breaking news to tell you at this hour. 8:00 p.m. eastern, 8:30 a.m. in north korea and the news this hour is that we are hearing north korea with a missile test. it was expected that something may happen on this weekend. this weekend of the 105th anniversary of the founder of north korea kim il-sun. the assessment is that the failed launch was not an icbm. this was not an intercontinental ballistic missile. this was not a missile at least what we're hearing at the moment that was capable of reaching the united states. this question of whether it can hit the mainland or hit the

lower 48 state, we are hearing that is not the case. we are hearing it did explode on launch or very close thereafter according to what the u.s. military is telling us. the u.s. pacific command also telling us that this launch happening in a very early sunday morning in north korea. it's about 8:30 a.m. on a sunday right now in north korea. that this attempt was made about three hours ago. about three hours ago and we're just getting this information that we can confirm from the u.s. military that a missile launch was attempted. what is happening right now when it comes to the u.s. military, they're in the middle of a call. the call is to determine what response, if any, and what the next steps are, if any, with regard to this north korean missile test. i want to bring in janis who is in seoul, south korea for us. does that sound correct from what they're saying there in

seoul from your sources? this is what we're hearing from u.s. pacific command here. >> reporter: it usually takes some time to gather the data to try to piece together exactly what it is that everyone is dealing with. it's strongly suggested this is not as you say an icbm. not capable of going those long ranges. there's some suggestion on the part of experts here in south korea who believe it could be a submarine launched ballistic missile. that is where it has most of its submarine assets so that would be consistent with the spot from where this missile was tested. it could be a number of hours, perhaps days, before we know exactly the type of missile that was launched and, of course, what its potential range was. the submarine launched ballistic

missiles experts say are a bit trickier and perhaps a bit more threatening because they're much more difficult to detect. these are theories that are being explored with this latest provocation by north korea, a failed launch, but people are stressing that failed is a relative term. each test puts north korea closer to operational capability for these assets. so while this one failed, it still suggests that north korea's weapons program is making progress despite years of punishing sanctions under the united nations and despite the tension in the region. >> any sense here, you're there in seoul, south korea, you're not far from the dmz, you're about 30 miles from that area of north korea and that zone between the two koreas, if you will. any reaction or response, any change in activity that you can

see based on this test that is being reported? >> reporter: well, it's early sunday morning here. easter sunday. people are seeing this as a holiday, a day of relaxation to spend with their family. we have to remember too that although seoul is a city of 10 or 11 million and millions in the surrounding area, south korea is a country very familiar with this sort of anxiety that is constantly coming from the north and its provocations. there has been the sense over the course of this latest crisis that this is something that they've been through before and it seems to find a way to come back from the brink. what is different about the escalation this time is of course the emergence of china as a player in this equation. china is trying to act as a broker of sorts between north korea and the united states.

there was the suggestion that perhaps the regime of pyongyang was listening. there had been some veiled messages in chinese newspapers over the past week suggesting that china was tired of having the north korea issue at its doorstep. it was warning the regime to avoid any mistakes and threatened to cut off oil shipments if the regime went ahead with that sixth nuclear test. while we're waiting to hear what the reaction is going to be from the u.s., from the u.s. administration and of course from military officials, it will also be very interesting to see what sort of reaction we get from china. >> janis, on this we have about 20,000 u.s. troops there. what has been the activity set within the last 24 to 48 hours and they are sitting very close to the dmz in some cases. >> reporter: some 28,000 military personnel in bases in

south korea from what we know it's been business as unususual. they've been involved in the last couple of months with joint military drills with south korea. this is part of the reason why things have been so tense because north korea has always seen these annual military exercises as a rehearsal of an invasion for their country. when people talk about this being a cyclical sort of tension, they're not wrong. this is a place where everyone has been before and in a lot of the cases for the same reasons. what is striking about the failed test today is the contrast to 24 hours ago in north korea with that massive military parade and that show of missiles and weaponry on display and a sense of strength and pride and delight on the part of kim jong-un at the center of the celebration and within 24 hours a failed missile test. so there is the sense that kim jong-un is being somewhat

