the united nations. in terms of any kinds of u.s. military response we just need to wait and see. it's early now to talk about any kinds of u.s. military response. certainly we'll see stepped up u.s. military flights, patrols from its bombers. keep in mind, there are 80,000 u.s. military troops stationed on south korea and japan. you have warships from the 7th fleet. since the collisions of two destroyers resulting in the death of 17 sailors. the u.s. military is down two ballistic missile defense ships that can shoot down korean ballistic missiles. in terms of any kinds of military response, it's too early to tell. robert: how soon might we get

those tests to make the determination in the past what has been -- is it something we'll know in a matter of hours? how likely will we get the confirmation it's the 6th nuclear test? >> the united states can get reconnaissance aircraft into the region pretty quickly. any kind of nuclear matter or raid logical matter will in the air for a long time, for days. so i expect the test to happen any time in the next few days. robert: what's the sense you are getting from the pentagon and your sources in terms of sanctions and the likelihood of success in deterring aggression from north korea. what have you been hearing in terms of that in recent days and

weeks? >> the next step -- just a few weeks ago the intelligence agency came out with a new report saying north korea did have the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and put it on top of a war head. photos emerged from north korea showing kim jong-un inspecting what looked like a thermonuclear device, an h-bomb. and with the report from state media saying they were ready to put this weapon on a warhead, however, the photos were from a lab, not an actual missile. the intelligence agencies have known north korea does have the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and put it on a missile. the next step would be to put a

nuclear warhead on a missile and have that missile potentially fly and hit a target with a nuclear device to show the world it has that kind of capability. north korea has not demonstrated the ability to have a missile which can reenter the earth's atmosphere. but with all the missile tests they have been doing the past years and months, people think it could happen very quickly. north korea is advancing in missile capability as well as nuclear capability. this has bent largest nuclear test out of the 6 previously in it history going back to 2006. robert: thanks so much for joining us at this early hour to

discuss this apparent nuclear test in north korea. that's fox news pentagon producer lucas tomlinson. in case you are just tuning in just past the top of the hour. to recap. north korea apparently conducted potentially another nuclear test. the u.s. geologic survey says it was a 6.3 magnitude explosion there. the upgrade was made earlier this hour. it was originally at a 5.2. but the u.s.g.s. says it's 6.3. it appears to have conducted a nuclear test. south korea's president and other officials there have chimed in as well with this assertion. it would be the 6th nuclear test since 2006 if it is confirmed. they are testing the air and they will be trying to get that determination shortly.

following an announcement from the rogue state, state run media that north korea has a thermonuclear bomb for it, cbm. kim jong-un reportedly oversaw the fine stages of that work. we have images released by north korea apparently showing that. president trump spoke with japan's prime minister shinzo abe. the joint chiefs of staff in seoul saying south korea's military has strengthened monitoring and readiness and is mulling over a variety of possible responses that may be pushed together with its ally, the united states. we would like to bring on the phone with us. gordon chang. thanks so much for joining us here as we begin to digest this. your take on this?

obviously a lot of steps here. north korea escalating thing on a holiday weekend in the united states. what your takeaway from this apparent nuclear test. >> they were just waiting for a political decision from kim jong-un, the north korean lead tore set this thing off. i think it was done on a day that is meant to disrespect the united states. a day when president trump set aside to remember texas. the north korean's paper ran a piece talking about putting the entire united states under water. i don't think that was a coincidence. what we have is north korea trying to take a moment where they felt the united states could not respond. it's also a moment where they felt china would not respond. the chinese just announced the

date for the 9th party congress -- the 19th party congress. a sensitive time for the chinese and xi jinping won't want to move against his north korean ally at this particular moment. robert: it will be the 6th and largest since 2006. is it meant to show they are increasing their capability? what would you read into that? >> certainly. they were not going to want a smaller test. they will want to intimidate the united states. once they feel confident in their arsenal. they will use it to break the missile defense treaty with south korea. so then north korea can absorb south korea. this is the core goal of the kim

regime. kim has been talking about final victory in recent months. this is a time when he could easily miscalculate. we could find ourselves in a war. perhaps a nuclear exchange. this is exceedingly dangerous. robert: that's his end game, he's going to try to blackmail the u.s. into leaving south korea? what do you expect we can expect from the u.s. more show of force in the region? >> i don't know what the trump administration would do. they have done a lot of thing to try to intimidate kim jong-un and they haven't worked. if i were president i would tell beijing and moscow that the youth was going to put forward a security council resolution calling for the complete embargo of north korea. if the chinese and rugs didn't immediately d and the russians

