okay. >> you seen rush limbaugh saying oh you will not be able look at women's breast surface. >> i think it goes to a different set of standards, on the one hand you have this clearly liberal culture is full of. >> hypocrites, right? >> full of pig, at least there are these standards that allow them to be held accountable. >> that is owl for this evening "on assignment" with richard engel live from seoul, south korea. good evening, richard. >> reporter: thanks, chris. wooer in south korea, it's just after 11:00 in the morning. president trump's asia trip has been all about trying to push north korea. the question is -- what is kim jong-un going to do next? will he give up his nuclear ambitions or push back? it's the most dangerous conflict in the world. i recently got up to the front lines in the cockpit of an f-16. >> so this is about the north edge of the airspace w. reabout 7 piles frmiles from the north boarder

. >> reporter: so there is as far as you can go without provoking a war? >> yep. >> reporter: president trump is in da nong, vietnam as a part of his trip to acia. he spoke to business executives at the asia-pacific economic cooperation sum. he told the ceos the united nations has not been treated fairly in international trade. now the president said the u.s. will set trade policy under the guideline of america first. so far in asia, president trump has been getting fairly positive reviews. he's looked presidential and he didn't, despite some early concerns, trigger a trade war with china or a nuclear war with north korea. i spoke earlier with a source who has direct knowledge of the details of the trip. he told me the president's advisers worked lard to tone down the speech he made in south

korea. i don't think we're out of the woods, not by a long shot. in fact, if you listen to what our president said, it's clear we're on a collision course with the regime, that's enormously dangerous t. president said repeatedly and in the strongest terms possible, north korea must disarm, it must stop developing nuclear weapons or face military consequences. he said every step north korea takes to advance its nuclear weapons makes the regime less safe. but north korea shows no design e signs of disarming. so this has become a game of chicken over weapons of mass destruction. we have been down this road before. but this time the consequences are more serious than anything, most if any of us have ever experienced. we are talking about the possibility of a nuclear war in our lifetimes or at least of a conventional war that could spread across asia. what are the chances of this actually happening? well, a retired four star general told me, he thinks there is a 51% chance of war with

north korea before next summer. even if that's too high, even if it's 10%, the risk is not zero. no way. and if this does break out, this city is in big trouble because right now all the time, in fact, north korea has thousands of rockets and artillery polices pointed here. if the north korean rejames feels threatened, if it feels it is being driven from power, it can, military experts say it probably would destroy seoul and the south koreans, the 25 million people living in this city can't do nothing about it. they're stuck when the kim jong-un on one side and president trump who wants to take it away. you can imagine how it makes people pretty nervous here, especially this week when president trump arrived in asia with an armada and while the military here is in high gear. >> stand by.

>> just tverify. >> reporter: here at osan, they have been preparing for war for six decades. this is the closest airbase to north korea. if war breaks out, it will be a key launchpad for power and obvious target for incoming fire from the north. i joined captain kyle moses, aka, "the beast. on a mission to one of the most dangerous spots on the planet. >> watch your elbows. canopy is coming down. >> reporter: the demilitarized zone that separate north and south korea. north korea has been threatening to shoot planes out of the sky, even a routine mission is dangerous now. >> visor down, seat is armed. here with ege go. >> reporter: and it doesn't take long for captain moses to

demonstrate why they call him the beast. after takeoff, he puts us straight into a roll t. plane takes on up to nine times the force of gravity or 9g. >> wow. how's that? >> that was intense. >> yeah. >> reporter: as we reach the front lines, captain moses positions his f-16 very carefully. there so this is about the north edge of the airspace. we're about 7 miles from the north korean border right here. >> reporter: so this is as far as you can go without provoking a war? >> yep. >> reporter: now, can we look into north korea? >> oh, yeah, over those mountains there you can see into north korea there. >> so is that where all their artillery is and all those rockets? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: if you were called into aggressive action, would that be possibly a target? >> yes, that could definitely be something we could go after. >> reporter: we head back to