calculated in this too knowing after so many warnings the risks of going ahead with the sixth nuclear test that it looked like he was preparing for and instead defaulting to a missile launch which may not garner the same sort of hostile reaction as that nuclear test. it will be interesting to see as things have changed in the last 24 hours what things look like at this time tomorrow. >> very early morning there in seoul, south korea. 8:37. janis following the details of what is happen og ting on the peninsula in reaction to the north korea missile launch failure. we'll let you go and we'll stop in with you later on what is happening there on the peninsula. i want to bring in kelly o'donnell who has new information. kelly, you're with the president there in florida. what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, richard,

continuing our conversation from the last time we spoke, we've learned from air force two that vice president mike pence has spoken with president trump and pence was briefed not long after his aircraft made a fuel stop in anchorage, alaska. that's a standard procedure going from joint base andrews in washington, refueling in anchorage and heading on to seoul, south korea. i'm told there's no plan to change the vice president's itinerary. he's scheduled to visit four countries in asia and the pacific over the next ten days. expected to arrive in seoul, south korea. we're told that the vice president was briefed and again this gives you a sense of the kind of communications capability that exists while the president is here at his palm beach home. the vice president is literally in the air when these conversations took place. reporters traveling with the vice president were briefed on this as well. the expected time is somewhere around 2:30 in the morning

eastern time where they expect the vice president's aircraft to reach its destination in seoul. we're also told -- i mentioned earlier that statemeometimes a statement is only in paper form and sometimes it's an on camera appearance by the president. the paper only is what is expected. that too should be an indication of the level of seriousness they are giving this in the grand sweep of the developments and tensions that exist. paper only. the president will not be making an on camera statement. nothing is expected to change in his schedule tonight. of course, we follow this minute-by-minute, but that's the latest guidance and it has a quality of reassurance about the level of concern shown by the white house and the pentagon at this point as they assess this attempted launch by the north koreans. as the president and vice president are thousands of miles apart, they've had a conversation tonight to go over

this and to confer about how the vice president should greet the allies in especially south korea and japan. they'll be visiting indonesia and australia, but that most urgent visit coming to south korea, obviously a place that has really heightened concern about any rattling by north korea and u.s. troops and south korean troops based there would be of great concern. easter holiday, the vice president plans and his wife and two daughters, they plan to visit with troops on easter sunday. so developments tonight, but not a sense of urgency and basically the response is following the typical pattern we would see of how the white house responds. we were told earlier that the president had been briefed and we expect that statement to come out sometime tonight, which may give us a bit more information about the u.s. assessment of what's taken place. richard. >> thank you. the latest, vice president

pence and his travel plans landing as we understand it at 3:00 a.m. on a holiday there, easter. one-third of the country identifying as christian and so it is an important day no doubt for south koreans too as the vice president plans to be there for services. thank you so much for the latest coming from the president and the white house staff. this as she is there in florida. gordan chang still with us. daily beast contributor and writer. author of "north korea takes on the world". you've heard the latest pieces of what we know about this missile specifically. not an icbm, what we are initially hearing could be potentially a submarine missile launch test because it comes from where their submarine force is held. what's your assessment of the pieces of information we've been

able to get so far? >> this has been an act of political theater from kim jong-un. this comes a few hours after the massive military parade on the most important holiday of north korea, on the day of the sun on the birth of the founder of north korea. the thing that strikes me most important is basically the message going to the chinese and the americans. and the global times, which is a tabloid published in beijing by people's daily, which is the mo most authorityive publication in china, it ran a very harsh piece with regard to north korea warning them in terms that north koreans were essentially probably very upset with because the tone was mastered to subordinate. i think what the north koreans decided to do they had to show

