warhead to fit on an icbm, if that is, in fact, true, as christiane said, we are out of time. we have to deal with the reality that in very short order the north koreans will have a deliverable nuclear weapon that can reach the united states. i was not surprised by this announcement. they ve been working toward this all along. it s miniaturization that is becoming the issue and they seemed to have mastered that. they talked about that a few weeks ago and have shown it to us today. yeah, as the world braces for the global reaction, i mean, we find ourselves at a very difficult moment because the fact of the matter is you are dealing with a regime that is paranoid, that is slightest wrong word or move could trigger an action of immeasurable consequence. this is a very, very dangerous
certainly raise the ire of the west or the dander, certainly, but also this is part of his marketing in the black market activity you re talking about. because as sanctions increase, financials is what we re really focusing here, the sale of their technology that they re developing, albeit not necessarily good, but that which is functional and sellable, this helps north korea. this helps north korea be known as one of those sellers of nuclear technology. one of the five or six countries in the world that are known to understand how to build this stuff. yeah, it s we ve been focussing a great deal on the sophistication of nuclear weapons, miniaturization, delivery means using icbms and the rest. but there s a great deal of
back to what the president was attacking on monday. when it comes to north korea, the important point is there haven t been any changes with the facts on the ground. if you recall, what precipitated this crisis, it was the publication of a report in the washington post about north korea s alleged miniaturization of a nuclear warhead, something that presumably the president had already been briefed on in his daily intelligence briefings, the presidential daily brief. yet somehow that washington post report precipitated this crisis that now has the president threatening nuclear war over facts on the ground that weren t any different than they were last week. yeah, and i mean in addition to that, betsy, you now also have donald trump adding venezuela to the menu. this is is sort of a completely out of left field threat to use military force in venezuela. we now have tonight the white house issuing a statement saying essentially that donald trump had refused a phone call that nicolas
blumenthal and the failing new york times on twitter and ended the week by suggesting we could be attacking venezuela and north korea. you know, i admire both the new york times and dick blumenthal but i kind of wish we would be back to what the president was attacking on monday. when it comes to north korea, the important point is there haven t been any changes with the facts on the ground. if you recall, what precipitated this crisis, it was the publication of a report in the washington post about north korea s alleged miniaturization of a nuclear warhead, something that presumably the president had already been briefed on in his daily intelligence briefings, the presidential daily brief. yet somehow that washington post report precipitated this crisis that now has the president threatening nuclear war over facts on the ground that weren t any different than
advanced nuclear capabilities that could be months away from striking the u.s. mainland. they are supposed to think what? well, obviously, they should be concerned about what north korea is going and the threat they pose not only to the region, but to us. i think those are justified concerns. let me mention a couple things. i agree, the rhetoric is reckless and irresponsible by the president. we should be looking for ways to de-escalate the tension, pursue diplomatic tensions the way secretary mattis has been advocating. i don t think this is really people are paying attention to this. look at where we have been in the last 72 hours. look how all this started. the fact that the north was working toward miniaturization is something the intelligence community long believed. this all started this week with a leaked assessment to the washington post about the fact that they have achieved miniaturization and the