jamie, welcome. >> thank you. >> how close do you think we came to just an all out explosion between the two koreas? >> we came close in some ways and not close in others. obviously, this was a big, big deal. the attack in march and then the attack on yeon-pyeong island in november were big, big deals. north korea knows how far they can push and both sides have a real reason to not want this to head to full scale war because the south knows how easily seoul can be destroyed and because the north knows ultimately how weak they are. and so they can escalate to a point and then they need to pull back. and we've seen that over and over. we're seeing it again now i think. >> it is nerve-racking to our entire world. is this our future with the koreas back and forth? >> it is our future and our past. these guys have an incredible ability to negotiate from nothing. they are incredibly weak, starving, their economy is collapsing so they come right to the brink of war and then they say all right. we can start negotiating to come back for the spring. they create leverage out of thin