the chinese out. that's why we see this. i believe beijing has tried very hard to reign in the north koreans in the last few days because the chinese president i think was unnerved by president trump's firing of 59 tomahawks into syria and he was worried about what president trump might do in the region. at this point i am sure that kim jong-un wants to delegitimatize the chinese and make them look powerless. this is good internal regime politics for kim jong-un and it also probably causes problem for beijing in the white house because the white house is looking for a partner that can deal with the situation if the white house believes that china can't then i'm sure the president is going to think of unilateral measures such as more sanctions, perhaps a quarantine, perhaps maybe even going after the chinese for their transfers

of ballistic missile technology to the north koreans. the one thing we have to remember is that the most important piece of new equipment that we saw was that cannister that was on a mobile missile launcher. that cannister is very similar to the cannisters that the chinese use for their df-31 missile. that missile has a range of 35,000 miles which means that the north koreans could put a nuke into the lower 48 states. this is very little time for president trump to be able to actually get a solution and he very well may decide he has to act on his own without beijing. >> a point you were making here about the difficult, if you will, association that north korea has with china is that north korea both his father and -- in terms of kim jong-un's father and kim jong-un himself, they want legitimacy. they want to be seen as a member

of that nuclear club and having big brother china, as you called china, say cool your jets is not necessarily what kim jong-un wants to hear. he does not want multi lateral talks. he wants one on one bilateral talks with countries and powers like the united states with china and others, but he is not getting that right now. with regard to getting into that club, if he has the 13 to 30 nuclear warheads that recent estimates have been put out that andrea mitchell was telling us in the last hour, this is a marked difference in just six to seven years ago when the estimation was only four to eight nuclear weapons. again, these need to be attached to delivery devices and therefore weaponizing these nuclear bombs, but they have not an able to do that and this failed missile test shows how

they have not been able to put one plus one together. do you see that happening soon because what has been said here is each and every missile test that fails is still a win, folks asking how is this a win? is this by error and they need to do it over and over again? >> you learn doctfrom your erro. you go back and fix missiles and fire them again. what is striking is last year there were about 24 or so ballistic missiles launches. they were launched too close together for the north koreans to learn what was going on. you launch and study and fix and repair and launch again. what the north koreans have been doing is launching, launching, launching. that's an indication these are being done for political purposes and research purposes.

clearly the north koreans are trying to change political calculuses. one thing people have remarked and i think it's true that the united states and china in the last three or four days have been very much on the same page and for kim jong-un it's important for him to separate these two countries because if he can do that, then perhaps he can craft a solution which basically spells long-term survival for the regime. right now i believe that north korea has three missiles that can actually reach the lower 48 states. now, the first one hasn't been adequately tested at range and the last two have not been te tested at all, but they probably work because they're based on proven technologies. kim jong-un is getting close where he needs to be in order to terrorize the united states and the international community. >> we're just getting this in. a south korean spokesperson telling a person on the ground that the standing committee of

the national security council in south korea will convene this morning at 9:30 a.m. local time. that's in about another 10 or 20 minutes. it's going to be repipresided be chairman of national security. we sometimes do not mention adequately the south korean armed services there, their armed forces rather. they have one of the largest investments i believe, 12th or 13th in the world in terms of the amount of money they invest. what is the reaction that that military force from south korea is undertaking at this moment typically after such missile launches and tests? >> reporter: ti think the south koreans are trying to urge the united states to take a tougher response and that is what they've been doing under the presidency of the president who has been removed from office. what you have is a caretaker of government.

it's not going to come to in he decisions that are going to sway capitals in the region. only until may 10th when the new president takes office after the election on may 9th will you start to see south korea meet in these national security councils and come up with decisions that can be implemented by a government that has legitimacy and an ability to implement what it wants to do. >> do they operate in synch with the u.s. armed forces? >> reporter: very closely together. sometimes the two capitals don't work very closely though. under president obama in the last five or six years, seoul and washington were on the same page. no daylight between them. >> all right. stand by. we're going to take a short break. colonel jake jacobs will talk about the next steps that the u.s. military is considering. maybe we'll have results of that as well. stay with us. per roll

bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty, the quicker picker upper

