opened the heavens for architects in the rapidly growing cities. >> the buildings began to shoot up. first, five floors, 10, 15, 102 floors. >> this is what it looked like when the elevators were installed in the early 1950s. they fully expect to be climbing to greater heights as demand for you are man offices continue to grow. >> there's buildings on the drawing board that are only imaginable on 10, 15 years ago. that's another area for technical challenges and innovation. >> in other words, more than a century and a half after otis started his small company, business is still looking up. tom foreman, cnn. >> hey, that's it for us. the situation in the north korea crisis starts now. >> we want to welcome our

viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. this is a "situation room" special to report north korean crisis. we're following breaking news. a chilling new claim about the ability to launch a nuclear attack even as his regime threatens war. >> we begin now with some breaking news. war could break out at any moment. there may, repeat, may be new reason to fear that it's threats of a nuclear attack are much more serious than we thought. it's a stunning new development.

even as kim jung un could order one missile to launch literally at any time. let's bring in our pentagon correspondent. >> officials just told me they were completely caught off guard that this revelation was put out there in an open hearing. the holy grail has always been able to take a nuclear bomb, which we know they have, and making it small enough to fit on the end of a missile. this assess. suggests they may learned how to do so. rev laxs from a new development show he may be capable of following through. the north currently has weapons capable of delivery. >> congressman quoted from a new intelligence assessment.

>> whatever it takes to put it on top of a missile. there is some degree of confidence, moderate confidence, that that can be done by north korea. >> and to try to lower temperatures. nobody wants to see a conflict on the korean pe ninsz la. >> if true, the revelations give new weight. >> the u.s. believes north korea has one missile on the launch pad. u.s. officials say after initially raising the launcher, they lowered thursdays. but they're in the sure if he's backing off or testing that it

works before firing. >> i don't think, really, he has much of an end game. >> the director of national intelligence says kim is trying to get recognition from the united states. >> north korea is a rival on the international scene as a nuclear power. and that entitles him to negotiation and accommodation, presumably, for aid. >> the military assessment also says that the reliability of any of those north korean weapons would be low. the pentagon released a statement that read an unclassified passage that is right part of a report. wliel he wouldn't go into any specific details, the official did say that right now, today, they do not believe that north korea has tested and developed. >> pretty chilling stuff. chris lawrence of the pentagon, thanks very much.

just a little while ago, i spoke exclusively with the united nations secretary general here in washington. >> very high on the agenda, i met him. i asked what he meant by the nuclear capableties. and the secretary general of the united nations is joining us here in the situation room. thanks so much, mr. secretary general, for coming in. always nice to see you. i know you've just come from the white house. let's talk about north korea. the key question is have they miniaturized to the point where they could endanger south korea, endanger japan. >> we do not have any independent information. but they will continue to improve their technology.

that will be against the resolution. the resolution most recently to refrain from generating nuclear weapons. clearly, the sanctions aren't working. >> sanctions are working. but it needs full cooperation. >> resolution 2094 is very comprehensive. >> how long will it take for it to bite? >> i don't have any idea.

but it is very important that the whole member state of the united nations united nations should fully cooperate in implementing this resolution. >> you just came from the oval office, where you met with the president of the united states. are you on the same page with president obama, as far as north korea is concerned? >> we are on the same page, and i was very much assured by president obama that we will take very firm, but measured response to that. i have asked him to take such measures in close coordination with the republic of korea government, the south korean, and also with the strong engagement of neighboring countries, particularly china. at this time, china can play a very important, crucial role. >> is it playing a crucial role right now? is it being helpful is this. >> is it helpful? when you heard that the president in south korea would

not allow any such things to happen in the region, and when i spoke to foreign minister wan recently, he made quite sure that china does not want to -- any eruption of uncontrollable situation at their doorstep. >> you're from south korea. you're a former foreign minister from south korea. you've gone through a lot of crises with north korea. not just with this current young leader, but his father, his grandfather. is this crisis more serious, different than others? >> this crisis seems to be much more heightened crisis. but at this time, we should take the firm, but measured positions, not to fall into traps of north koreans, what they are ratcheting up this attention. it's just to frighten south korea and other allies. and i was very much encouraged by president obama. he just assured that the united states will respect the treaty, the obligations and commitment for the republic of korea. >> the pressure is building in south korea to develop its own nuclear weapon, to combat north korea if necessary.

