North Korea threat latest: United States Senate summoned by Trump's administration for briefing

With Trump and Kim holding guns to each others' heads,
war fever is running high. Mountain valleys close
to the bristling frontier today echoed to the deafening drumbeats
of a war-in-waiting as South Korean and US forces staged a blitzkrieg
drill designed to put the fear of God into the Stalinist
regime up north and defuse the dictator's nuclear ambitions.
They call these war games. But as games go, the stakes
are terrifyingly high. They're playing with fire
and the rhetoric is shrill. Now that the US has
unsheathed its sword to kill us, we will also unsheath our sword
of justice and victory will be ours," the North
Korean newscaster says, calling the situation extremely
dangerous. Yesterday, the North
staged its own preview of the opening salvoes of a war
that, if it happened, could prove apocalyptic.
The laughing despot has his finger on the trigger and Pyongyang's
warned its barrage of artillery would turn Seoul into a sea of fire.
We strongly warn North Korea to stop any further strategic provocations.
If they ignore this, we will take strong punitive
measures that the North would be unable to endure.
So, how do you solve a problem like Korea?
Well, if you ask the South Koreans, the answer is - very cautiously.
North Korea's nuclear-armed dictator is on a short fuse and this city,
Seoul, is his number one target. Here, most think containment
requires great patience. What they worry about almost as much
as Kim Jong-Un himself is being bypassed by America
and China as they argue over how best to head him off.
For North and South, and China too - Trump's unpredictability is as
unnerving as the military build-up. President Xi Jinping spoke
to him again last night and urged restraint,
after he'd met UN Security Council ambassadors at the White House.
North Korea is a big world problem, and it's a problem
we have to finally solve. People put blindfolds
on for decades, and now it's time to solve the problem.
With Trump's armada, the carrier strike
group still en route to the Korean peninsula,
a US nuclear-powered submarine has arrived
on a routine visit to the South. On board, 150 Tomahawk
cruise missiles. Before dawn today,
the US began to deploy its new defence system,
which will be able to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Many South Koreans feel the very presence of the anti-missile
batteries will make them a bigger target.
The defence shield also angers Beijing, which believes the powerful
radar will allow the US to spy on China.
But China shares the growing angst about Kim Jong-Un's rush
to shrink his nuclear warheads so they'll fit inside the nose-cone
of a missile. This metallic sphere
is meant to be just that. Experts are divided
as to whether it's a mock-up and the pictures propaganda.
Propaganda has been the life-blood of the three-generation dynasty
of Kims, and the queen of propaganda is Ri Chun-Hee,
NKTV's septugenarian anchor. Last year, she announced North Korea
had tested an H-bomb - 1,000 times more powerful
than plutonium or uranium devices. No-one knows if this is true,
but most North Koreans probably believe it.
This woman has been broadcasting for a long time.
She is not a mad woman. She is a normal person.
Hwang Sun-Cheol is a high-level defector -
it's not his real name. His family's still in North Korea.
South Koreans can't understand why North Koreans
are so passionate in their loyalty. Many there used to believe
the propaganda, but nowadays they just pretend because,
if they don't, the regime will kill their entire family.
Fear has stopped them. Rousing patriotic songs
help instill belief that the country's unassailable.
Hwang was a senior army officer for 18 years and says the military's
been brainwashed. Soldiers know nothing
of the outside world. Any exposure to Western
culture is blocked. When I was in the army,
we were trained to believe that our country is invincible.
What isn't propaganda is the belief that
North Korea is now making another nuclear bomb every six or seven
weeks, and already possesses 1,000 ballistic missiles.
It's an arms race against time. The world has not been
on the brink like this since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

North Korea threat latest: United States Senate summoned by Trump's administration for briefing

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