breaking news on a north korean missile launch and failure believed not to be an intercontinental ballistic missile. officials are letting us know the latest on what has happened we believe about three hours ago happening in the northeastern part of north korea. at the moment it is close to 9:00 a.m. local time. it was launched believed to have come from the sinpo region and then failing shortly after launch. i believe we have the map here of where this missile actually was reportedly to have been tested close to an area where north korea keeps its submarine forces. it's in the upper right-hand corner in your picture close to

songnam ri. that region where we are mentioning we believe that this missile test emnaanated from. happening about three hours ago. the president and vice president have been briefed on it. the vice president will continue on his trip to seoul. you can see the proximity of seoul here to north korea. 10 million people in that one city with millions more surrounding seoul. seoul very close to the demilitarized zone. the vice president still going to be arriving at about 3:00 a.m. he expects to be attending some easter services there and other meetings of course with leadership there in south korea. we also understand that the national security council of south korea will also looking at what their next considerations

are. we understand that they will be having this meeting in the next seven or eight minutes. all right. i do want to bring in now ambassador chris hill who is the former ambassador of south korea on the phone with us right now. ambassador, you're getting information in as we are reporting it as well. have you heard anything in addition or that is different than what we've been reporting so far? >> well, i just got back from south korea a few hours ago and there's wide expectation in south korea there would be something in connection with this holiday, this 105 anniversary of kim il-sun. there's been expectation of a nuclear blast and there evidence to suggest that. they went with the solid fuel missiles and it appears to have fizzled. i guess the question really is how are we going to react to that? we have a carrier battle group

already heading toward the waters near north korea. it's still a ways away. so the issue is are we going to want to do something and i think what is the most important development this weekend is that our vice president has arrived in south korea and will be doing something that south koreans very much want, which is to have some serious consultations and check in signals. after all, south korea is the country with some 20 million people within arrow till area range of north korea. where we go from here one of the issues is that china has been vocal in the last few days

saying they didn't want to the north koreans to do this and kim jong-un has gone ahead and done this anyway. he's helped nudge the chinese closer to us in this process, but i think we're going to have some really serious talks with the chinese about where with he go because this is a situation that just can't be left alone. >> ambassador you made a note that you believe this to be solid fuel rocket booster, solid fuel delivery device here, which is a new piece of information for us in terms of what we're hearing so far and the importance there which you know so well is that when you talk about solid fuel it is a more advanced delivery system. it can be deployed in ways that are more difficult to detect. can you tell us more about that? >> solid fuel versus liquid fuel. liquid fuel you have to fuel up the missile on the launch pad. solid fuel you can stand up the missile and let it go. they have a version -- this may

be that version. in fact, there's no clear consensus yet on what kind of missile they've used, but they have a version they've used in submarine launches. clearly solid fuel would be a break through for north korea they've been working on in the last year. it's important to understand in 2016 they had 25 missile launches in that year alone. they're working on this new generation of missiles, but i think today's firing of a missile was more in a sort of context of this ceremony and i think it's a huge embarrassment to the north koreans. >> if that's a huge embarrassment might you expect then for a nuclear test to be ensuing? >> you know, depending on where they are on that, but, yes, i would think they would follow up an embarrassment with something that would be successful, but it's hard to know where they stand on their testing program. they may have wanted to have a nuclear test, but didn't feel

they were quite ready this weekend. we'll have to see, but the real question is what are we going to do about this because it is clear they are on a fast track toward a deliverable nuclear weapon. a deliverable nuclear warhead on a missile. whether it happens in the next few months or the next few years, i think president trump is going to have to explain to the american people what we're doing about that during his first term. >> one of the key partners that the united states has there in asia, there on this peninsula clearly of south korea which you are so well aware of ambassador, there are the defense forces that are associated with south korea and their posture, they are meeting, as you know, i was mentioning the national security council meeting in the next couple of minutes, what happens in south korea when a missile test like this happens, do they