what do you say about that? >> i don't think it is the general views of the south korean people, the south korean government has assured and committed to continued accreditation of the korean peninsula in their joint declaration with the north korean 1992. i'm sure that south korea will continue to abide by that declaration. >> are you ready to go to pyongyang and meet with kim jong-un? >> i have made it consistently clear that i am ready to visit the dprk when and if my visit is helpful, and in close coordination with the concerned parties, particularly the republic of korea and the united states. >> stand by for more of my interview with the united nations secretary-general ban ki-moon. the u.n. secretary-general delivers a direct and powerful

message to kim jong-un. i asked him to deliver that message in korean, knowing that they watch cnn international in north korea. at least the elite, the elite government officials and the military do. you'll hear that message in korean. what he has to say to kim jong-un, that's coming up this hour on our special report, the korean crisis. up next, though, we have secret film from inside north korea. very dangerous escape route for people who are starving. and the former president bill clinton once called the korean border the scariest place on earth. gun fights, kidnappings, other

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>> what what little we know with the country's starvation horror comes from defectors. ak us angus walker talked to one of them. >> under the cover of darkness, smugglers cross a frozen river from north korea into china. taking enormous risks, and food and fuel back to their impoverished country. the footage shows an armed soldier who's been paid to cover their tracks at first light. bribing the border guards and following in the smugglers' footsteps is how people escape from north korea. now, in hiding, in south korea, this woman defected shortly after kim jong-un came to power. we've protected her identity, because she had to leave some of her family behind. fighting back tears, she tells me she got out, risking death if she was caught, so she could live. >> translator: my family had

decided to commit suicide, because the three days we didn't have anything to eat. we decided to starve to death. we said, let's die. but then i wanted to survive. i sold the house for 30 kilos of rice. >> reporter: millions have little food. this footage smuggled out was filmed last month. reports from inside north korea suggest food prices have tripled in a year. >> translator: to survive, i had to eat grass. people picked grass and leaves. they used them to make soup. >> what do you think of kim jong-un and what do you think of what he's threatening to do? >> translator: kim jong-un is trying to be more extreme than his father. and trying to distract the north korean people from their own problems and complaints. >> reporter: south korean pop in

north korea, on a smuggled dvd, the sights and sounds of the 21st century. for those trapped in time this a thit mare. it's a glimpse of another world so near and yet so far away. >> angus walker is joining us now from the south korean capital. you've actually been there to north korea a couple of times, angus. what's your assessment right now? how close are we to this crisis spilling over into actual military hostilities? >> well, i think if kim jong-un launched a missile aimed at south korea, japan, or u.s. targets, then he would be effectively committing suicide. so i think the north koreans will be trying to do something which will capture the world's attention. that's what they want. they want attention. they've launched missiles before.

they've launched missiles which have flown over japan before. i think what we're looking at, though, is if they launch a missile, what type of missile is it. almost to the day, a year ago, i was standing in the main parade ground in pyongyang watching a new type of missile being wheeled past. the massive military parade that went on a year ago to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birthday of kim il-sung, the founder of this dynasty that rules north korea. there's an argument whether the missiles were genuine or not. but if they are three-stage rockets that could fire -- have a range of about 2.5,000 miles, that would be a gang changer in this region. >> angus walker in south korea for us. thank you for that report. thank for joining us. on capitol hill, lawmakers are trying to figure out kim jong-un's next move. i spoke earlier with the house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers. mr. chairman, thanks very much for coming.