os osan. another routine patrol ending, thankfully without incident. the pace here is relentless, captain moses' 36th squaw dron flies f-16s. the home has u2 spy planes, keeping a constant watch on the enemy no the north. for months now the u.s. military has been quietly beefing up its presence in the region and we have been following every step. in august, joint drills with the south koreans suddenly took on a whole new urgency. the enemy is left unnamed, but it's clear which battle they were rehearsing for. in september, we watched as american troops moved a battery of thad missiles, the most advanced missiles in the world into position. missile defense systems aren't just about defense. they different those who have them the ability to attack and survive a counterattack. and while the thad has not yet

been used against real incoming missiles, it adds another layer of protection to the extensive missile defense system already in place. then just a couple weeks ago, what the president called an armada arrived in the peninsula, three aircraft carrier strike groups, capable of sustaining a long air campaign. military experts believe all this hardware is not just here for show. >> we are actually dealing with potential outcomes by next summer of all out war with millions displaced and hundreds of thousands killed and wounded. >> reporter: retired four star general barry mccaffrey is a decorated veteran of war. he says that in the case of north korea, there are no good options. >> there are military options. they're all bad. if we went in with a massive conventional air and sea attack aimed at their nuclear capacity, we'd get 95% of it in the first

72 hours. but we wouldn't get all of it or we wouldn't be sure and that would probably trigger a very high intensity conflict in the korean peninsula. the consequences of us attacking north korea first would be dire. >> reporter: but the alternative to to military action known in washington as strategic patience has become for the president a symbol of all the mistakes of the past. >> the era of strategic patience is over. >> reporter: a view echoed by some of the president's backers. >> patience is not an option with the u.s. homeland in the nuclear shadow of kim jong-un. >> reporter: senator cory gardner a republican from colorado says strategic patience is just another name for do-nothing approach. in if your kids are at the table throwing foods and say sit back i'm going to strategically wait until they stop. >> this isn't a food fight. >> what we get with bashs the a

nuclear program in north korea. what we got with patience is in launching of ballistic missiles. >> we all have to survive w. rehere. there is still a korean peninsula. >> if you trust, if people believe they can trust kim jong-un, he said he would use his weapons. i believe him. that's why we have to make sure he doesn't have that ability. >> reporter: and those weapons would likely be used first on our south korean allies. >> most of the enemy forces are located here. >> reporter: as defense secretary james mattis was reminded when he recently visited the demilitarized zone. mattis did his best to reassure his hosts. >> our goal is not war but rather the complete verifiable ander reverse able dede-nuclearization of the korean peninsula. >> reporter: it's a tricky message he was trying to deliver that the u.s. is ready for war with north korea while trying to avoid it at all costs. it's the same message the military has been trying to

sends, too. >> i know a lot about the joint chiefs and who they are. they're very responsible, cautious men. this generation all grew up in warfare. old guys never want to fight. >> reporter: but while the generals in uniform and in the cabinet have been cautious the president has, at times, been flat out threatening. >> north korea best not make any more threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. >> i this i think the president is more of a new york city hustler, so he's learned some lessons that are not applicable in international relations or international security. >> reporter: general mccaffrey is an outspoken critic of the president. >> there is an element of disbelief on the part of many of us who have seen combat at close

range to see him so lightly dealing with these topics. >> reporter: the president made it clear he will continue to pressure north korea until its leader kim jong-un steps back from the brink. the problem is the 33-year-old north korean leader, the third of the dynasty that wielded power of the country for nearly 70 years does not seal to be yielding. he sees his nuclear program as a source of national pride and the right to keep it as a matter of life and death. so the more our president vows to end it, the more tests kim conducts. senator gardner dismisses the north korean leader as a madman who needs reigning in by force, if necessary. >> well, i think most people agree kim jong-un is a whack job. >> you call him a wack job. they call auman mixed with human dirt who lacks basic judgment and body hair. >> he doesn't like my hearing. i didn't know if that was an

onion headline. >> the point is, we're not in the school yard. >> that's why we make sure we have these tools that we must use to change the situation. >> president trump said of president kim at the u.n. general assembly, i quote. the united states has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allie, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocketman is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. the regime responded by calling our president a deranged dotard, is that the way two world leaders should be conducting diplomacy over such sensitive issues? >> i would have said something different if front of the united nations, but i think it's very important that we be clear he's not going to get away with what he had in the past. >> we got a president of the united states who is publicly

