. >> paula hancock joins us from seoul, south korea. it's hard to understand exactly what north korea did. >> well, that's right, natsly, and that's why the u.s. appears to be revisiting other options. it's effectively said this u.s. official has effectively said that the air sampling they were doing, south korea, japan, china was doing the sarges has been inconclusive, which is what we've heard from neighboring countries as well. the fact that they couldn't pinpoint exactly what this test was. in the u.s. they said they went back to the seismic data and discovered that this test was probably taking place at least twice the depth than they previously had assessed, which would be in line from what you would expect from a hydrogen bomb. they still don't believe it was a full hydrogen bomb that could just have been components that were used. in the days after this nuclear test january 6 we poke expo a number of experts who said potentially they may have tried an element that would be part of a hydrogen bomb. still no one believes this is a

cnn's paula hancocks is live in seoul, south korea, following the story for us. paula, good to have you with us. the most we know is this is a student from a university in virginia. what more can you tell us? >> george, what we have is from the state-run media, and they're saying they have detained a u.s. student, as you say, a student of virginia university. and he has been found to have been preparing an act against the regime, trying to topple the regime, a hostile act it's been described as. and interestingly, it says, quote, at the tacit connivence of the u.s. government. saying this individual was trying to undermine the north korean regime and was doing so, according to state-run media with the conniveence and the manipulation of the u.s. government. this is all we have at this point. we have an update hopefully from north korean television. they usually have a bulletin. in around and hour or so, we'll be watching that to see if they have any more details. they've given a name. we're trying to check out the name at this point with the u.s. side to see exact

cnn's paula hancocks has latest for us from south korea. good morning, paula. >> reporter: good morning, john. we heard from the president's office. south korea said north korea would pay for the test and continue the propaganda broadcasts on the border. this is effectively a mobile installation and they broadcast propaganda messages across the border, across the heavily fortified demilitarized zone. they pulled this back in august of 2015 when the two sides were getting along better than they are now. this is something that really irritates the north koreans. we heard defectors say they heard the broadcasts and it helped them desired to escape. pyongyang will not be happy with this. it is likely to raise tensions the peninsula. meantime, there is still the hunt on to find out what kind of nuclear test that happened on wednesday. japan, china and south korea, all neighboring countries said they have no indication of radiation. they are checking the ground. they are checking the atmosphere. they have no indication of radiation. they may not f

we have paula hancocks now with latest. why the skepticism now? >> reporter: christine, we heard the grumblings after they saw the seismic activity. the level and force and destructive force from the seismic activity. it was similar to what we saw in 2013 which was expected or believed to be an atomic bomb. it was believed by many officials and analysts that it wasn't a big enough impact for it to have been a hydrogen bomb. we know the sniffer planes are up in the air from japan. the u.s. thinking of sending one of its own. they have not found anything at this point. japan, china and south korea all saying they have not found any indication of radiation in the ground or in the atmosphere. that could be a problem. one analyst tells me if they don't find any material that is radioactive, they cannot test it. they will probably never know exactly what was in the nuclear test. they are saying it probably means north korea is getting better at shielding these nuclear tests so there is less leaking out in the atmosphere. it is early days. it could take

i want to go to paula hancocks tonight in seoul. what do you know, paula? >> reporter: the north koreans announced this test took place at 10:00 a.m. local time on wednesday. that is 8:30 p.m. eastern on tuesday in the united states. they say that it was a successful hydrogen bomb test but of course we don't know for sure if that is accurate. the u.s. senior u.s. administration official say it could take several days before they obtain the scientific data to confirm whether it was successful. as far as the north koreans are concerned it was successful and it was to defend themselves against the united states. they have used this as a justification for these tests many times in the past saying they have a legal right to defend their country and that if the u.s. does not violate north korean sovereignty we will not use nuclear weapons. this has been widely condemned already. japan's prime minister condemning it saying it is a threat to japan's security. and the south koreans trying to figure out how to make north korea pay a price. they have said is it a viol

. >> we have paula hancock will more on how this is playing out. first let's go to matt rivers in beijing. trading has been suspended after the market fell nearly 7%. what's driving this selloff, exactly? >> reporter: trading was susp d suspended around 1:30 local time. the reason why it was -- why trading was suspendsed are the so-called circuit breakers. they were put in place in china to try to curb some of the volatility we saw last year. the rules surrounding them would be that if the stock market falls 5%, trading is halted for 15 minutes. if it falls by 7%, trading is halted for the rest of the day. as for the reason behind today's sa sell offs, we spoke with several analysts after it happened, and the general feeling is it has to do with the manufacturing index. this is a survey that is sent out monthly to different purchasing sector asking them in a more informal way how they think their companies are doing, and then depending on their answers aing a ra gaited, and that gives us the numbers. this is the last eight months that manufacturing