>> wolf, it's great to be here. thanks for having me. >> does the u.s. and south korean allies, the japanese, are they still bracing for north korea to launch a missile, or a series of missiles within the next few hours, or days? what is the latest assessment? >> anytime somebody like this who has capabilities to launch a missile makes those threats, you have to take them seriously. so yes, i think u.s. forces are on posture to deal with that, same with the japanese, same with the south koreans. and the unpredictable part of this is you see a little bit of a different behavior with the chinese. they've got this on-again/off-again relationship with the north koreans over time. about 65% of their foreign goods come through china. they are taking a little bit of a different turn here, which is a positive thing against north korea. so you have the japanese on edge, the u.s., the south

koreans, now you see the chinese taking a little bit of a different posture, wolf. i looked at that as a good sign to start trying to unwind this thing. >> are there any indications that kim jong-un and his top military leadership are seeking to tone things down, or is it still seem to be ratcheting up the tension? >> i think he sees there's an internal to north korea advantage for him to continue to do this, to try to solidify himself with his military base. and north korea is one of those countries with an army with a country, not a country with an army. so he needs to solidify that base so he can continue to solidify his power across the country. i think he is feeling pretty emboldened by all these activities. the fact that they sunk a ship in 2010 and did some artillery fire earlier than that that killed south koreans with no response, i think makes him feel emboldened to continue ratcheting this up until some

common sense, or at least external pressure kicks in to have him ratcheting down. i think he's going to continue to do this. i even believe, wolf, that he may even be looking for a minor skirmish as they have in the past, in order to thump his chest and show that he is this new military commander, and defender of the people of north korea. >> how good is u.s. intelligence on what's going on in north korea? >> never as good as you want it to be when you're the chairman of the intelligence committee, i can tell you that. we have a little room to go. we have some indications, but we're a long way from having that comfort level about fully understanding across the board about not only with military intentions, but what the leadership intentions are. again, our intelligence folks are doing great work under tough circumstances. and we continue to try to

improve that posture. >> does it make any sense to send a high-level emissary to pyongyang? >> you know, i'm not sure. you don't want to reward bad behavior, especially saber rattling at the level he's doing now. so i would be cautious about that. what i'd love to see is china shut down their southern border with north korea, and shut off both luxury goods and the black market for fuel.

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happening now, a direct appeal to kim jong-un to stop threatening the world. the united nations secretary-general ban ki-moon delivers that message from here in "the situation room" to pyongyang. this is a cnn exclusive. former north korean spy who fled, says she knows firsthand what the regime is capable of. and she believes war in fact is coming. horror stories from the border, why the line between north and south korea has been called the scariest place in the world. i'm wolf blitzer. and this is "the situation room" special report, north korean crisis.

get back to the breaking news this hour, a chilling new assessment of north korea's ability to launch a nuclear attack. a united states congressman quoting from a new pentagon intelligence assessment. he says kim jong-un's regime currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles. there are still a lot of unanswered questions about all of this, but some south koreans already are developing a potentially dangerous plan to protect themselves. they want nuclear weapons of their own. cnn's kyung lah is joining us with more on this. what's going on, kyung. >> reporter: remember, wolf, this is the country that feels like they have the biggest bull's-eye on it in the region. it is supporting a disturbing

sentiment here in south korea, ta the only way to stop kim jong-un is for this country to have its own nuclear arsenal. seoul may seem reserved amid growing threats from north korea, but there's a growing rage beneath this calm. south korea's not powerful enough, says this woman, if we have nuclear weapons, it would be better for our stability. a sentiment echoed loudly by a prominent south korean politician. speaking on international peace in washington, he minces no words to the american audience -- we want our own nukes. >> telling us not to consider any nuclear option is tantamount to telling us to simply surrender. let us try to prevent the unthinkable by thinking the unthinkable. >> reporter: the call defies a long-standing principle to limit the nuclear club. one south korea heated for

decades under the shield of america's nuclear umbrella. there's been no policy shift from the government, but from the people, public sentiment is shifting here in south korea. two recent national polls show that two-thirds of south koreans believe they should have their own nuclear weapons. that's a sharp rise from just a few years ago. so, what changed? a tax from north korea that claimed lives. 46 sailors were killed when a torpedo sank a south korean warship in 2010. and a surprise artillery attack on the yongbyon island. they say kim jong-un seemingly uncontrollable ramp up as a failure of western diplomacy with no long-term solution. phillip says more nukes is a dangerous proposal for global security. >> it is not going to enhance south korea's security. it is going to make south korea less safe.