taupti taunting and knocking a 33-year-old -- owe mocking a 33-year-old with a nuclear program. it's an ad less september way of dealing with a problem. why would we ridicule a bern of that volatile? what good could possibly come from that? >> i imagine that president trump probably has access to cia psychological profiles of kim jong-un. i'm sure it says somewhere, probably in red letters, do not insult this person. >> reporter: suzanne uses more diplomatic tones, she's been involved in back channel negotiations with the north koreans for a couple of years now. >> we're stuck in an escalating war of words and we have to get out of it. >> do you think that war of words could become a real war? >> absolutely. if it's not managed well, this is how you slide into war. this is how you sleepwalk into war. >> you think we are sleepwalking into war now? >> i think it's possible. >> reporter: her last meeting was in moscow less than a month

ago on the side lines of a nuclear non-proliferation conference. there was no doubt about the message from the envoy. >> she said nuclear weapons was the only way they saw to safeguard their regime from us. she made it very clear that they are grand jury to proceed full steam ahead with their nuclear and missile program. >> what would get the north koreans to sit down ae table and actually negotiate? >> i think once they declare they have a nuclear balance of power with the united states, then they will be ready negotiate. i don't think the u.s. tried diplomacy in a way that warrants even contemplating a military response at this point. >> reporter: bedimaggio is not the one -- but dimaggio is not calling the shots. the president is. he delivered a clear threat to the north korean leader. >> do not underestimate us and

do not try us. >> reporter: speaking before south korea's national assembly, the president carefully read a pre-prepared speech. there were no casual insults. but he was delivering a deadly ultimatum. >> the regime has interpreted america's past restraint as weakness. this would be a fatal miscalculation. >> reporter: the great language is appropriate because any miscalculation here would be fatal, to thousands, maybe millions of people, as the president departed, both americans and south koreans were left wondering, which side was going to blink first and at what cost? that cost in human life could be astronomical. tom brokaw will be on the show a little later to remind us what we're talking about when we talk about nuclear weapons. but first, when the president

landed here in seoul, we went out on the streets to see what kind of welcome he was driving into. traditionally south koreans have welcomed americans, service men and presidents alike warmly. but things are changing here. we found another equally passionate crowd. they were here to tell the american president to go home. >> if kim jng john ekim jong-un decided to make war, there is nothing we can do. >> stay with us.kim jong-un deco make war, there is nothing we can do. >> stay with uim jong-un decide make war, there is nothing we can do. >> stay with um jong-un decided make war, there is nothing we can do. >> stay with u jong-un decided make war, there is nothing we can do. >> stay with ujong-un decided t make war, there is nothing we can do. >> stay with us.

e near you.

. >> welcome back to "on assignment." president trump is used to being a divisive figure and having low approval ratings. here only 17% those asked in a ryan recent poll said they had confidence in him. south koreans don't get a vote on who becomes the president of the united states, but they do have strong opinion, opinions they aired the day president trump landed here. when president trump rolled into seoul, crowds lined the streets. many were here to welcome the president with open arms. american flags and a rendition of the "star spangled banner." >> o say can you see ♪ ♪ by the dawn early light >> reporter: traditionally, south korean versus welcomed americans and servicemen and presidents alike warmly. >> we believe the united states and we love the united states.

>> reporter: but things are changing here. just across the street we found another equally passionate crowd. they were here to tell the american president to go home. police officers cordoned off the protesters who tried to surge forwa forward. president trump is expected to pass by here any minute t. police are starting to push, trying to keep the protesters back. they don't want them to block the president's path. but things soon calm down again. this was not a violent crowd. you are holding a sign. >> yes. >> reporter: what does it say? >> it says peace, not war. >> reporter: peace not war. >> reporter: she is 29-years-old. she's one of the leaders of the protests. >> in here, there are lots of students, university students who doesn't want donald trump

visiting korea. >> reporter: the divide is striking. those waving the american flags are generally older. those holding up the no trump no war signs tend to be much younger. the younger generation here, they're not so interested in north korea because they haven't grown up with it in their lives. the older generation remember when it was just korea, at all the japanese colonial era, for example. so they have a direct sense there was one country and now we're divided. >> reporter: daniel tudor came here as a teacher but fell in love with south korea. he runs a chain of pars that serve kroovt beer. he says for the older generation, there is a sense of unfinished business. >> if you are of that age, why don't we get this done? in my lifetime, i want to see this over, regardless of what happens. >> reporter: the memory of the bitter war between north and south defines the korean peninsula in a profound way.