didn't -- if the chinese and the russians didn't immediately sign on, they have undermined american policy not on this year, but through the course of decade. the united states has the means to disarm kim jong-un peacefully but we have not had the political will to do what is necessary. this is a story more about the united states more than it is china or russia or north korea. so far no american administration has been willing to protect the american people. robert: when you say protect them, you mean to move above the dmz and move into north korea. >> i don't mean use of force. i mean disarming north korea. we have the capability to do that without use of force. we have overwhelming economic

leverage against north korea and the russians but we have not been willing to use that leverage. there is a lot of war talk, but there hasn't been the talk about thing we need to do before we get to the point of thinking about using force. using force could create, could start history's most of devastating conflict. we have a moral obligation to do everything we possibly can short of the use of force, and we have the tools, our learning over the chinese and russians. robert: what learning would that be? what can we do to bring them to the table at the security council? >> all we have to do is for the president to start enforcing u.s. law against money laundering. chinese banks have been cleaning up cash for the north koreans,

thereby abusing the u.s. financial system. we have known about this for a long time. we have signaled to the chinese to stop this. the chinese have not taken the figure -- have not taken the signal. president trump designated a small chinese institution for money laundering. so it's incumbent upon the united states. whatever we think our north korea policy or china policy should be, we should be enforcing u.s. law and not permitting anyone to launder money using dollars or the north koreans. robert: the 26th was right around the time of the nuclear test a year ago. do you think we can expect

something along those lines in the coming weeks? >> i think we should. if we were to unplug the bank of china. the bank of china was cited in a 2016 u.n. report for the north koreans. i think it bank of china has been laundering money for north korea in other locations. we have them dead to right. if we were to designate bank of chain today a money laundering concern, that would be a death sentence for that bank. we could throw the chinese financial system into turmoil which could lead tote end of the communist party. robert: we would like for to you stay with us. we have to take a break. but stay with us through the break. just in case you are just joining us now. we want to recap that north korea appears to have conducted its 6th nuclear test since

2006. this would be the largest one now. we have gordon chang, an asia analyst with us. we'll be right back with more. stay with us on fox news. ♪

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robert: this is a fox. i'm robert gray. approximately an hour and a half ago south korea's weather agency detected a 6.3 earthquake in north korea. it could be another nuclear test by north korea. it would be the 6th nuclear test if it's confirmed. this follows an earlier announcement from that rogue nation state-run media that north korea has a thermonuclear bomb. kim jong-un reportedly oversaw the final stages of the work. president trump spoke to shinzo

abe shortly after that announcement and it's agreed that they must cooperate with south korea. they are looking at possible responses that might be pulled together with its ally the united states. on the phone with us still is asian analyst and author gordon chang. thank you for staying with us throughout the break. we were talking about bringing pressure to bear on beijing and moscow to join in with the u.s. security council. you were talking about boy together a total boycott of north korea. gordon, you were talking about enforcing money laundering laws to bring that pressure to bear.

>> we have the ability to move china in much better directions. its largest banks including bank of china have been involved in cleaning up cash for the north koreans. that's a violation of u.s. law and we can impose death sentences on these enormous institutions. the trump administration designated a chinese bank for northerny laundering. but we have been unwilling to do that where it counts which is the larger children ease institutions. we want to exhaust all means before starting to think about the ultimate way to disarm north korea which is through use of force. robert: do you think it's likely

we could see resolutions coming to the u.n. in the near term before the general assembly meets in a few weeks' time? >> i think there will be a resolution out of the security council. but the u.s. has the ability to stop the dynamic. where the chinese and russia water count resolution. there has been 7 sets of u.s. sanctions. so what we need is the u.n. to impose a complete embargo on north korea. we need to stop all of its commerce. we need the leverage. at some point we can talk to kim jong-un, but only when he realizes he has no choice but to disarm. >> we have seen shows of force by the u.s. and allies in the

area. what do you think we can do in the near term. what would you expect the u.s. response to be? bringing more assets into the region as a use of force? >> we have had numerous use of force. we had f-35s flown off a japanese airfield and south korean f-15 fighters. but these don't intimidate the chinese or north koreans. this reassures our allies the united states will be there to protect them. i'm not for more shows of reassurance, but that won't solve the issue. what will solve it is acts of political will by the trump administration to protect the