i think it's not going to prevent north korean provocations, and in the larger respect, it is not going to add to the ability of south korea to deter a large-scale attack from north korea. in fact, what will happen is that there will be a regional arms race. >> reporter: armed south korea, japan will follow and then china responds. a region that would tip even more out of balance and out of control. so these incremental steps that north korea appears to be making to continue its own nuclear arsenal and nuclear testing, wolf, having an impact on south korea, the region, and thereby, the united states. >> kyung lah in seoul, south korea for us, thank you very much.

nowhere is the tension with north korea more evident than the so-called no-man's land that divides north and south korea, what they call the demilitarized zone, the dmz. tom foreman is here with a closer look. what do we know, first of all, about the dmz? >> the first thing that anyone needs to know, wolf, is there simply is no more heavily guarded border anywhere on the planet. 160 miles long, two and a half miles wide, the demilitarized zone is ironically bordered by hundreds of thousands of troops and heavy weapons. former president bill clinton called it the scariest place on earth. and david benbow who served there in the late '60s said hardly a week passed without gunfire over the border. >> it was the scariest place i've ever been. especially the night ambush patrols. they were the scariest. >> reporter: serious clashes have occurred in recent years along the border zone, but talks of gun fights, kidnappings and secret tunnels go back decades. in 1976 two u.s. army officers were leading a work crew to cut down a tree when north korean soldiers attacked and killed

them with axes. in 1994, a u.s. helicopter accidently crossed the line and was shot down. the co-pilot died and the pilot was released only after intense negotiations. hundreds of lives have been lost and even when the guns are silent, north korean troops crowd the dividing line. in benbow's time they steadily blared propaganda. >> we were told to go home and we were going to die. >> reporter: troops call a single fairway near the dmz the most dangerous golf course in the world. but it's no joke, when dignitaries like hillary clinton visit, north korean soldiers stare through a window just across the border. a ready and constant reminder that the world is very different only inches away. military analysts have pointed out many times over the years that the tension along this border, wolf, and the forward positioning of all those troops and all those armaments that anywhere else it would be seen

as imminent war. it sa most unusual place and a reason why it's so hard to read their intentions at a time like this. >> when i was a white house correspondent for cnn during the clinton administration. i must say, you look at the faces of the troops on both sides, and they're pretty scared. that picture we just saw of hillary clinton, that's pretty dramatic. >> extraordinary. everybody who goes there seems to tell the same tale. >> tom foreman, thanks for that report. stul ahead, the united nations secretary-general ban ki-moon, he ushs a direct awe peel to north korea's kim jong-un from here in "the situation room." this is the cnn exclusive. we'll also get reaction from cnn's christiane amanpour, and

fareed zakaria. they are both standing by. she plays beautiful music, but she's actually a former north korean spy. and she's opening up to us about the regime, and its military threats. thank you orville and wilbur... ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below...