go on high alert in terms of armed forces in south korea? >> they have gone on upper stages of further alerts, but not necessarily. there does tend to be an emergency meeting of their national security council, which is probably what we're seeing -- what we're definitely going to see today, but they have an extremely capable army. some 600,000 they are capable of calling in reserves and going to well over 1 million. they have the most modern rocketry. they have some of the best fire in the world, a very computerized system. they are not without capabilities and there's some 30,000 americans on the peninsula with some capability assets with a very complex plan and a plan that is exercised every year as to how to get more americans there in a big hurry. the alliance that the united states has with south korea is a

no kidding alliances where they work on it every day and they exercise it every spring. >> before we let you go here, ambassador, what is essential to watch right now? you say you just came back from the peninsula. what is the next step that's going to be very key for us to watch? it could be in the bunch of hours ahead of us or the next week or two. >> well, i'd serccertainly like hear what the president thinks about this. he may end up allowing his vice president to speak for him since the vice president i think has just arrived. so i think the real question is what is our reaction to this. needless to say we have to figure out what type of missile this was and to the extent possible why it failed, but the fact of the matter is despite everyone telling the north koreans don't do this, they've gone ahead and tried something. it didn't fail -- it didn't succeed, it actually failed, but i think the question is what is our response going to be and i

think it is very important that we sit down with the south koreans and be very clear about our signals. they are the country -- that's the country on the first fly and they are the country with civilians at risk. >> you were mentioning the vice president will be arriving there. we expect him there in the next five or six hours to be wheels down on the korean peninsula and he will then go on to visit other leaders in the region. that is so important, is it not, ambassador, because it's connectivity between what happens on that korean peninsula and japan and china and then there's taiwan and other allies there in that area of the world. >> yes. he will be visiting japan. i was there a few days ago and the japanese were very much looking forward to his visit because they are also within range of these medium range

missiles. the japanese want to make sure they understand what we are going to do because if we were to make a decision to do something and there was a retaliation from the north koreans, the retaliation could also reach japan and the japanese are very aware of that. the prime minister pointed out the other day it's possible the north koreans could put sarin gas warhead s on their missiles. they want to be in touch with us. >> one of the concerns is that all the countries on this map right here and more will start to arm up, right. that was the shift that former president obama said i am looking at the asian theater potentially for scenarios like this where you have an overactive, if you will, north korea, which therefore says to south korea, japan, china, taiwan, this sort of cascading effect that each country will now want to arm up to defend itself and potentially think of a response capability to north

korea. are we higher along that concern than we were say a year ago? >> well, the united states has a treaty. it's a treaty alliance partner with japan and with south korea and with a couple of other countries in southeast asia, including singapore and thailand and the philippines. with respect to japan and south korea, it's been understood that if north korea were somehow to attack and were threatened with nuclear weapons, the united states has vowed to provide an overwhelming response. the united states doesn't say whether it's going to be nuclear or not, just an overwhelming response. so the issue is if north korea goes ahead and gets a deliverable nuclear weapon, where will that all be and will these countries be satisfied to say they will be protected by this overwhelming u.s. respon

response or will there be temptation among these countries or people within these countries to have their own nuclear deterrence. so what we have here really is a real test of our whole alliance system and our deterrence and it's a number one issue and i would put it higher than some of the other issues that have so e be-devilled us in the middle east. >> thank you for your perspective of what we're seeing at this moment, what happened in the last three or four hours and putting it into context for us. thank you, sir. i want to update you on what we're hearing from defense secretary jim mattis taking in a statement moments ago u.s. president donald trump and his military team are aware of north korea's missile launch. the president has no further comment on the matter. that is according to u.s. defense secretary jim mattis.

