the russian leader. democrat saying we have not face the prospect of armageddon since kennedy and the missile crisis. i don t think there s an ability to use a nuclear weapon and not end up with armageddon. look what you just heard from the president, this is stark language. you do not normally hear this from u.s. presidents. not now. and it comes as the u.s. considers how to response to a range of potential scenarios. for more let s bring in jeremy diamond. has there been any escalation from russia that prompted these remarks? reporter: there s no question there is an elevated risk of nuclear war based on the language we ve heard from the russian president but u.s. officials say there is nothing that has changed that nothing that they have seen that has changed in russia s nuclear posture. last week we heard the russian president talking about any and all means necessary to defend russian territory as he talked about the use of nuclear weapons but what we haven t hea
diplomats from the embassy in washington will be calling the two men. now to growing tensions on the korean peninsula. north korea flying war planes near the south after several missile launches in the last two weeks. this comes as the u.s. and south korea are conducting joint military exercises in the region. paula hancocks is live for us in seoul. what do we know about the latest provocation. reporter: this happened thursday afternoon local time. they called it a protest flight. what they believe happened is that some 12 north korean aircraft were staging some kind of air to surface firing exercise. they say they were flying south of what they call the special surveillance line. this is in north korea but it is a virtual line that the south korean military watches closely if they see north korean
this was a protest flight. that friend michael shanahan, is joining me on the phone right now. also with me cnn s brian stelter here in new york. also with me former secret service agent on the phone. but michael, to you first. can you please tell me who your friend is and why the heck he did this? his name is doug. the purpose of it was to call attention to the united states concerning our campaign finance laws or the lack thereof. and he wanted to deliver, at least his original plan i haven t actually talked over this for a long time with him, but his original plan was to deliver letters to every member of congress complaining about the campaign finance and the fact it needs to be changed. okay. couple ways i need to follow up