no one here disputes the fact that it was a massive influx of u.s. troops that saved south korea from falling into communist hands. for generations, gratitude for that and for the protection that u.s. troops still stationed here 64 years after the end of the fighting define this country. not anymore. by nightfall, the number of anti-trump protesters swelled. su young and her fellow protestors had watched the president's speech on their phones. this is, after all, south korea, everything here is streamed live. there usa! >> reporter: on the pro-american side of the street, the feeling was that if anything the president should have gone further. >> we strongly demand, request mr. donald trump, please, strike north korea right now. he's thinking about our

casualty, but i want to say to him, don't worry, please don't worry for korea. we are ready to sacrifice our life. >> reporter: his son was a lt. col. in the south korean army. his stance is stoic and simple. better dead than red. so you are willing to accept the huge costs that evolves? >> the sacrifice. i may die. we will be fine. kill the north korean kim jong-un! >> reporter: the feeling across the other side of the street was entirely different. why is he allowed to speak in our parliament, no trump, no war. by day su young works as a pharmacist. in korea, it takes four years of medical school on top of a good education to qualify for the job. she's worked hard to get here. but when we sat down to talk, she sounded down beat about her

future. >> we can't think about our future. we can't think about it. if there's a -- we keep our money or keep our job, we do lots of things for our future, we study hard, but eventually, if there is a war happen, it's nothing. >> reporter: it all goes away? >> we can't imagine our future. >> reporter: it's a historical irony that the younger generations here who grew up in modern seoul, one of the richest cities in asia are bitter about their future. >> i think we lost our own independent power at the global table. >> reporter: how does that feel? >> if kim jong-un or trump decided to make war in korean peninsula, there is nothing we can do. it's a crazy thing. >> it's not something that you'd think about in day-to-day. here, you know it's always -- >> reporter: do you feel like the shadow of death is hanging

over them? >> if it really happens, i'll be dead in five minutes, so it's better not the think about it. >> reporter: when su young and her friends go out, they don't talk about politics or was, they talk about friends and plan and work. do you prepare for potential conflict? >> actually, i don't. because if there the a war, it's going to be a minute or two minutes that i have to -- there's no option to be alive. it's like we just leave only today. >> reporter: live in the moment. >> no tomorrow for us. we only have this moment. >> reporter: so when i go out in the street and i see the places happy and buzzing. >> yeah, that's fine. we always having concert and go to movies or love each other, but we only concerned about today.

that's why. because we're not sure about tomorrow. >> reporter: one thing everyone we talked to agree on is there may be two koreas but one people. they long for the day when they can be reunited with their neighbors and rettives on the other side of the border, but the people of north korea don't get a vote. only their leader does, kim jong-un, so next we try to figure out what he is all about and why his regime's pursuit of nuclear power may not be as foolish as it sounds. it's easy to dismiss the regime as a caricature, the bad guys in the movie. but it's worth looking past the bizarre cultive personality and the boot stepping troops and try to understand what the north korean leader kim jong-un might be thinking. stay with us. because my body can still make its own insulin. and i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like it's supposed to.