we're getting that in. colonel jack jacobs is with us. colon colonel, we've been talking about the capabilities of the missiles of the nuclear weapons that north korea has right now. we've been looking at what might happen next after this failed test. what are you taking away from the information that we've been able to report on so far. >> this is a response and it plays mostly to the chinese on the one hand and to the north korean populus on the other. they've had tests like this before -- many tests like this before. i know they were all suited up and ready to detonate a nuclear weapon, but you remember that the chinese threatened them by saying that if they did detonate a nuclear weapon -- another nuclear weapon that china would

cut off their coal supplies and i think they were prepared to stop shipments of natural gas as well, which would be a tremendous blow to north korea. so the response, i believe, was just to fire this missile. now, this probably was a solid fuel missile, but their ability to develop this capability has been relatively slow. in addition to that, there are probably 12 to 18 months, maybe longer, from being able to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and fit it on top of a solid fuel rocket. however, i mean, we've been talking about how concerned we are about reaching the united states and that is a concern, but don't forget that we've got allies in the region who are much, much closer who are very much concerned about the weapons

development in north korea. and both we and china have spent maybe decades ignoring the problem and it's getting to the point where something is going to have to be done, otherwise in the 12 to 18 months or so north korea will be able to hold the united states hostage. as a result, my guess is that we're working very very hard to get china on board to take some positive steps to control north korea. having said that, north korea's not interested in giving up nuclear weapons and unless it's stopped otherwise it's not going to stop developing the capability to deliver them. that means we have to find some way of stopping them. one way of doing it is a non-ken etic way. maybe something on the order of the stuck's net virus which we

used against iran. there are non-kenetic ways to try to control north korea's development, but that doesn't mean it's going to stop north korea from using ke nettic means. it's a problem. i don't know if gordan chang is still on. he mentioned something that got me thinking about the leadership inside north korea and if he's around i'd be really interested in hearing whether or not there's any daylight between kim jong-un on the one hand and his general staff on the other and even if there isn't, if there's some way a wedge can be driven between them and if not make north korea unstable which is probably not what we want to do maybe for china to get the

general's staff in north korea on its side. >> colonel, part of this is the popular support in these countries that are part of this interconnected area of asia that you were alluding to and ambassador hill did as well in terms of the commitments that the united states has to countries like south korea and japan to follow on after the german marshal plan with germany, these are the same strategies that worked well with japan and south korea in the years following. that then therefore leads to some very close relationships that are not necessarily fully sitting on one side of the spectrum because as you know in japan and south korea, when it comes to popular support for u.s. military bases and u.s. military personnel there, the question is whether they do want the united states to still be there, but then you have situations like this that says,

yes, it is good to have the united states there. >> you raise a very interesting issue. for a long time we were talking about it appeared to our allies there that were not particularly interesting in coming to their defense. we dragged our feet on north korea. this concerned japan terribly. japan, as a matter of fact, has been talking publicly for a long time about negating those portions of the constitution that makes it a pass first country and they say we don't want too do that because we cant rely on the united states and during the campaign when president trump was suggesting that alliances don't matter very much they got even more concerned. i think they're less concerned now, but it's really important that these relationships be maintained. the only way we're going to be able to defeat north korea in its attempt to get nuclear weapons is to work together. >> colonel, stand by for a second. i want to bring in kelly o'donnell with the president

there in. more information. we understand the secretary of defense we were just reading moments ago here did come out with a statement. do you have more? >> reporter: i think what's interesting is the posture that the white house and the trump administration has taken on this. there's been so much build up about what would kim jong-un do. now that the dust has settled on this failed launch attempt, everyone has been briefed and assessments have been made and then comes the place where the white house had some latitude. how will it respond? in this brief statement that says that donald trump will not be making any comment about what kim jong-un has done. it deprives kim jong-un of the global attention that the new president of the united states would be reacting to some action he's taken. perhaps strategically this is a

way to try to keep a lid on tensions, to not escalate things further and to not give any further oxygen or attention to kim jong-un for this attempt by elevating it to the level of the most powerful person in the world, the president of the united states. the defense secretary has a clear lane to put on a statement saying that the president and the military advisors, his team, are aware of what took place and the president would have no statement. that is about as muted as you can get for something that happens on a holiday weekend, saturday night, involving a cabinet level official. i think the intent may be to try to keep this at a volume level that is come mention rate with the fact this is a failed attempt, something we've seen happen before and not give kim jong-un who may in fact be eager to see how does the u.s. respond or others in the world, that he's not going to get much from donald trump. no comment at this time.