american people. >> you are talking about the ends game here. how much the north korean military is make this escalation to blackmail the u.s. and achieve domination of the peninsula? >> this is what i'm concerned about. a lot of people say they are worried about kim jong-un firing a missile at the u.s. he's not going to do that to start off a crisis. what he will try to doyles what vladimir putin did august 14 is to threaten the use of nuclear weapons and offensive capabilities to obtain certain objectives. he may try to blackmail us so we terminate our mutual defense treaty with south korea so kim can intimidate south korea into

surrendering. in other words, to absorb south korea into the north korean state. kim jong-un has been talking about final victory to his generals which is an ominous sign. i'm concerned he will start a chain of events that will lead to miscalculation. robert: with president trump now talking about withdrawing from the south korean trade agreement. you are saying that's something that would be a smis calculation or certainly -- a mis miscalculn or bad timing. >> there was talk president trump was going to notify seoul next week that the united states is withdrawing from the free

trade agreement. trump feels this agreement from a trade point of view of is not in the interest of the united states. but now is not the time to do it. i never not withdrawing was a good idea because of the strategic implications. we need all the friends we can get in the region and south korea and japan. we shouldn't be doing anything that would republic stewart alliance. robert: gordon, thanks so much for your insights. gordon chang, north korean analyst on the phone. north korea appears to have conducted another nuclear test, their 6th since 2006. it triggered a 6.3 tremor,

explosion there, that would be the largest of the 6 nuclear tests if it's confirmed to be. we heard from lucas come lynn on explaining how the u.s. will be sending planes into the area to do air samples. but the usgs saying that was a magnitude 6.3 and that's the largest one so far. we have a senior fellow at the defense for democracy. anthony i would like to get your thoughts on what this does appear to be the large yechtd of these nuclear tests. this coming in the backgrounds. kim jong-un saying he expected the loading of a hydrogen bomb on to an icbm just yesterday. >> thanks for having me. it looks like north korea is

sending another signal to the united states and our allies in the region that it will continue its nuclear program, nuclear pea weapons perhaps. north korea said by their actions and words. it's another reason we need more robust sanctions against north korea. we have nothing like what we had against iran. robert: do you think this pick action will get the security council of the u.n. to put those more stringent motions in place there? what do you think it's going to take? >> the united states is one that has to show leadership role here. i think the trump administration has started to do that. what we had with iran in the 2010 time period is the u.s.

sanctions were sort of the foundation of sanctions. but the only thing that really turned the tide was the united states working with our allies, putting forward more robust sanctions at a national, super national and multi-national way. and the issue here is that the trump administration repaired to do that? it looks like they will have to press forward and do that. what we have here is china and russia who are not interested in solving this problem. all they are interested in doing is delaying and pushing forward this problem. that's why for the last 10 years we have not come up with a solution. the chinese are the ones that are not allowing their entities and individuals and banks to facilitate north korea's sanctions and that's what's

allowing the program to move forward. robert: how stringent sanctions cot u.s. put in place if you don't have russia and china signing off on it. >> the issue here is we are never going to get beijing and moscow on board on sanctions that would target their own entities and individuals. the interesting thing that has come out the last couple weeks is a perfect example is a russian company wanted to sell gas oil to north korea. but that russian company wanted u.s. dollars. and north korea cannot do those transactions because they are prohibited. what the russian company had to do was create companies in singapore to allow them to have it. what that means is there is

vulnerability there. when people want to conduct u.s. dollar transactions, it's the u.s. government that can stop that. china and russia value their access to the u.s. dollar more than they value north korea. i think we get ourselves into what we like to call the provocation response cycle where north korea does a provocation. we convince ourselves that we have strong sanctions at the u.n. and we really don't. we have to somehow break out of that cycle. the way to break out of that cycle is to focus on the problem areas. those problems unfortunately are china and russia. >> in a lot of ways they tend to hurt the populace. you hear the reports of starvation and malnutrition. what would it take to troops see some kind of regime change,

maybe even a peaceful transition there. maybe it's hard to see at this particular juncture. go back to the 80s, you have too many years ahead of that when people did not see the fall of the wall. is there something to use strategically to bring that about? >> one of the myths of the north korea sanctions is that it impacts the people itself. the u.n. said the sanctions are not what is harming the people it's the north korean regime. when you talk about billions of dollars of money that goes into north korea. where it goes is to the military, the elite and these weapons programs. if our goal is denuclearization which i believe should still be

