Tested a hydrogen bomb. president obama called south korea s leader. the two agree on the need for stiff sanctions against the north for violating international law. u.s. officials have serious doubts the underground test was a hydrogen bomb. the air force will likely send a sniffer plane to test the air to are try to prove or disproved the claim. cnn s paula hancocks has latest for us from south korea. good morning, paula. reporter: good morning, john. we heard from the president s office. south korea said north korea would pay for the test and continue the propaganda broadcasts on the border. this is effectively a mobile installation and they broadcast propaganda messages across the
Soldiers. our kathy novak joins us live from seoul with more on this deal. so kathy, how much of a break through is this deal, and how significant is this apology or sense of regret, and south korea s agreement to end its propaganda broadcasts? reporter: well, in terms of a break through, rosemary, we were talking about how important it was to have these people in a room talking at all considering where we started. that where we started was pyongyang had set a deadline for 5:00 local time for south korea to stop the broadcasts or it would take military action. and both south korea and the united states were putting contingency plans in place for the possibility that north korea really would attack. so the alternative is we had these talks and they were able to defuse the situation. whether it come to the apology or the regret, it s all in the
But for how long? reporter: that is the case, alison. it was a situation that the united states and the south korea were taking seriously. we saw north korea doubling frontline artillery. we saw 70% of the submarines away from the bases. we are hearing from the u.s. intelligence there was a possibility that north korea was planning a scud missile launch. these threats were taken seriously and tensions needed to be eased. everyone needed to step back. both sides are able to say that they got what they wanted. crucially, the propaganda broadcasts are off. they are not being broadcast across the border any more. in change, what south korea gets is express of regret over land mine explosions that badly injured two of its soldiers. north korea was able to frame this in a way that it did not necessarily have to take responsibility for planting the land mines.
Moroccan. we can put in place the best intelligence networks, but somebody is probably going to get through at some stage. my vision of this is as citizens, we need to be prepared to think about how to act. reporter: the gunman claims he is no terrorist. he was just broke and wanted to rob the train. as two americans put it, you don t need two guns and eight magazines to do that. south korea and north korea have diffused their latest convict. the south agreed to stop propaganda broadcasts after north korea expressed remorse for land mine attacks. the u.s. army says it is conducting an investigation into the cause of multiple explosions at a u.s. army depot 25 miles southwest of tokyo overnight.
Mine incident, and they wouldn t stop propaganda broadcasts until they receive that apology. of course, it s the propaganda broadcasts that have led to the ultimatum from the north. now, that all gives a fairly grim picture of one side waiting for the other to blink, but the talks continue. it s now, what? quarter past, getting after quarter past 10:00 in seoul. the third day of talks. they clearly must have something to talk about, jose. ian williams, thank you very much. i want to bring in forbes columnist and asia expert gordon chang. thank you for being with me. the south wants an appall age for the land mine attack. the north wants to end the south s propaganda broadcast. is there a way this is going to be resolved? there eventually will be a way to resolve this because there are powerful incentives for both sides to come to some sort of an agreement. of course, there are obstacles. right now, you have both sides desiring peace on the peninsula, and that s the way this proba