no statement under the president's name. not even from the desk of the white house. instead coming from the department of defense, jim mattis, the secretary of defense. that's a different kind of strategy, one that senior advisors had suggested to me earlier was the likely approach and it really does turn down some of the angst on the global stage or perhaps taking some of the sort of response down to a level that is a bit more in line with what took place here. not that the north korean attempts are not grave and of serious concern, but as things go now perhaps this approach is just sort of putting that pause button on for a bit tonight, especially as the vice president is in the air headed to seoul, south korea and this is a holiday weekend and the white house has time to consider how it wants to respond. this is not a moment when they have to respond quickly. they have acknowledged it. they've told us everyone has been briefed and they've taken

the steps and for now that may be enough. >> a great point you're making there. a volume level on response, at least from what we're seeing right now. not on high, right? it is not something that necessarily they are reacting in very bright ways. it's not in the higher end of the spectrum in erterms of intensity or energy. while we have you here, you were mentioning the defense secretary about briefing the president. did he do that in person? do we know because we understand as you were reporting no high-level staff was there or did he do it via phone or perhaps video conference? >> reporter: i don't know the specific answer about the whereabouts of secretary mattis. my expectation based on the fact of what we have known up until this point is that this was a briefing that was probably done by secure phone line or video conference. we have not had any expectation that secretary mattis is here in florida. looking back, richard, to when

president xi was a guest at mar-a-lago and there was a launch, that night as well the president, who did speak in camera in large part because his japanese guest wanted to address the japanese media, the president did not condemn new york -- north korea, he simply offered support for japan. in two opportunities where the president of the united states has had a chance to comment on north korea it has taken the lowest approach. no direct condemnation, no rekr rekrimation, no calling out. when you consider that we're talking about donald trump, who is often someone quite willing to speak with frankness and willing to speak his mind, in this case very muted, very brief and this is the approach the white house wants to take tonight. >> thank you so much. there with the president at

mar-a-lago showing us and reporting for us that the mechanics of government seem to be working well at the moment and putting that in context for us. we will take a short break right now. it's 8:45 eastern time. it's after 9:45 there in south korea. their national security council is meeting right now. we'll give you more information on what they might be considering. plus, the potential possibility here of a nuclear test in north korea. we'll give you more on that after this. un-stop right there!

i'm about to pop a cap of "mmm fresh" in that washer with unstopables in-wash scent boosters by downy. because this scent lasts up to 12 weeks, which is longer than any relationship i've ever been in. freshness for weeks!

there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. breaking news. we continue to follow the developments coming out of the korean peninsula. about four hours ago we got reports that a failed missile tested been deployed by north korea. this coming out of the

northeast, the sinpo close to where north korea keeps its submarine submari submarines. we learned it is not an intercontinental ballistic missile. the concern was would it be able to reach the lower 48 with its missile technology. this was not one of those types of missiles it was testing. it did explode shortly after take off. the question, was it a land based missile or a submarine based missile. sinpo is the location where north korea's submarines are believed to be based at. the area is a northeastern area of north korea that is close to three other sites of concern.

those sites are spaces where nuclear based facilities are believed to be at. this all happening on the weekend of the 105th birthday of the founder of north korea. it was expected by those who are in north korea to be from of or god. that is an often used mime about the way the leadership does handle the leadership in governing in north korea. that is the latest that we understand. in addition to that, i want to bring nbc pentagon correspondent. part of this was being reported by kelly o'donnell moments ago. what is to be seen as a short, maybe a muted response, from the defense secretary saying the president and his military team

are aware of north korea's most resents unsuccessful missile launch. the president has no further comments. is this widely seen as we're not going to give kim jong-un satisfaction this is of any consequence to a greater degree to the united states and we are still monitoring and we're aware of what's happening. is that the takeaway? >> reporter: that seems like a fair interpretation. this statement from mattis is similar to the statement we had from the secretary of state tillerson so we have this mattis statement and this tillerson statement very similar. the tillerson one was from two weeks and the mattis one is from tonight saying the time for talk is over. we're going to have no further comment. according to u.s. government officials tonight, secretary mattis personally briefed donald

