on the 2019 budget request tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on sees them. -- eastern on c-span. at the pentagon briefing, lieutenant general kenneth mckenzie says there is no change to u.s. military posture following the cancellation of the summit between president trump and north korean leader kim jong-un. he said a normal state of vigilance will be maintained, citing what he calls north korea's past unpredictable behavior. he is joined by chief pentagon spokesperson dana white. afternoon.good i hope everyone is getting ready for a safe and happy holiday weekend. for many, memorial day weekend signals the start of summer. it can be easy to overlook the

significance of memorial day and what it means for our nation, especially the service members to continue to defend our freedom everyday. we celebrate memorial day in honor of the brave men and women who died while serving in the military. as we head into the holiday weekend, please join me in a moment of silence for those we have lost in service to our great nation. regarding the secretary's travel, yesterday secretary mattis delivered the air service commencement class. he charged the class of 2018 withholding the line to make sure our military remains the most lethal force in the world. today secretary mattis presides over the nor, and norad ceremonies as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of norad. he will underscore the importance of north america as an example of democratic

stability during a time of peril. he will also reinforce the importance of our indispensable alliance with canada and welcome mexico's increased leadership and renewed commitment to regional security. with that, i will take your questions. >> dana, a couple questions in connection with the president's remarks about canceling the meeting with north korea. he has spoken with secretary mattis about this. he says the u.s. military now is more ready than ever to deal with north korea. i wonder if either of you could flesh that out, what he meant by that. is the u.s. reinforcing positions and north korea? is it anticipating missile provocations and preparing for that? yes,hite: i can confirm the secretary spoke with the president today. we are still continuing the maximum pressure campaign. that has not changed for us. in terms of we are ready to

fight for night, that has always been the case. to support ours diplomatic efforts. i will let the general expand on that. lt. gen. mckenzie: particularly the infusion with the recent budget will let us address concerns, all of which will improve the readiness of forces, including forces that could be called upon to deploy and fight if we were called upon the korean peninsula. we retain a high state of vigilance in response to the dprk. that includes our missile defense activities. anticipate missile provocations now in light of this? lt. gen. mckenzie: i could not speculate. we will be ready if it happens. you said general there was a high state of vigilance in north korea. is there a heightened state of vigilance? -- aen. mckenzie: no, i high state of vigilance we have

always had because they are unpredictable in the past. it is the normal state of vigilance we maintain. >> the cancellation of the planned summit has not affected the military posture in any way? lt. gen. mckenzie: not in any way. ms. white: stephanie. >> the president mentioned he spoke to secretary mattis and joint chiefs of staff and japan and south korea, saying they were ready to shoulder much of the cost of financial burden, operations, if such an them -- an unfortunate situation should occur. is the president saying -- maybe this is a question for secretary south -- does he suggest korea and japan are willing to finance any operations in the peninsula? ms. white: i would have to refer you to the white house. i was not privy to that. i have not spoken to secretary mattis since the phone call. i will let you know if i get any details. >> the department was notified

by the department of commerce they will be conducting section investigation into national security implementations for imported automobiles. does the pentagon feel imported automobiles are national security threat, especially when most come from japan, south korea, europe? ms. white: we just got that memo. i promise to come back to you on that. i owe you an answer. tom? >> which tom? ms. white: you will be my second tom, watkins. i am going with you first. >> thank you, dana. ig issued a report on afghanistan regarding minimal progress [indiscernible] specifically, i am thinking about how we all talked about the winter offensive by the u.s. in afghanistan, how it

was designed to counter a taliban spring offense. even in afghanistan it is springtime now. how does that winter offensive stack up to reports that show minimal progress? lt. gen. mckenzie: the report -- in favor of the afghan government. it is early in the fighting season, and there is a lot of fighting to be done. i would like to wait for a final characterization before it is later in the year. >> the only real metric they could use to judge that was the land controlled by the government, vis-a-vis not by the government. it has not changed from the latest report. can you share metrics to give us a sense of your optimism? lt. gen. mckenzie: i will wait and do that later, not right now. >> you will do that? lt. gen. mckenzie: yes, not right now. ms. white: tom. >> were they disappointed they

scrapped the summit? ms. white: the secretary has been in full support of the effort. this was a white house decision, state department decision. for us as the general said, the maximum pressure campaign continues. our pastor has not changed. we remain vigilant and continue to be. this is the beginning, not the end. he spoke to the president this morning and you cannot talk about private discussions, but can you frame it? we are trying to characterize it. i understand it is a white house-led effort, but what is his opinion? what was his view in terms of the summit going forward? was he looking forward to it, supportive of it? there must be some feeling from him. a total 180. the building is going few months ago his bellicose part.