paula hancocks live at this hour in seoul.n 1,600 points so far this year, the market is officially in a correction. a look at how we got here. >> the trading day started badly and when new york opened it got worse. the new york market was down at one point and had fallen 560 points at one point. towards the afternoon, though, calmer minds came into the market. and the dow jones industrials clawed back many of the losses. it was still down nearly 250 at the closing bell rang. behind all of this, the falling price of oil, which just keeps dropping. brent crude was off nearly 2%, while west texas was down nearly 7%. both now under $27 a barrel. putting this all together, the markets are seriously concerned about the future direction, the strength of the global economy, and where indeed to go next. the next few days will be marked by volatility. richard quest, cnn, davos. >> michigan lawmakers approved millions to fix the water in the city of flint. we speak with erin brockovich about what else needs to be done as well as similar

paula hancocks joins us with the latest. what do we know about this test, paula?reporter: well, anderson, i have yet to hear anybody say yeonpyeong yang that they believe this was a hydrogen bomb. there is a lot of skepticism here in south korea. intelligence agencies briefed lawmakers last night and in turn briefed us saying effectively it's difficult to give credibility to north korea's claim that this was a hydrogen bomb. they gave some specifics. they said if it was an h bomb, it would be a destructive force of 15 mega tons. even if it was miniaturized which they don't believe that the north koreans have that capability yet it would be 50 to 60 kilotons. it was 6 kilotons. that shows that it is very unlikely it was a hydrogen bomb. whether there was an element, they don't know but it may be difficult to be 100% certain given the secrecy in that country of exactly what did happen, anderson. >> right, the test was done underground. how did they go about verifying what was detonated? >> well, that's the thing, without getting iaea inspectors on the ground, they h

. >>> paula hancock joins us live. paula, hello. >> reporter: hello, natalie. well, these loud speakers have been working now for several hours. this is the one way that south korea knows it will get some kind of reaction from north korea, or at least it will annoy them. it seems to be one of the very few ways that they know they are getting to pyongyang. it's really seen as a sore spot for them. of course, the question is why would this psychological warfare affect a country so much that appears to be unphased by potential international sanctions or sanctions already in place. according to people i spoke with, the onset is they are scared of the truth. they are broadcasting facts about south korea, the health of the economy, facts about north korea, the regime, antiregime propaganda. this is exactly what north korea does not want people to hear. the regime controls information coming in and out of the kingdom very, very tightly. of course, this kind of propaganda loud speaker is exactly what they are scared of. they did fire on these loud speakers last summer,

cnn's paula hancocks is in seoul, south korea. >> reporter: the condemnation is flying in from across the reg n region, across the world as you can imagine. south korea's president park geun-hye calling it a clear provocation saying it threatens peoples lives. she is calling on a very strong response from the international community, from the u.s., from the allies, but of course it is a question what can that response be given that the strong responses we've seen during the previous and after the previous three nuclear tests have not stopped pyongyang so far. but we know that japan has sent two aircraft into the area of the sea of japan, or the east sea, which is just east of north korea where they believe any radioactive material would have been blown given the wind direction. they're going to collect that dust. they're going to analyze it and find out if that gives any clues obviously that the amount of kilotons that have been used would suggest how big the explosion was. but of course they don't know what the underground casing is like. they don't know the format of this undergroun

paula hancock in south korea and will ripley in the north.hank you very much for joining us. >>> well, in about an hour a ceremony in paris begins to honor those killed in the shoots at "charlie hebdo." all week, france has been remembering the 17 people killed last january in a string of terror attacks. french president hollande will be at the ceremony today at the plaque a de la republique. we will have a live report from paris after the break. stay with us. more than 1700 protesters crashed in cologne, germany on saturday. still angry about sexual assaults on new year's eve. they happened during ants migrant protests. there were dozens of assaults on women believed to be silence seekers or illegal immigrants. we have more on the saturday demonstrations. >> reporter: today a protest in cologne, this is the first one to kick it off. solidarity from both women and men who live here in cologne who want to protest against these apparently dozens of assaults of women right here in this jair on new year's eve. take a listen to what some of the pr

. >> paula hancock is in seoul with more. north korean tv has broadcast the pictures of him signing the orders for the nuclear test. they're eager to promote this, clearly, but we don't know if this is a hydrogen bomb. what do we know so far about this? >> reporter: well. what we've heard so far from north korea they say about six or seven hours ago they carried out this, what they call a successful hydrogen test. as you said, we don't know whether or not it was a hydrogen bomb. we've been hearing from one government institute here at the korean institute of government staft, that the radio active material would have blown east to the sea of japan or the east sea. so it'll take at least two days for them to collect that material and then to analyze it. even then, they say, it may not be that they can give a definitive answer whether or not it was a hydrogen bomb. as far as pyongyang is concerned, they say it was and successful. and the photo with the north korean leader was signing the order for this to go ahead on january th

paula hancocks live in seoul.ans released by iran over the weekend are speaking out about their experience. so is the u.s. diplomat who negotiated their release. we get details from jim sciutto. >> jason raizan seen laughing with his wife. >> happy. >> still, the first of the freed americans to speak said their detention ended only after one final night of fear and uncertainty. >> up until the last second, we were all worried and concerned. we were just put in a small room and we had no telephone or access to information. we kept being told we were going to take off in two mourps two became six and ten. so a total of almost 2 1/2 days was really nerve wracking. >> the american diplomat who negotiated the americans' release over 14 months of secret talks told us the first sign of trouble that evening was when we and his team could not locate raizain's wife and mother. >> it was concerning. >> turns out, they were being held in a part of tehran's airport controlled by the military. >> i said no, the entire thing is