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when you have doctors working as a team for your health, you get the care you need to help you thrive. ♪ visit kp.org to learn more. kaiser permanente. thrive. ♪ it's a sunny saturday here in seoul, south korea and behind me is the city's ancient southern gate. it's easy to forget on such a lovely day the front line with north korea is only 35 miles away. reporters don't often get access into north korea and when we do, our movements are very restricted. so a lot of the time the only images we get out of pyongyang are pure over-the-top propaganda. we are intrigued by if displace of cultive personality. there may be logic behind this

that kept one family in charge there for 70 years. when you look at the propaganda coming out of north korea like this 74-year-old tv annoyanceer who has been there at the desk through all the historic moments and now regularly returns to deliver the news of missile launches or of people filled with awe and emotion at the mere sight of their beloved leader. it's easy to dismiss the regime as a caricature, the bad guys in the "teen america movie." >> i don't have anyway. okay. >> reporter: but it's worth looking past the bizarre cultive personality and boot stepping troops and try to understand what the north korean leader kim jong-un might be thinking. it's worth looking at our own history and asking why we would expect north korea to trust us and come in out of the cold. for years the north koreans have

been working relentlessly to develop their nuclear program, refusing to back down no matter how loudly they were threatened there once again, north korea has defied the will of the international communities and the international community will respond. >> they will pay a price so great that the nation would probably not survive as it is known today. >> reporter: the north koreans just kept on going, ignoring both the american threats and the hardships that the sankss imposed on the people. -- sanctions imposed on the empoo. why? it's hard to remember in libya, in 2003, the leader agreed to give up the biological stockpiles to the west and abandon the nuclear program before having a bomb. >> leaders who abandon the pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and the means to deliver them will find and open path to better relations with the united states and other free nations. >> reporter: but only eight

years later, libya found itself on a far different path. the u.s. and nato engaged in a bombing campaign to overthrow the dictator, moma gadhafi, in response, they suggested the libyans had been duped in exchange for a deal with the west a. deal the west did not keep. and more recently, north korea is observing how the iranians came to the table. how they signed a deal with the united states and european nations and almost two years after the deal was signed, we are pulling out. so why would the north koreans fall for what they believe is an american trap? why would they take our president's invitation to come to the table as anything but a trick? experts argue that north korea's nuclear ambitions, its constant testing of missiles is an insurance policy, to make sure kim jong-un stays in power, a way to make sure the kim dynasty

goes on forever, why is it important to understand what is going on inside the head of the north korean leader? as president trump himself expressed, there are only two places it can lead the negotiating table or the battlefield. it's hard to imagine a nuclear war breaking out in the 21st century. then again, nuclear war is always too horrific to imagine. next up, tom brokaw asks if we are headed for a new nuclear age?

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welcome back. the president says that north korea went ahead and developed nuclear weapons because previous american administrations were not determined enough to stop it. but the big question now is which side is bluffing? will the president go to war with a nuclear armed north korea or will kim jong-un fire first? the third option that one of them will back down is the only one that avoids an all out war. so the fact is that nuclear war the a possible outcome of this crisis. >> that idea, which was completely unthinkable just a few months ago, is hard to take in. so for some perspective, i turn to the man who hired me many years ago to work at nbc news the legendary tom brokaw. [ music playing ] >> august 6, 1945, 8:15 a.m. >> when the united states dropped little boy on hiroshima, japan the first atomic bomb used

in warfare and fatman three days later on nagasaki, it was the beginning of the nuclear age, an age of such potential destruction it could end life on earth. our principle enemy, the soviet union, soon had its own nuclear arsenal and i was one of the american school children diving under desks in a foolish belief that we could survive a russian attack. as a political science student, i was immersed in the great issue and debates of my generation, with the united states and kremlin ricell rooicy lead to a war to end all wars,? a documentary, ominously titled, three, two, one, zero was prime time viewing. the idea that the world would end was not an apocalyptic absurdity. yet for all of the fear no one dared to go nuclear.