our goal. we have to wonder whether we need a different kind of regime in north korea. that doesn't mean a military across is the most of likely source. but it means perhaps our policies need to be adjusted. there was a an article in the post that suggested why are we taking regime change off the table? certainly this regime is the problem. as you said, they are starving their own people but they are happy to have a nuclear weapons program that's not allowing their people to eat. robert: we were talking about gordon chang about the shows of force we have seen. no doubt we'll see something as a show in the next few days. is there anything along those lines that the u.s. and south korea can do to show some

intimidation to north korea. they have seen a lot of these in the past. >> i think the show of force whether it's -- i believe it was last week, you know, flying the f-35 and the strategic bombers. those are always important. earlier this year we had the two aircraft carriers in the region that was important, too. the message that send is that north korea, while they can do these tests, they have to understand there will be consequences for military action. it wasn't that long ago, 7 years ago that north korea sunk a south korean naval vessel. killing over 40 sailors. in the same year shelling a south korean island. there was very little response to that. i think north korea need to understand these military maneuvers helped them understand that while they continue to

develop these programs, that using those programs, using their military might against our allies, i think the president and secretary mattis made that very clear. robert: thank you for joining us here at this late hour. thank you so much. we are going to go to a break here or continue to go on? okay, we are heading to a break. we are going to continue our coverage here. if you are just joining us. just tuning in. the u.s.g.s. detected a 6.3 magnitude explosion in north korea near the site of previous nuclear tests there and it would be the largest of the 6th if this is the 6th test since

2006. if it is confirmed. tests are under way to find out if it is indeed. it comes after north korea claims the loading of a hydrogen bomb on an icbm. my bladder leakage was making me feel like i couldn't spend time with my grandson. now depend fit-flex has their fastest absorbing material inside, so it keeps me dry and protected. go to depend.com - get a coupon and try them for yourself. at tfor 480 bucks...ton. electricity without the shock. cabela's outdoorsman remote start generator. great price. every day. only at cabela's.

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on a hotel just go to priceline. they add thousands of new deals every day at up to 60% off. that's how kaley and i got to share this trip together at this amazing hotel. yeah ash and i share everything - dresses, makeup, water bottles... we do? mmhmm. we share secrets, shoes, toothbrushes... what? yeah i forgot mine so i've been using yours. seriously? what's the big deal? i mean, we even dated the same guy. who?! uh, go to priceline and get the hotel deals you won't find anywhere else. robert: this is a fox news alert. i'm robert gray. a magnitude 6.3 quake detected in north korea. it may be an indication of another nuclear test by the north korean government. it would be the 6th nuclear test since 2006 fit is confirmed

to be that. this follows an announcement from the rogue nation's state-run media that they have a they are oh nuclear bomb for its, cbm. now, president trump spoke with japan's president shinzo abe just after the north korean announcement and they agreed the u.s., japan and south korea must cooperate to deal with the rogue nation. joining us now on the phone is former cia senior north korea analyst sumi terry. i want to let everyone know, crossing on twitter, north korea

says it will make a special announcement coming up at the top of the hour. but that's expected coming up very soon. we want to stay tuned for that. what might we expect to hear from north korea. some confirmation this is a nuclear test and maybe some other assertions? >> absolutely. they said they have successfully conducted this nuclear test and they reported on it as they normally do. i went to bed an hour ago and the last tweet of the day because it would be within an hour. robert: you dropped out. >> north korea was going to conduct nuclear test very soon. i didn't know it was going to be this soon. but it was expected by north

korea watchers. this was entirely expected. robert: there have been assertions by some of our guests saying today was basically a dig at the u.s. with president trump calling for a day of remembrance in texas after the flooding there. do you think this was the intent of the regime and it was timed accordingly? >> north korea is careful about picking the date, and they pick the u.s. holiday. so it makes sense in the north korean calculation. also i think mr. trump has said recently north korea has shown restraint and obviously that's

not right. he's pursuing what he wants to do which is complete the nuclear program to have the ability to attack the u.s. mainland with a nuclear weapon. robert: if they have the hydrogen bomb and icbm, where do you think they are in terms of obtaining that goal? >> within a year they will show the capability to reach anywhere in the united states with a nuclear tipped missile. we have to make a painful choice, decision how to respond to north korea. because they are doing it right now as we speak. robert: what sort of option if you were in your role as a cia analyst would you be mulling over with your colleagues. >> we don't have too many

options except what we are already doing which is to continue with sanctions and probably mr. trump will announce a secondary sanctions against chinese banks that do business with north korea to get china to do more. but we have to get realistic. all of this might still fail. so then we have to make a painful decision whether we can live with a nuclear north korea like we do have nuclear china and pakistan. do we intercept the missile or some sort kinetic action we haven't undertake in the last 20 years. robert: we talked with our last guest about potential options for regime change.

