North Korea Threatens U.S. and South Korea
KAYE: Twelve minutes past the hour now. First the U.S. and now South Korea. North Korea is threatening both countries after the U.N. imposed tougher sanctions against it. So is it just rhetoric, or does North Korea really have the capability to attack? Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has all the details.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korea's latest saber rattling. Threatening the South just one day after Pyongyang said it will lob missiles at the U.S. and conduct a new nuclear test, leaving no doubt leader Kim Jong-Un isn't giving up his father's nuclear program. The U.S. might not is advanced warning of a new underground test.</s>LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY: They have the capability, frankly, to conduct these tests in a way that make it very difficult to determine whether or not they are doing it.</s>STARR: But there are signs they're ready to test if ordered.</s>JOEL WIT, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: The North Koreans are maintaining a fairly high state of readiness at the test site. And that means that if the order is given from Pyongyang to go ahead, they can probably conduct the test in a few weeks.</s>STARR: Satellite imagery shows a tunnel entrance where the device may undergo final assembly. A bunker for personnel and equipment and a communications network to make sure the order to detonate can be carried out. North Korea's weapons-grade inventory is believed to include plutonium for up to 12 devices and enough enriched uranium for six more. How dangerous is all of this?</s>JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, PRESIDENT, PLOUGHSHARES FUND: I still think we're years away from North Korea having a capability to deliver a nuclear war head on a missile even to a country as close as Japan or South Korea and they're even further away from having a long-range missile that could hit the United States.</s>STARR: But North Korea's nuclear threat is closer, a lot closer than Iran's. North Korea has nuclear devices, Iran does not. North Korea has weapons-grade material, Iran does not. And North Korea has tested long-range missiles that could carry a nuclear warhead. Iran has not. In a new test, the North Korean regime has to show its bomb design actually works. A 2006 test basically fizzled. A 2009 test worked better. It was half as powerful as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. If it went off at the U.S. capital, it would obliterate two square miles. (on camera): Some experts believe if the pace of activity continues at that site, a test could happen at any time. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>KAYE: The secretive hacking group "Anonymous claims it will leak sensitive information about the Department of Justice unless prosecutors stop going after hackers. In a long letter addressed to "Citizens of the World" and posted on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's Web site, "Anonymous" is threatening chaos if the government doesn't meet its demand. The group also posted a YouTube video denouncing federal prosecutors who go after and quote, "destroy the lives of hacktivists they apprehend". That was a reference to web activist Aaron Swartz who committed suicide earlier this month. Swartz faced a possible 35 years in Federal prison after allegedly stealing millions of online documents from MIT. Women on the front lines. But not everyone agrees that women are ready for combat. And if you're leaving the house right now, just a reminder to take us with you. You can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone. You can also watch live from your laptop. Just go to CNN.com/TV.