an uneasy truce settled across the world, not peace exactly but a kind of standoff between the cold war superpowers. it was summed up and the phrase mutually assured destruction. if either side started a war, both would disappear. but for other countries, the temptation to be a part of the nuclear club was too great and in an age of suicide bombers and unstable despots, the idea of mutually assured destruction may no longer keep the handcuffs on. following world war ii, as the nuclear age was getting under way, the united states was involved in a war in korea, although they call eight police action. 64 years ago, there was a cease-fire, the korean peninsula was divide between the north and the south. no one could have known then that today north korea would be a major and dangerous nuclear

power. nuclear weapons have spread across the world. large nations and small, china and europe, israel. but also pakistan, india, and, of course, north korea. [ music playing ] a bizarre renegade nation led by a megalo maniacal dig at that timer who plays by no rules but his own. he has developed a sophisticated nuclear system. will he use it? david wright is with the union of concerned scientists, a group of experts dedicated to monitoring the perils of the nuclear age. >> i started watching the missile program of north korea back in the early '90s. i have been trying to get people to pay attention to this since then and to really put a lid on it. >> what caused all of this proliferation? how did that happen? >> other countries started to think, what do we need? what are the threats out there? what can we do about them? that's very strong. >> wires writing and his

scientists, it was all of these nuke, what about an accidental launch? >> the president of the occupation has the sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. nobody in the command system can legally stop that. >> it is not just president trump, how do we develop a fail/safe system so no one person has that authority anywhere? if that nuclear chain begins to go off, no schoolboy desks will be much help in protecting millions of people. >> reporter: this is one of those surreal moments we get a lot of in seoul these days. tom was just laying out the dangers of nuclear warfare and behind me are dancers in traditional clothing. they've come out for a daily ceremony and they seem to have an audience. it's a beautiful day here in seoul and nothing seems further away than a war. let's hope it stays that way. next, we tuned ofind out that t

much more to the military machine than rocks and bombs. in a conventional fight, there is no doubt americans will own the airspace. but what happens if the fight moves to cyber space? on a scale of one to ten, where would you put the threat level from north korea? >> definitely somewhere between eight and ten. >> reporter: are we ready for a new war from the front line is actually online? stay with us. ♪

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welcome back to seoul, south korea. north korea just 35 miles away from here is one of the poorest countries in the world. it's also the most isolated. very few people have access to the internet and those who do are generally high ranking government officials and yet, it turns out, there is a direct line connecting pyongyang, north korea's capital with the most expensive leak in hollywood history. . >> one thing the north korean reyeem is not phone for is a sense of hue more, when sony was releasing "the interview" it's used him in a joke. a weapon was launched. it wasn't a missile or a bomb, instead it was a sneak attack. >> do you remember they wiped everyone's computer. then they left this.

>> reporter: eric chin chases down hackers for a living. he's the director at semantic labs. >> they have this scrolling message saying they will release it to the world. imagine you have 10,000 computers at sony showing this. >> reporter: sony servers were ransacked, movies were leaked and personal data and social security numbers all posted on would be sites and social media. the i a tack cost sony about $42 million. that was back in 2014, since then, chen and other security experts have pieced the evidence together. they now believe the so-called guardians of peace were none other than a hacking outfit better known as lazarus. >> we believe they are extremely well funded organized group of hackers, basically, hacking for political reasons and we see now

for monetary reasons. >> reporter: lazarus, has been closely linked to north korea. its members combine attacks on phone targets of the regime, like the computer systems in south korea, with hacking for profit the digital equivalent t of fraud. they were about to unleash the first global attack. a poiece of malware was activatd on friday may 12th. fed-ex, spin's phone company, germany's train company and britain's national health service were just some of the organizations that were hit hard. >> their goal was to cause wide scale disruption. >> what benefit does north korea get out of that? >> it's unclear. one thing that makes sense about them is they're unpredictable. >> reporter: another thing, it

wormed the way into millions of computers but the code so basic that a 22-year-old hacker from britain found an easy way to kill it. only 48 hours after it was activated. >> this is it on the right and this is a previous lazarus piece of software used in bangladesh. >> reporter: the attack on the central bank of bangladesh was a straight-up bank robbery. just loons of code. the hackers exploited a small glitch in the global banking system and almost stole a billion dollars. except they couldn't spell. >> that was the first indication that caused the banks to go, wait a second. why is this transaction made and held up the rest because of a single tie toe name. >> spelled it wrong? >> one letter name. >> ransom attack for money and attack on a movie studio and repeated attacks on south korea came from one source. eric chen connected the dots and

