Back and Forth Threats; North Korea Tensions; U.S. Diplomats Possibly Targeted in "Acoustic Attack"
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.</s>ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour. Back and forth in the war of words between the U.S. and North Korea in an increasingly dangerous dialogue.</s>VAUSE: FBI seizure -- agents raid the home of Donald Trump's former campaign chairman -- Paul Manafort.</s>SESAY: And a lawsuit (inaudible) Trump's business ties goes to court.</s>VAUSE: Hello, everybody -- great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.</s>SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. This is NEWSROOM L.A. North Korea is doubling down on its threat to strike Guam. Military leaders say they're ready to launch four missiles that would cross over Japan and land in the waters near the U.S. territory. They say they'll present the plan to Kim Jong-Un by mid-August.</s>VAUSE: Meantime, the U.S. Defense Secretary has made a dramatic ultimatum of his own, warning North Korea against actions which could lead to the end of the government there and the destruction of its people. James Mattis says "The DPRK regime's actions will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates." That follows President Donald Trump ominous warning from Tuesday which sources have told us was improvised.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.</s>VAUSE: Joining us now from Guam, journalist Robert Santos, in Seoul standing by CNN's Alexandra Field, and in Tokyo CNN's Sherisse Pham. And Santos, we will start with you. The U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a stopover on Guam said Americans should sleep well at night. How did the people of Guam go to sleep last night?</s>ROBERT SANTOS, JOURNALIST: You know, certainly the (inaudible) people did not lose any sleep. You know, they went to bed yesterday knowing what was said but also resigned to the fact that there's not much they can do. That they could simply rely on their faith in God, this is a predominantly Catholic island; and rely and be confident in our island leaders all the way up to the White House. But waking up this morning, certainly hearing these threats again, it was definitely a shock to hear. I think you've got definitely a lot of people saying, wait a minute, is this possible? Is this guy serious? Talking about Kim Jong-Un. But you'd also have some people who are saying, look, we are protected. One particular resident I spoke to -- I spoke to dozens of residents here -- and they actually told me that, you know, President Trump in his peculiar and unconventional way is upholding the sanctions as best as he could. I'm glad we have a president who can stand up to a tyrant like Kim Jong-Un. And then you have others who are saying, wait a minute, it's because of President Trump and letting his ego get in the way of decision making that we are caught in the middle -- that Guam is caught in the middle between the U.S. and North Korea.</s>VAUSE: Ok. Robert Santos there in Guam. Stay with us for a moment. We'll head over to Seoul in South Korea.</s>SESAY: Alexandra Field -- to you now, with North Korea making clear that these four missiles -- that if they were to be launched it would fly over Japan. Give us a sense of the reaction where you are.</s>ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, officials in South Korea, defense officials to be precise are calling the rhetoric from Pyongyang, the threats of this kind of an attack absurd, they are broadly condemning this kind of rhetoric and they're making a real show that they stand with their ally, the U.S. Not only are they calling the claims absurd. They also call these claims of a study to strike Guam as a challenge of the U.S.-South Korean alliance. So they are clearly trying to show that they are very firmly allied with their U.S. counterparts here and saying that they won't tolerate such a strike or even such rhetoric or saying that any provocation would be met with a response and warning North Korea that it's military, that South Korea's military is ready to engage in a response to a provocation if needed. So they are trying to send a strong message, a strong signal. This comes after they had condemned this harsh language from North Korea just a day ago. As for that fiery rhetoric from President Donald Trump, it's not something that officials have commented on publicly. Again, a lot being made of the importance of the alliance between South Korea and the U.S. at this moment -- Isha.</s>SESAY: All right. Alexandra Field there in Seoul -- thank you for that update. Appreciate it.</s>VAUSE: And we'll head to Tokyo now and Sherisse Pham is there. So Sherisse -- as far as Japan is concerned there's also the threat that these missiles will fire over its territory. How are they now dealing with this increased threat level coming from the North Koreans?</s>SHERISSE PHAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Japanese government is saying today that these are obviously very provocative comments to the region and saying quote, "we can never tolerate provocations from North Korea". And of course, all of this -- this escalating war of words between North Korea and the U.S. coming at a very sensitive time here in Japan because this week marks the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the 72nd anniversary. And so, you know, it is very tense here and even though Japan is pushing back and saying that we will not tolerate these provocative comments, this is a country that has held a very passivist (ph) posture since the end of World War II. So, also like South Korea, maintaining its strong alliance with the U.S. and saying we support our ally in saying that all options are on the table -- John.</s>VAUSE: Sherisse -- thank you. Quickly, back to Guam and Robert Santos. So Robert -- there's still a lot of questions about the North Korea missiles, their range, their accuracy, the distance they can travel. How much confidence though is there on the island there in the U.S.'s military ability to defend the island?</s>SANTOS: Look, there's certainly a lot of confidence. Our governor has assured us. Our congresswoman has assured us as well that they are getting the assurances from the top military leaders all the way to the White House. So we are extremely confident. You know, Guam is a patriot as much as any state in the mainland. We have fighters here on the island who have been involved in just about every war that the U.S. has been involved in. So not only do we have the manpower here but we believe that there are sufficient U.S. military assets here to protect the island. Having said that there are certainly some people who say are we really certain of that. We really don't know North Korea's full capabilities.