suspended military exercises with south korea in the face of threats. they re going to play this, aren t they? they could, wolf. but it s the way it s played. if it s a half day and you say we want to make is sure the people of south korea are defended against this kind of craziness coming from the north that s a different story than saying hey, we re giving up, we won t do the exercise the leaders in the north are intimidating us. there s no intimidation. you have to care for the safety of the people. it s a smart move by the south korean government and the u.s. in south korean military. i ve been along the dmz. as you point out, seoul, the capital of south korea is what, 30, 40 miles away. well within artillery range. you have millions of civilians. you have a huge urban area that could be threatened by the north korea artillery shells and
exercises. this bringing it to a new level and one of the things that ambassador hill knows so well as the sprawl the urban sprawl of seoul has increased over the last several years it s now under the arc of north korean artillery range. so it s dangerous, it s a professor negotiation but it s also typical for this time of year. i assume south korea, the u.s., japan, others are going, ambassador hill, to china for example that does have significant influence over what s going on in north korea, maybe even russia which has some influence as well. how significant could these kinds of back channel diplomacy be easing this current tension? well, i would hope they are being used but i would say that what makes this difference from the past is the fact the china/north korea relationship ain t what it used to be. i mean the chinese really don t have the contacts they used to