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now a cnn exclusive. ban ki-moon making a direct appeal to north korea leader kim jong-un in his native language. the it happened during my interview with ban ki-moon. listen to this. they're watching you in pyongyang right now on cnn international. if you have a chance to speak directly right now to kim jong-un, you can make a statement, make some -- a request from him. what would you say to him? >> i would strongly ask him to, first of all, refrain from taking any such provocative measures, which is clearly in violation against the security council resolution, against the international community. i would strongly urge him to deter war, to enhance the living standards of his own people when they're suffering from this economic difficulty. >> one final question, secretary-general. look at that camera right over there, speak to kim jong-un in korean. [ speaking in korean ] [ speaking in korean ] >> secretary-general, thank you so much for coming in.

let's hope this crisis with north korea eases. >> thank you very much. we're joined now by cnn's chief international

correspondent christiane amanpour, the anchor of amanpour on cnn international, also fareed zakaria, the host of cnn's fareed zakaria gps. christiane, that was pretty powerful, i thought, when i asked him to speak in korean directly to kim jong-un, and he made that appeal. what did you think? >> well, i don't know how that's going to go down in pyongyang. it will be interesting to see. but i think one of the things that's very, very important right now is it breaking news about what the defense intelligence agency has been saying. and it's very interesting to me that general dempsey in that testimony on capitol hill said that he had not seen that report. and i find that really interesting. i'm also interested to know, and i don't think it is, but whether it is the general consensus by the whole u.s. intelligence

community that this so-called warhead, or weapon can be sent on a missile. i spoke to one of the top-level scientists, one of the only americans who goes into pyongyang regularly, not just into pyongyang, but into the nuclear facilities, and he says that he does not believe that they have the ability to put a warhead on a missile right now. that whatever they have is quite primitive. and that's why they keep testing and that's why they keep testing the missiles. but he does not believe one can be delivered by a missile. not even to south korea. he told me that if they were going to threaten south korea with any kind of nuclear device, and they probably have about four to eight plutonium devices, he thinks, that would have to be delivered by truck, plane or

boat. he does not believe they have the ability to put it on any missiles right now. but they are perhaps working on that in order to deter the united states. wolf? >> fareed, i think these -- this new dia assessment is pretty chilling. but let's get back a little bit to what ban ki-moon told me. he said he would be willing to go to north korea and speak directly with kim jong-un, and when i asked him to speak in korean to the north korean leader, you heard what he had to say. he made that direct appeal. i suspect that kind of gesture is precisely what the north korean leader kim jong-un would like to see, to get that kind of respect, if you will, despite the provocative steps he's taken in recent days. >> oh, clearly this is a search for legitimacy, credibility. but wolf, ban ki-moon said something very interesting. remember, ban ki-moon is a former foreign minister of south korea. so he has dealt with this issue essentially for all of his professional life. he said we should work for peace and unification on the korean peninsula. this has been the traditional view. but when he said it in korean in that powerful, passionate appeal, it made me realize part of the problem here, any kind of unification is going to take place on the korean peninsula entirely on south korea's terms. south korea is one of the richest countries in the world

now. north korea's arguably one of the three or four poorest countries in the world. so the north is in danger of being swallowed up by the south. and they know it. so when ban ki-moon makes this gesture and says, let's work for peace and unification, perhaps to the north korean regime, that sounds like the end of their regime. you know, the odd thing about north korea is, it is really in a struggle for survival at some level. the nuclear weapons, the international attention, all this warmongering. this is all some kind of search for what will allow a deeply, deeply repressive, brutal, cruel regime that has failed its people to somehow survive. so they might have listened to ban ki-moon and seen that as more of a threat than we realize. >> interesting. both of you stand by for a moment. we're going to have more on the north korean crisis.

fareed is standing by, christiane is standing by. we'll get back to them in a moment. also coming up here in "the situation room," the musician, this musician living in the united states right now, she is actually a former north korean spy. so is this woman, convicted of blowing up a south korean airliner. and now they are both, yes, both, they're speaking out to us a. bhank okay, i would do the left. yeah? what?! i am a daddy! bing wins it! bing won. bing did win. people prefer bing over google for the web's top searches. don't believe it? go to bingiton.com and see what you're missing. the battle of bataan, 1942. [ all ] fort benning, georgia, in 1999.

