and vocational job training. across new york state, we re building the new new york. to grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd.ny.gov. not long before president trump visits asia next month james mattis is on the ground in the region. he just got to seoul in south korea on a mission to try to defuse some of the tensions with north korea. there is no decescent about e danger that north korea presents and a lot of discussion on how to move forward by everyone. how do we resolve the situation with the hopes that we can resolve it diplomatically. the pentagon has recently announced the first ever deployment of advance f-35a stealth jet fighters to japan. a dozen of these new models are set to arrive next month.
bill: we understand south korea is making a humanitarian gesture toward the north. what is that about, greg? this is significant, bill. announced today here in seoul $8 million humanitarian aid package to north korea via unicef and the world food program. south korea has been knocked by president trump and ally japan for being a little bit too close to pyongyang. according to seoul, this aid will not go to the regime itself. will only go to the people. on the other hand, it is guns and butter in south korea for north korea. those exercises we watched firsthand earlier in the week involving u.s. army and south korean forces continue just a couple miles away from the dmz and north korea practiced today loading and airlifting ammunition and other gear to the troops on the front line
there has been some supposition he was trying to send a message to beijing. take this seriously, i am serious about using military action if i have to, so you better do something on the sanctions front. that said, secretary tillerson has not spoken to the rug russi or the chinese in the last couple of days. he said he had had not spoken to them since the summit in manila. this is amateurish this is the way in which they tend to send a message to beijing. there is nobody home at the state department. there is no secretary of state for east asia. no ambassador. there is an acting holdover, susan thorton, traveling with him. but they have not nominated anybody for the secretary of state position. that s who foreign governments look to, this person confirmed by the senate, nominated by the president. also not put someone forward to be ambassador to seoul. we need our diplomats on the field. they re not even there. what we re left with are these kind of empty threats from presiden
sanction chinese companies that do business with north korea. secretary tillerson not addressing any of that. we know he moves on to seoul tomorrow and beijing where the discussions will take place. one thing is clear, dave. what has happened so far regarding north korea hasn t slowed weapons progress as all. will ripley, thank you. the back drop is a 29% cut to the state department. elsewhere, the deep freeze in the east. extending down to florida with possible record lows this morning. meteorologist pedram javaheri has the forecast. good morning, dave and christine. 50 million people across 14 states dealing with freeze warnings this morning. much of the south in particular with temperatures cold and you work toward the north with winter weather advisories left in place. this is from our departing disturbance. lake enhanced snowshowers and scattered snowshowers in northern new england. the storm system pulls away.
the unruly passenger and the rope. where did he find the rope? the good thing is, brooke, nobody was hurt. this took place over the course of the entire duration of the flight from hanoi to seoul. almost a four-hour flight. imagine as a passenger on that airplane you would be totally stressed out and worried and nervous. that s what daisy and her husband said on social media. this was totally distressing. they did everything they could. they tied the passenger up several times. he kept breaking free from the restants. restraints. the taser guns? he said the flight attendants had taser guns but they didn t know how to use them. they ripped the airplane apart. they said the airline did a horrible job and should have been more prepared for a situation like this. the airline gave a statement saying, look, as soon as the plain landed authorities came on board and being too the man off. they decided he was intoxicated.