</s>VAUSE: Ok. Robert -- thank you. Robert is a journalist. Robert Santos there in Guam; Alexandra Field in Seoul, South Korea; and Sherisse Pham there in Tokyo.</s>SESAY: Well, President Trump isn't backing down from his fire and fury threat. And instead he's underscoring America's nuclear might. In a tweet he said his first order as president was to renovate and modernize the nuclear arsenal. He said he hopes the U.S. would never have to use the weapons. But he added quote, "There will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world." Well, joining us not to discuss this and much more is CNN military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona. Colonel Francona -- good to see you once again. We will get to the President's nuclear arsenal tweet in a moment. Let's first discuss this latest rhetorical salvo from Pyongyang as they release more details of a planned show of force to be carried out by four intermediate range missiles targeting the waters off the coast of Guam. How confident are you, Colonel Francona, that these Hwasong-12 missiles could actually reach their declared target?</s>LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, that's a big question. You know, they've only fired this missile four times and three of the launches were failures. So they've achieved one successful launch for this and they're banking this capability on that one successful test. So we don't know the reliability of this missile. We know that it has the range to get there. That's about all. We don't know how accurate it is. We don't know what kind of warhead it's capable of carrying. So I'm chalking this up to a lot of rhetoric on the part of the commander of the strategic rocket forces in North Korea. This threat, this threat to launch four missiles at Guam did not come from Kim Jong-Un. It came from the commander of the rocket force. So I don't know how much weight this really carries. I suspect that what he's doing is doing the same thing that the Americans are doing. He says I'm giving my commander-in-chief military options. This is one option I'm presenting to him.</s>SESAY: The source of the statement is noteworthy. Also noteworthy is the fact that the North Koreans make this planned show of force so clear; that they'll reveal details that will be ready by the middle of August. Why would they telegraph their moves in such a way?</s>FRANCONA: Yes, it's interesting because I think they're giving the United States an opportunity to enter some sort of a dialogue. You say we'll have this ready by mid-August so that gives us time to sit down and figure out some way to back down from the brink because now both sides have unleashed this firestorm of rhetoric and now both sides are getting closer and closer to having to do something. I think the North Koreans may be saying, listen, we've got until the middle of August to talk. So let's do so. I don't know if that's true. I'm hoping that that's what's happening here. And the fact that it was the commander of the rocket forces and not Kim Jong-Un also gives Kim Jong-Un the chance to come in and say no, wait a minute, wait a minute -- I'm going to countermand that order and give the diplomacy a chance.</s>SESAY: Ok. All of that being said, you're saying that there is a -- there's still possibly a window here to talk. If you're sitting in Japan, if you're part of that government and you hear these details of, you know, these four missiles flying over your nation, if they are indeed sent out to target Guam, how worried should they be?</s>FRANCONA: I don't think they should be worried because they're not the target. But I think they're very concerned because those missiles are going to fly over their territory and now they're faced with a challenge. Do they react? Do they try and shoot them down? Do they let the U.S. forces in country try and intercept these missiles? Or do they just allow them to fly over they territory? This puts Japan in a real quandary because they have to decide what they're going to do. And how they react will send a signal to the North Koreans of how strong that alliance between Japan and the United States really is.</s>SESAY: You talk about how Japan reacts. Let's talk quickly about how Guam might react in the event of such a dispatch of missiles. I mean what can you tell us? I mean would the U.S. commander on Guam have the authority to intercept them?</s>FRANCONA: Yes. That's a question I don't know the answer. I don't know how far down the authority to intercept or engage has gone. I know that the commander of Pacific Command would have that authority and has delegated that down to the forces on Guam. Remember, Guam is United States territory. That's an American Air Force on Guam. So now you're talking about not attacking the U.S. facility in another country, you're talking about attacking a U.S. facility in the United States. So I think there will be a reaction. And there are missile defenses on Guam that are capable of intercepting these missiles. The THAAD was built just for this type of a missile. Four missiles they could probably handle; more than that they may be overwhelmed. But I think Guam is in a good position to defend itself.</s>SESAY: All right. Let's talk about the President's tweet about America's nuclear arsenal. He said that one of his first orders, in fact, I think he said it was his first order from becoming President was to renovate and update America's nuclear arsenal. That has been widely dismissed, Colonel Francona, as misleading saying it's been made known that such reviews of the U.S. nuclear arsenal actually are mandated by Congress. The last one was ordered by President Obama back in 2010. Do we have any sense of to what extent the U.S. nuclear arsenal has actually been modernized since Trump took office?</s>FRANCONA: Well, even the documents that come out of the Defense Department say that the modernization process is over a decade-long because of the expense involved in doing it. They have to spread it out over multiple years. Yes, you're right. These -- they're called quadrennial defense reviews that the nuclear posture statement. It's supposed to be done very four years. What we're founding out is it's done every eight -- or every time a new administration comes into office. This is one of the first things they do. And it goes all the way back to at least 1994. So this is not something unexpected. He did give the order but it's not something out of the ordinary.</s>SESAY: All right. Colonel Rick Francona joining us there. Colonel Francona -- always a pleasure, thank you.</s>VAUSE: We will take a short break here. When we come back Donald Trump drew a red line with North Korea and it seems Pyongyang has called his bluff. Now it could be a question of presidential credibility.