trump and that is a president trump and that's an indication of how serious they are taking this situation at the pentagon and how closely they are monitoring it. my colleague as you mentioned is reporting the early indications we need to stress early, this was not the intercontinental ballistic missile. this was not the icbm. so right now they take these assessments and take their time, but the initial report is it wasn't the big one. it looks like rhetorically at least from the secretary of defense's side and from the pentagon side they want to take a muted approach and not necessarily give any sort of indication that they think that every response from north korea is going to merit a rhetorical flourish from the american side. >> the ambassador for south korea was speaking with ausenus he was noting that the item of

concern to him is what might be the u.s. response to this going forward. we have the defense secretary's statement. might there be other things happening behind the scenes. what are you hearing from those that you often go to and report on? >> i can tell you that the pentagon has plans for anything at any given time. that's what they do all day long. i think on all those plans a lot are conceptual. there's always planning taking place. the question is and this should be the focus of everybody reporting is what decisions are they making at the committee at the national security council to key up for the president to make a decision. what options are being discussed at that level, at the national security council to present to

the president to make a decision. >> also one of the considerations here for the pentagon is the complexity of the korean peninsula and those who are effected by these tests that happen so frequently at least by the calendar you noting president shinzo abe was visiting the president at mar-a-lago there was another test and his comments no flourishes, very straight to the point, but it may be different when it comes to south korea, it may be different when it comes to japan and other allies in that space. how is that gained. >> reporter: well, you know that's a good question and that's one of the things that maybe will be on mike pence's agenda when he travels to the region. he left today for this trip to asia. on all of this, you sort of hear this quite a bit from folks at the pentagon is the number of american civilians, not just the fight tonight crowd, there are

close to 30,000 u.s. troops in korea, but there are a lot of americans in the city of seoul which is in range of the 38 parallel. when you think about possible responses from the u.s. and north korea and responses towards the u.s., you're talking about world war ii levels of civilian casualties. things people have not seen in over 70 years. all the planners and war gamers at the pentagon they understand the civilians. americans citizens and south koreans nationals and north koreans nationals in the region. there are real dangers that a lot of civilian lives could be lost if north korea responds to a u.s. response. >> a former of the aiea was noting so well and consistent with your statements there was that the proximity of seoul means that it's not only it's in the range of so many different types of missiles, it's what's

in those missiles. sarin gas one of the concerns that both the united states has as well as south korean leaders all well within the capability of kim jong-un and north korea. the pentagon correspondent, thank you so much for your reporting tonight. we're going to take a short break. we will continue following this breaking news story coming out of north korea. stay with us. we'll be right back. e*trade's powerful trading tools, give you access to in-depth analysis, and a team of experienced traders ready to help if you need it. it's like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. it's your trade. e*trade guests can earn a how cafree night when theypring book direct on choicehotels.com

and stay with us just two times? spring time. badda book. badda boom. or... badda bloom. seriously? book now at choicehotels.com tand, our adulte children are here. so, we save by using tide. which means we use less. three generations of clothes cleaned in one wash. those are moms. anybody seen my pants? nothing cleans better. put those on dad! it's got to be tide.

breaking ne breaking news, we are con fifrmi firming there was a missile launch from north korea about four hours ago. it is early indications this was not an intercontinental ballistic missile. the question at this moment is

what type of missile was it. where was it headed at the time. it is believed to have exploded shortly after launch and failing at that moment. was it a submarine based missile or was it a land based missile? this coming out of the northeastern parts of north korea in the sinpo region which is close to the headquarters of the submarines of north korea and also close to several nuclear sites there in north korea. we have had statements from the defense secretary of the united states fairly straightforward saying that the president and the military team of the united states are aware of north korea's missile launch and saying that president trump will have no further comment. this is all of the reaction based on this test that happened about four hours ago. i do want to go straight