are those particular options or things sanctions may help to bring about that may have a more peaceful resolution in long term? >> it's true what your guest said. unless there is a difference in north korea, this -- any sort of decapitation of the regime is very risky. when we talk about regime change, we are trying to help north korea overthrow their own government with warfare. we don't have a lot of time of stopping north korea's nuclear program. robert: thank you for joining us and for your insights. in case you have not been with us for very long. north korea -- apparently north

korea has had theirth nuclear test since 2006. we are expecting word from north korea making a special announcement coming soon. the news agency tweeting that out of south korea. a 6.3 magnitude quake detected by the u.s. geological survey. this follows earlier saturday north korea's leader claimed they load a hydrogen bomb on to an icbm. we'll continue to follow this story. stay with us right here on fox news. you know who likes to be in control? this guy. check it out! self-appendectomy! oh, that's really attached. that's why i rent from national. where i get the control to choose any car

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robert: this is a fox news alert. i'm robert gray. a magnitude 6.3 quake detected in north korea. it maybe an indication of another nuclear test by the north korean government. it will be the 6th nuclear test since 2006 fit is confirmed. earlier there were reports that north korea has a hydrogen bomb

for its icbm. president trump spoke with japan's prime minister and they agreed they must work together on this increasing threat from north korea. this test may come as a surprise to some in the government including secretary of state rex tillerson. he said pyongyang has demonstrated some level of restraint that we have not seen in the past. joining me by phone is michael malice, he's the writer of "dear reader." the unauthorized biography of kim jong-il. some korea watchers said they expected it in the near term. should washington have been caught off guard by this potential nuclear blast? >> they should be caught off

guard that the technology is advancing faster than expected. but they should not be caught off guard that north korea is escalating their actions. they are going to get more and more aggressive and force america to grovel. this hayes a scheme of theirs to have a power position over if the united states. this is a gangster government. the quick government are basically a gang of thugs who rule their country with complete force demanding a tribute from their people. what would be the next step if they continue on with this escalation. we heard the reports and have seen pictures of the hydrogen bomb being load on to an icbm.

what would you see as the next step by north korea? >> they have already taken two next steps coming to light today. first of which is kim jong nun april ordered the government to stockpile 4 million barrels of mail anticipating sanctions. they boasted in the press release the bomb is homegrown. this means that they are saying even if you block us off from the rest of the world, we are still going to have the technology and capacity to continue on this path. so these are two further reasons to be worried about this problem problem. robert: if they have got the supplies on hands and they are stockpiling. how forceful, how successful can

enhanced sanctions be even if beijing were to come on board with the u.s. security council. >> any bring visions its citizen citizens suffer they can say with a straight face the reason you don't have food is because of the u.s. imperialists. they are keeping us from delivering food to you. even in that case they have a way out to justify their totalitarian dictatorship. will be dictatorship. robert: the timing of today. perhaps it was set up on labor day. do you think it made it an enhanced target date? >> i don't think it has to do with texas. i'm sure you remember july 4 when nikki haley was complaining

kim jong-un ruined her holiday and she was being tongue-in-cheek. i don't know if they know these are slow news days. there is no possibility this is a coincidence. when you hear people talk about how crazy they are. they are managing toll leverage their power very well and very effectively. robert: michael thank you for joining us. the author of the unauthorized biography of kim jong-il. there was a 6.3 magnitude explosion and that would be the largest of the 6th if it is a nuclear test. stay with us here on fox news.

robert: this is a fox news alert. a magnitude 6.3 quake detected in north korea. it could be an indication of another nuclear test by north korea. it would be the 6th nuclear test since 2006 if confirmed. this follows reports that north korea has a hydrogen bomb for its long-range icbms. president trump spoke with japanese prime minister abe and they agreed they must work together against this increasing threat from north korea. the test may come as a surprise to some in the government including secretary of state rex tillerson. he recently said pyongyang

certainly demonstrated some level of restraint we have not seen in the past. we'll continue to follow this developing story. stay with us on fox news. robert: this is a fox news alert, i'm robert gray. a magnitude 6.3 quake detected in north korea.