conversation bill richardson had with the chief of the military, along the demilitarized zone, major p pak rim soo. he considered proposals for a hotline between north korea and south korea, military to military and a joint u.s./north
council is putting forth, but at the very least, i don t see any action on both sides, while the security council is meeting. so once again, it shows that the united nations is important. security council is important. and so we need to do, hope that there s a strong-worded resolution that exercises self-restraint on all sides, but also a little bit of a poke or condemnation on what north korea s been doing because what they ve been doing aggressively is really unacceptable. governor richardson, thanks very much. there you have it, don, he s going into a meeting now in the next, within the next hour with the vice president of north korea, kim yong deh and continue with vice minister mi yong-ho. the north koreans based on everything he s heard are making it clear if south korea goes ahead with this exercise at this