cracked the case. >> very clear this is all the same group. >> fingerprints are pretty clear, obvious? >> not only that, they likely want people to know. >> because lazarus experts around the world now believe is no criminal outfit. it's an arm of the war machine operated by the north korean government. the u.s. government calls it hidden cobra. >> what i'm concerned about is that north korea will decide to show that it can't be cornered. may feel like it can't launch a missile an may calculate that they can cause someone to back off resorting to cyberattacks. >> reporter: robert silvers was in charge of security under president obama and he says we can't afford to underestimate the cyberpower, the isolated nation of north korea can wield. >> people are always surprised because north korea is a medieval society and so many ways. and yet, they have this sophisticated, high-tech capability to hack but the way they built that is just the same

way they have at the same time around the precipice of building an advanced nuclear capability. >> translator: the cyber war has started and no other country can attack north korea because there is no point. >> reporter: jang is a former colonel who deflected before kim jong-un came to power. he worked side by side with the country's elite hacking unit, the notorious bureau 121. >> translator: only the very brightest students get to become hackers. they learn everything about the internet and then they work in the cyber research center which is directly controlled by the government. >> these hackers are all soldiers. when hay go to work in bureau 121, they're waeing uniforms? >> translator: yes. when they go from home to work, they wear their uniforms. they live in the military. they work with the military.

>> reporter: it may seem that at a time when the north koreans are showing off nuclear capabilities and the u.s. is mobilizing enormous military assets the cyberthreat is a minor concern but keep in mind that north korea is no match for the u.s. in terms of shear military force. it's the type of weapon to level the playing field. >> it's a very acy metric game here. imagine they brought down the power grid or wiped a ton of machines. what will the u.s. do? north korea doesn't rely on the internet. doesn't reply on the computing infrastructure. not built on computers around the world. >> isn't online? >> they can do whatever they want and trash computers and have zero affect to them. >> the challenge with north korea is there are not that many targets. it's not where the u.s. wants to

have this battle being played out. >> much more exposed? >> we have much more to lose. our entire economy depends on the internet functioning properly. that's not the case for north korea. >> how would you rate their abilities? >> you know, interestingly looking at them relative to other nation state attacks we have seen they're actually low on the sophistication scale. but their impact has been extremely high. >> on a scale of 1 to 10, where would you put the threat level from north korea? >> between eight and ten. >> eight and ten? that's high. >> they're willing to do brazen things. >> reporter: and launching a cyberattack on our hyper connected society is much easier than launching a nuclear strike so please update your security software. our national defense may depend on it. you're watching on assignment with me richard engel. back after this short break. stay with us. ♪

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welcome back to seoul, south korea. we have spent many works working on the stories we told you this hour and we'll keep reporting on them for the foreseeable future. as we said at the beginning, there is no problem more in need of a solution, no crisis more urgent than the one that is unfolding here. north korea is now whether the world is ready to admit it or not a member of the so-called nuclear club. but that's not the only reason to ring the alarm bells. even if you take the nuclear weapons out of the equation, a war here could still cause

unthinkable, unacceptable number of casualties. even a conventional war scenario the city behind me will suffer a prolonged deadly bombardment. it's not just that north koreans are allies either, though they are. this is a conflict we have been involved in for 64 years. we helped build this prosperous, innovative, densely populated country and we cannot allow it to end up in ruins again. president trump brought the spotlight of world attention with him. and trying to work to solve this crisis. but the game of chicken he's been playing with kim jong-un, the military escalation and the trading of insults, that is a drang rous game. we should all hope that the president is right. we should all hope that kim jong-un folds and gives up the nuclear program. because if he doesn't, if he plays this game to its bitter end, well, i think we have said enough about how dangerous that

all could be. rachel will be back here monday night and next friday an exclusive investigation into the president's international businesses. you're going to not want to miss that one so for now good night from seoul. good evening. i'm lawrence o'donnell from washington, d.c. tonight. we have much to cover from roy moore to robert mueller and michael flynn and michael flynn's son. but today, a new witness emerged in the case against roy moore. and that witness was almost as damning as the women who told their stories to "the washington post." the new witness decided to tell his story to sean hannity. >> roy moore is reported by "the washington post" to have engaged in a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s. >> this guy who's constantly posturing abo