then it was more promising with the summit. we talk about being ready to fight tonight. it is a complete turnabout. can you give us any characterization? ms. white: i would tell you as he has said in statements, he had been cautiously optimistic. the secretary is used to dynamic situations. this is a dynamic situation. this is nothing new to him. he is ready to support. we will continue the maximum pressure campaign, at the secretary was always of a cautiously optimistic -- he was very firm about, we continue to support our diplomats. that is not change for the secretary. barbara. i have one question for you general mckenzie on north korea. you say, no heightened state of alert. i am curious what that is,

because that would come, no need for heightened alert would come from secretary mattis, general .unford that is the reaction from this building, that there is no need for heightened alert. sinceurious why that is, you also said you do need readiness funds to improve your ability to fight against north korea. i would like you to ask that in a minute. dana, a different question for you. the confidential fbi source. the president has already said that person was paid money. and we now know from your press office that that confidential $1 billion inout contract money from dod office of net assessment to produce some reports. just for the record, can you say the department of

defense paid to this confidential source could be for actual work in done for the pentagon and he was not being paid by the pentagon to be an fbi informant? thanks to both of you. ms. white: general, i will let you start. lt. gen. mckenzie: we always remain a high state of readiness when it comes to the korean peninsula. we have done that for many years because of the provocative capricious actions of dprk leadership. we are ready to go from a cold start to something more significant, if we are required to do so. --would not raise readiness we would not do that unless we had indications. right now we are at a level of good readiness, in a boxer stance, ready to respond. we will see if any provocative actions occur from dprk, we will act in concert with allies in the region and be ready for them. >> could i ask you to expand on

the one point you made, that you need additional readiness money for issues such as north korea -- what is that? what is it for north korea you do not have? lt. gen. mckenzie: we have accepted reductions in munitions and training because of the focus we have had against the fight in afghanistan, isis in syria. we have now, ups we have been able to address endemic shortages that have plagued the department for years. us in other places across the globe, should we be required to do so. ms. white: to your second question. i am aware of this, it is currently under investigation. i can get back to you with more details, that this is currently under investigation. >> i am sorry, but i do need to follow up on this. your press office has confirmed this verse in was granted four

contracts by the office's net assessment. this is public information that can be found on your own contract website. you say it is under investigation and i understand that -- are you saying it is under investigation then, that the money he was paid by the defense department actually went through real dod work as opposed to paying him to maintain his informant status? what is it you are saying when you say it is under investigation? ms. white: first of all, the whole issue of his status and what he was with respect to the fbi is under investigation. with respect to the contracts, i just have to see this. i do not have the details. the press office is correct they have confirmed there were four contracts. i would prefer to come back to you and give you more details. i will come back to you today,

how about that? louis? mean --it to ms. white: what investigation? >> that barbara is talking about. there is no dod investigation? ms. white: not that i am aware of, no. thehe question is about nuclear testing facility in north korea that north korea publicly destroyed today. what is the assessment of the capabilities of that facility today and how quickly you think it could be brought back to the abilities it needs to be. aregen. mckenzie: we looking at pictures right now, but we do not have a visual assessment. i do not have a better answer for you, other than that they have done visible activities

related to the destruction. >> was their destruction of facilities leading up to today? lt. gen. mckenzie: we have been looking at that very closely. >> excuse me. about have anything sharing of defense spending between u.s. and south korea? are you willing to ask south korea to increase this cost? ms. white: in terms of shared costs, burden sharing on the peninsula? i do not have any further details. the president has spoken to his counterpart, but i do not have any details about any change in the relationship at this time. >> can you clarify your statement about being ready to

fight tonight? what does that mean? syria, syrian state media reported yesterday some syrian arm positions being attacked or targeted by the coalition led by the u.s. can you comment on that, as well? ms. white: i will answer your first question and give it to the general. in terms of fight tonight, the united states stands ready to protect our nation and the interest of our allies. that is what i mean by fight tonight. lt. gen. mckenzie: i do not have any reporting that anyone has struck a u.s.-syrian position. the u.s. is not involved. ms. white: tony. >> i have a contract question for you and a question for the general. you say the maximum pressure campaign will continue. the you have plans today to ratchet up the maximum pressure

campaign? and a lot of the computer world is waiting for the final rop for the jedi cloud. they say they wanted done by the end of the month. is it on track for the end of the month release? lt. gen. mckenzie: tony, i would not want to speculate on that, this information is less than three hours old. that is not something i would be able to speculate on. had instructions in the last few hours to ratchet up the maximum pressure campaign? lt. gen. mckenzie: that is a future contingency i am not going to speculate on. ms. white: with respect to the rst we are very anxious to get it out. i do not have a particular day, but it is working and we are that ing everything anticipate it will be released on time. >> can you tell a to it has changed from the draft and how

industry input helped shape the final product? ms. white: let me take that. you, a separate topic, a lot has changed in the last 48 hours. for months we have heard china had a critical role in getting north korea to the table and then yesterday its involvement was canceled. today, this, the cancellation of the summit. what is the way forward to get any sort of agreement as far as north korea? ms. white: the way forward is frankly in the hands of the north koreans. as the president already said he is prepared to talk. , call me.ite me our position is, we continue the maximum campaign. that has not changed for us. we will continue to make sure