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our state department reporter is now reporting, quoting a senior administration official here in washington as saying there are no indications that the missiles that north korea has apparently already readied for tests, those specific missiles are armed with nuclear materials. the latest assessment from the intelligence agency at the pentagon, they believe north korea does have, and they say this with moderate confidence, does have a capability of delivering ballistic missiles with a nuclear weapon. although once again, elise reporting that the current missiles that may be ready for a test are not specifically armed with nuclear missiles. let's get quick reaction. fareed and christiane are still with us. fareed, what do you make of all this? >> i think christiane put it

right when we talked earlier. every other intelligence assessment suggests they can't put nukes on their missiles. the warheads are too heavy. the missiles would misfire. but it is important to point out, wolf, they keep trying. so, you know, this is an ongoing story. this is not one we can say with absolute confidence. they've had three nuclear tests. they had a whole bunch of missile tests that were spectacularly unsuccessful. last december they shot a missile that could have reached the philippines. so they are constantly trying. they seem to accept trial and error and failure. so this -- even if this one doesn't work, what you see is a regime that is constant ri trying to get, you know, get one of these things to work at some point. >> christiane? >> i think so, too.

>> that is the aim of this regime. it is becoming con ssensus beli that north korea wants to be taken seriously as a nuclear weapon state and to be dealt with as other countries that have nuclear weapons. and the u.s. and the world now accepts whether it's pakistan or india or whatever it might be. so that seems to be where e experts believe north korea is headed. and how, in the words of a scientist that i've been talking to, do you make sure that they don't build more of them, they don't build better bombs and they don't proliferate these bombs. they're on that way. and i'm afraid to say, it reminds me of iran, even though iran claims i does not have knew clash weapons, it is saying to the world that it will be taken seriously as a nuclear power. that it wants the right to enrich.

and now amount of discussion, sanctions, anything else has changed that equation right now in iran or in north korea which is way further than iran with actual bomb capacity, even though it has not guil, accordi the best estimates, been weaponized and put on missiles. >> good assessment from both of ewe guys. we'll see you back here tomorrow. please be sure to watch amanpour on cnn international foreign affairs program airing weekdays at 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. also, tune in to faree fareed zakaria gps. only on cnn. a former north korea spy will live in the united states right now after defecting. and she says the regime executed her husband. she talks to us next. e even pic. it found out the doctor we needed was at st. anne's. wiggle your toes. and it got his okay on treatment from miles away.

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a north korean agent speaks out about the current crisis. we'll hear from her. that's next.

once he worked for the north

korean regime. she's speaking out. she's speaking out to our own brian todd. >> she describes a regime that she believes will push us into conflict. a group of leaders, she says, have little regard for the safety of their own people or even themselves. as sab ers rattle, a perspectiv that few in the west can even comprehend. she's not only a defector, she once worked in the country's feared intelligence service. a spy who was used to catch drug dealers. she knows what this regime is capable of and says this about the current crisis. >> i believe that the war will break and i believe that by 9%. when you think about this, the psychology of these people, they're not thinking that oh, i need to survive. you all die.

it's not that. you're going to die and i'm going to die, as well. that's what they're thinking. >> another former north korean agent says she things kim jong un is using provocation to compensate for his youth. >> he's struggling to win complete control over the military. >> he was convicted of blowing up a south korean airliner in 1987. she was captured alive when she didn't bite her cyanide pill in time. >> north korea is using its nuclear program to keep its people in line and to push south korea and the united states for concessions. >> speaking to former north korean spies is almost surreal. occupies her days in ways you wouldn't expect. these days, she makes her living this way. she is politically active,

though, and she says that comes with a price. residing in northern virginia, she's engaged in protest in the u.s. against the north korean regime. in new york, in 2010, while she was protesting the sinking of a south korean war ship, she says two north korean agents threatened to kill her. when i asked if she fears for her life? >> translator: i do feel it's unsafe. i feel it's not safe. however, actually, i don't regret as to what i do. because i feel that it's what i have tho do. because what they're doing is definitely wrong. >> reporter: she has to continue protesting, but always with a keen sense of what has happened before. her first husband who was also an officer, was executed. >> thanks for joining us. that's it for me this hour.