i hope that doesn t happen. and he s got this cloud over his head, i don t think it s going to be possible for him to do very well. i ll speak with ranking democrat on the house intention committee congressman adam schiff, and our correspondents, analysts and guests will have full coverage of all the day s top stories. but let s begin with north korea s stunning claim that it s tested a hydrogen bomb that s bringing worldwide condemnation and a threat of punishment. let s go to cnn s brian todd. brian, there s a lot of skepticism about this claim. but even if it s a normal nuclear test, why would kim jong-un take such a dangerous step right now? wolf, that is what intelligence agencies from washington to seoul, tokyo, beijing are all scrambling to find out tonight. analysts are telling us the north koreans likely did this now because they probably just cleared some technical hurdles. but kim jong-un is also trying to fend off some very powerful external and potentially internal r
and experts believe that s why this violent, unpredictable young leader took this very dangerous step. with an explosion the size of a moderate earthquake and the uncontainable glee of a state news anchor, kim jong-un makes his rivals shudder and sends intelligence agencies scrambling. a senior u.s. official tells cnn north korea s nuclear test, whether it s a hydrogen bomb or not, is very concerning. analysts give a stark assessment of the danger. north korea s moving ever closer to a deliverable nuclear warhead that is miniaturized, that can hit japan, guam, perhaps hawaii or the west coast, that s where they re moving and they re doing it with impunity impunity. reporter: from seoul to washington officials are asse assessing kim s motives. one possibility he s signaling his enemies who he sees everywhere. kim jong-un is facing threats from all fronts. domestically, internally from his elites and so he has to be
as you were saying i think i interrupted you, the ambassador in the video that we see of him, he is basically holding up a trish or something to his face to try to stop the bleeding. he was taken to the hospital obviously. that s right. yes. police said he was attacked by this knife on his right cheek. his hand you can see him holding a tissue to his cheek. the embassy spokesman said, obviously, he is not life-threatening. he is in a stable condition. you can see him being guided. he is walking, and he is talking at that point as well so certainly they re hoping that these injuries are not particularly severe. obviously, everyone is quite shocked. it s the first time a u.s. ambassador to seoul has been attacked. remember back in 2006 when she was attacked with a knife. herself as well she had a slash across her cheek at a public
first attack this man has made. back in 2010 he attacked a japanese ambassador to seoul. he tried to throw a piece of cement at him. the ambassador was fine but he does have a precedent of attacking ambassadors. we also know that on february 24th he was photographed he put that photo on his blog shown protesting outside the u.s. embassy. protesting against these military drills. so of course the question now is about security and the fact that this man was able to sit at the table right next to the u.s. ambassador jury this event. don. thank you, paula. i want to bring in cnn national security analyst juliet. juliet you say this is a highly unusual attack and it s very alarming. why do you say that? well most of these countries have different threat assessments. that s how the state department judges who is going to get what
the embassy spokesman said though obviously it s not life-threatening. he is in a stable condition and you can see him being guided to a car, but he is walking and he is talking at that point as well so they are hoping these injuries are not particularly severe but obviously everyone is quite shocked here. it s the first time a u.s. ambassador to seoul has been attacked. we have seen attacks like this in the past though. remember president parker hey back in 2006 when she was campaigning was actually attacked with a knife herself as well. she had a slash across her cheek at a public event. which just shows that the people are able to get close to those in power, so much closer than other countries. paula hancocks shocking. thank you. chris served during the bush administration and joins us from seoul. ambassador hill it s disturbing to see this. what was your initial reaction to the attack on lippert, were