Trump and North Korea Escalate War of Words; North Korea talks Brink of War; Working with China to Prevent Conflict
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. Thank you for being with me. First, this promise of fire and fury, and now the U.S. is apparently locked and loaded. President Trump's latest statement on North Korea, escalating this war of words that has really the world on edge, and he did it on Twitter, writing, military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong-un will find another path. Now, earlier, Pyongyang vowed to hit the U.S. mainland with strategic nuclear weapons should the U.S. launch a preemptive strike. And in a stunning reversal of rhetoric, the North called America the heinous nuclear war fanatic. And in Guam, the U.S. territory in North Korea's crosshairs, this was today's ominous headline, homeland security there giving a time frame of exactly how quickly a deadly missile would take to reach the island territory, just 14 minutes. A short time from now, at his New Jersey golf resort, the president will meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Securities Adviser H.R. McMaster and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. We have correspondents standing by all around the world. Let's begin, though, with our White House correspondent Sara Murray there in New Jersey with the president. And so what are you hearing, Sara, if Pyongyang, you know, makes good on its threat with regard to Guam and words turn to action, what's the U.S. strategy?</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, you heard what the president had to say on Twitter today, that the U.S. is locked and loaded. It's pretty clear he's making no effort to tone down his rhetoric. And we also heard from him yesterday saying, look, if North Korea wants to strike near Guam, go ahead, we'll see how we respond,</s>BALDWIN: Sara, thank you. North Korea responding to President Trump's threats in a dramatic, new statement, threatening the United States with, quote, a shameful defeat and final doom. Let's go live to Seoul, South Korea, and bring in CNN's Anna Coren. And so what's the response been out of North Korea's state media, Anna?</s>ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, certainly the threats and the bellicose rhetoric have continued pouring out of North Korea as tensions escalate here on the Korean peninsula. A day after North Korea outlines its plans to target Guam with those four intermediate ballistic missiles, a spokesman from the military of North Korea went on state media, and I want to read some of his statement. He said, our military will turn the U.S. mainland into the stage of a nuclear war by immediately attacking it with various strategic weapons. Now, while this is obviously alarming language, for South Koreans it really is the norm. What isn't normal is the language coming out of the mouth of President Donald Trump. Many here are just shaking their heads wondering, what is he thinking? What is his end game? Knowing that war would be catastrophic. Obviously, the South Korean government taking this all very seriously. The defense minister met with his commanders today, telling them that they need to be combat ready for any provocation from the north and to respond powerfully. Also, the national security adviser here spoke with his U.S. counterpart, H.R. McMaster, and they talked about working closely together to protect both South Korea and the United States. And, Brooke, the U.S. confirmed that it would not act militarily without South Korea's knowledge. It won't catch it off guard because there is just too much at stake.</s>BALDWIN: Anna in Seoul, thank you. Broadening all of this out, Stephen Noeper is with us, adjunct associate professor of political science at Columbia University and senior director at The Korea Society and a former senior analyst for the U.S. State Department. So, Stephen, off the top, listening -- or reading the president's tweet, is the U.S. locked and loaded?</s>STEPHEN NOEPER, ADVISES U.N. ON ISSUES RELATED TO KOREAN PENINSULA: Well, the U.S. is always locked and loaded in terms of preparedness on the Korean peninsula. It's the articulation of that. It's the verbal rhetoric that has now intensified and has intensified now between both the United States and North Korea. And clearly they're not used to a U.S. president saying this. So it has the region and the world concerned about this step up.</s>BALDWIN: On the bellicosity of really also you could say both sides, do you think that Kim Jong-un thinks this is a war of bluster, or is this threats truly turning into action and potential war?</s>NOEPER: Yes, I think -- I think they're uncertain, right, as is most of the region. And so the North Koreans, despite all their bluster, tend to be pragmatists. They tend to go to the line. They tend to step back. But in this particular case, we need to be cautious because if the North Koreans anticipate that there would be a U.S. strike, they may choose to go first. And they wouldn't hit just Guam. They might hit Tokyo. They might hit Seoul. So it's very hard to contain. So we need to be cautious with those wars of words.</s>BALDWIN: It's interesting to hear how specific the details are coming out of Pyongyang on this missile attack, actually just off of Guam. Let me just read for you what we have. They talk about four intermediate range ballistic missiles fired that would actually go over Japan, landing 18 to 25 miles south of the coast of Guam. North Korea state media says it will create a, quote, enveloping fire. Why put this all out there? What's the strategy here?</s>NOEPER: Yes, it's direct nuclear brinksmanship or missile brinksmanship in this particular case. And so they would look at Guam and stop just short, but it's dangerous because what happens if there's misstep or miscalculation? What if one of those four hits Japan? What if it goes too far and there's a problem in terms of the accuracy of those missiles? And clearly it draws the United States in. Now, they've also left a window there. They've said, mid-August. So what they're trying to signal is, is there an opportunity for negotiation before then. We need to seize on the opportunity for negotiation, not the bellicose rhetoric.</s>BALDWIN: I want to ask you about China in just a second. But just quickly, you were telling me that before you came on, this story is going to be with us for a while because August, typically in North Korea, and you tell me why --</s>NOEPER: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: You know, that their provocations heat up.</s>NOEPER: Well, North Korea ramps up in August for a few reasons. One is, they see Congress is off and they think that the U.S. can respond less effectively in a crisis. That's their calculation. And secondly, they're, in ten days' time, will be United States/South Korean military exercises. And so whereas the spring ones were objected to, the U.S. didn't put a lot of fanfare around them. However, in the August one, certainly it will be cushioned as a response to the latest provocations, and so it will take on some steam and the North Koreans may respond with a lot more than rhetoric.</s>BALDWIN: Timing is important in August. It's significant. I hadn't realized that. With regard to China, what's China's play? Because we're hearing right now if -- and this is, again, this is this whole "what if" game. If North Korea acts first, then China stays neutral and they don't do anything. But if it's the U.S. or South Korea that acts first, they will not remain neutral. How do you think they will react?</s>NOEPER: Well, if China --</s>BALDWIN: Do you -- do you buy that?</s>NOEPER: Yes. China right -- well, I'm not certain because China right now is focused on its party congress in the fall. That's major domestic transition. It's consolidation for Chinese President Xi Jinping. What he doesn't want is a foreign policy crisis. And the Chinese are concerned. They don't like North Korea's missile and nuclear development and they're concerned that the United States has been drawn in by North Korea. So there's a bit of a contrast there. So they're proposing a tradeoff, the exercises in exchange for some sort of moratorium or freeze on North Korea's development. Moscow too has come on board with that. But what we need to look at are areas and opportunities for negotiation. Can the United Nations, could Moscow, Beijing, perhaps Germany or Sweden, other types of interlocketters (ph), could draw the United States and North Korea together to have some sort of dialogue, a muscular diplomacy. And that seems to be what Secretary of State Tillerson is pushing for.</s>BALDWIN: That's exactly what he's saying. That's exactly what he's saying to get them to the table and do the diplomacy thing. Stephen Noeper, thank you so much.</s>NOEPER: Thank you, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Come back through August and beyond. Thank you.</s>NOEPER: We'll do. Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Also ahead here on CNN, how wild was the president's impromptu Q&A session with reporters from suggesting Mitch McConnell should resign to thanking Vladimir Putin for an anti-American move. We're going to talk all about that coming up. And as Paul Manafort suddenly hires a new legal team, hear why his son-in-law is now involved in the Russia investigation. And the president says he just did the military a great favor by banning all transgender people. We'll speak live with a transgender veteran to respond to the president. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.