the alliance is strong and we are ready and forces are prepared for whatever contingency. >> in terms of this inviting ing china,disinvit what are the consequences? cell phonestential and things that have caused china to be disinvited? ms. white: we will work with china where we can and we will confront china where we must. ,ith results for the disinvite that was because of the militarization in the south china sea. that was that expression. we will continue to work with the chinese, but it is important they understand we take that very seriously. >> will the chinese still engaged getting north korea to denuclearize? ms. white: i will not speculate

what ongoing talks could be. >> a separate topic. we talked about a water study. could you from the podium discuss the pentagon's stance on getting this information out to military families. ms. white: we want to get that information out. the lead is hss. this has been an ongoing issue. we have worked with the bases, we have worked with local communities. oddurveyed 524 some installations in their water system. in places we have not been able weremedy the contaminants, have provided contingencies. bottled water, municipal links. getting that information out. that information is also provided in base newspapers and

a website i'm happy to give you after this, what could be done to mitigate the pollution. general mckenzie, have you seen any change in behavior from the chinese in terms of forcing sanctions on their northern borders? lt. gen. mckenzie: no, i have not, but i do not have detailed information on that. i will have to come back to you on that. i think they have been consistent in the application of it but i do not think we have seen a change. >> we hear a lot about the maximum pressure campaign. did that include a military component, or is that just the sanctions side? ms. white: it is the whole of government approach. it is diplomatic, military. the maximum pressure campaign spans the u.s. government. >> can you explain what the military component of the maximum pressure is? lt. gen. mckenzie: high readiness forces in korea, the

exercises we continue to conduct with our korean and japanese allies, it is a whole variety of things. if i could expand. tom made a point saying he felt the building had done a u-turn with regards to our approach to north korea. from a military view we have been on a consistent direction that has not changed at all. we are in full support of the military component of the maximum pressure campaign. we are being very steady, very straight in terms of our preparations, the readiness we display. i do not actually believe we changed anything from a military component vis-a-vis north korea going forward. can you say the secretary commanded president trump to cancel this meeting with kim jong-un? ms. white: what i can say, the secretary and president spoke

today about the cancellation and the secretary was aware of the decision. >> recently the u.s. resumed the exercises [indiscernible] can you say whether there was an on theof this exercise point we are today? speculate i will not on what factored into the decision-making process on this -- on behalf of north korea. we continued our exercises. we will continue our exercises. we stand in full support of the diplomatic effort that lies ahead. jeff. >> a question for both of you. in light of the cancellation of the summit, is the pentagon or u.s. forces in korea looking at whether south korea should be on a company tour, the dependents of service member should be allowed to live there, given the

military can range all u.s. bases. lt. gen. mckenzie: since it just happened four hours ago i think it would be premature to speculate at all about that. >> earlier this week the state department declared the u.s. is going to be [indiscernible] against iran. including navigation. is the u.s. prepared if it needs to get into conflict with the irtc. lt. gen. mckenzie: freedom of aregation, we believe we prepared to ensure freedom navigation can be maintained in those two critical geographic chokepoints. >> how long would it take to save the iranian fleet? days, weeks? [indiscernible] >> my question is for both of you. if i can get an update about the operations in eastern syria,

-- are inconfirm the control of the iranian-iraqi border? and what is the right tool right now for the isf? of all, mckenzie: first we believe on the iraqi side of the border they pressed up against it pretty completely and we are very satisfied with the way that is developing. in the euphrates river valley in syria, east of the river, operations continue. i do not believe they have completely closed up, but they are moving in that direction. operations every commenced under moving. bob.hite: >> a quick question about the phone call. did the secretary have a phone call to the president before the decision was made or after the decision was made? ms. white: listen, i do not know the exact timing. the secretary and the chairman

are both out in colorado springs. they spoke earlier this morning. >> do you know about those conversations? ms. white: i will not detail those. how long those spoke -- the secretary was aware -- >> what have you been notified about? ms. white: the secretary and president did speak. the secretary was aware of the decision that was going to be made with respect to the summit. thank you all very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> just on secretary pompeo's testimony before the committee today. you can watch all the hearing on the department's 2019 budget request tonight on c-span. >> here is a look at some of the

program highlights for this memorial day weekend. saturday on c-span -- at 9:30 eastern, the debate munk. is political correctness a hindrance to free speech, or an effort for political justice? meacham, and jon author. and on american history tv at c-span3 at 10:00 p.m. eastern on real america, archival films of world war i. sunday on c-span at 6:30 p.m., former new jersey governor chris christie at the university of chicago institute of politics. on book tv on c-span2 a 9:00 p.m. on afterwards, former national intelligence director james clapper. sunday on american history tv on c-span3 at six ago p.m. eastern on american artifacts, a tour of the battlefield monuments and american secretary -- cemeteries in france. memorial day on