let's bring in paula hancocks. she has more on this developing story. paula? >> reporter: natalie, it's certainly an interesting development. the u.s. official now saying that it is possible that there was an element, a component of a hydrogen bomb. obviously different from what they were saying in the first place. now, the reason they believe this now is they were trying to take air samples, as were china, japan, south korea, and they were inconclusive, which is what we've been hearing from neighboring countries. so they looked at the seismic data, according to this u.s. official and found out the test took place more than twice the depth than they previously thought. this would be consistent with what you would need for a hydrogen bomb test. but the u.s. official said they still don't believe that it was a full hydrogen bomb. they believe maybe north korea thought it was, but only certain elements were hydrogen related. so certainly a new development and comes just a day after a u.s. official tells cnn that they believe that north korea may be preparing for

. >> paula hancocks with what sounds like a pretty bad cold there. hope it gets better. >> north korea's claim it tested a hydrogen bomb brought swift condemnation around the world. >> this act is a profoundly destabilizing for security. >> knot korea's nuclear test is a serious threat to our nation's security and absolutely cannot be tolerated. >> reporter: even china, north korea's neighbor and closest ally kbikly denounced the test, after down playing the nuclear threat for years, growing concern in beijing over the program under north korea's erratic and unpredictable leader. u.s. officials hope north kor korea's largest benefactor will finally put the squeeze on kim jong un and wants the u.n. security council to impose tough new sanctions. >> we want to see a strong new response to this latest provocation. and unanimity in the international community about raising the stakes further on the regime. but decades of sanctions have failed to curb three generations of north korean leaders. president obama came to office promising not to overreact to n

let's begin with paula hancocks, live in seoul, south korea with all of the breaking details. paula? >> reporter: well, alisyn, this is almost a carbon copy of what we saw at the last nuclear test back in 2013. we had the seismic activity detected at the same area in the northeastern part of the country. there was then the speculation and then the confirmation from north korea. the difference this tomb, they say it was a hydrogen bomb, although many experts here in south korea and officials are casting doubt on that claim. now, what we know it was the same area, just very close to the chinese border and the force of this seismic activity, actually caused tremors on the chinese side of that border in pictures, you can see the shake just to show how significant it was. now, this is not the first time north korea has done this. this is number four when it comes to nuclear tests. they did one back in 2013. that also was under kim jong-un, the current leader at a time of heightened tensions. there was juan in 2009 and also 2006 under his father, kim jong-il. back in 2003 was when th

let's begin with paula hancocks, live in seoul, south korea with all of the breaking details. paula? >> reporter: well, alisyn, this is almost a carbon copy of what we saw at the last nuclear test back in 2013. we had the seismic activity detected at the same area in the northeastern part of the country. there was then the speculation and then the confirmation from north korea. the difference this tomb, they say it was a hydrogen bomb, although many experts here in south korea and officials are casting doubt on that claim. now, what we know it was the same area, just very close to the chinese border and the force of this seismic activity, actually caused tremors on the chinese side of that border in

cnn's paula hancocks is following this developing story in north korea. she joins me live now from seoul with more. anything to expand as far as this alleged hostile act? >> well, natalie, the facts we have at this point is the information is from state-run media. a u.s. student has been detained, is under investigation. it says that he went and entered into north korea on a tourist visa. and he was trying to effectively topple the regime, according to this kcna report, saying also it was quite at the tacit connivence of the u.s. saying that this student is under investigation for these anti-regime hostile acts. but also blaming the u.s. government for this as well. now we have spoken to the u.s. embassy here in seoul. they're aware of the report. we're reaching out to the state department to see if they have any information on this as well. but we have been hearing in recent months the most recent in november of last year, the state department warning all u.s. citizens not to travel to north korea. saying that don't assume that you're part of a tour grou

. >> paula hancocks reporting about the activity in north korea this evening. thank you for joining us this evening. now our live coverage is goint to continue with von vause in los angeles. good night, everyone. >> we begin with breaking news out of north korea. i'm john vause out of los angeles. a test of a hydrogen bomb registered a magnitude of 5.1. north korea has only tested less powerful plutonium bombs. it said it's protected its sovereignty. the test means a higher stage of the dprk's development of the nuclear force by suck succeeding the h-bomb test in the most perfect manner in history the dprk proudly joined the advanced ranks of nuclear weapons states. the prime minister sshinzo abe referred to the test as a threat to japan's security. they clearly lated the security council's resolutions adding it's a serious challenge to the nuclear nonproliferation efforts. in seoul following this breaking news with more. paula, just walk us through for people just tuning in. how did this aun unfold? and to be honest, this may have been a surprise to us, but ce

paula hancock is seoul. will ripley is in china, and we have someone in hong kong. >> let's start with paula. we still don't know for sure if this was, in fact, a hydrogen bomb, but let's go through what we do know at this point so far. >> reporter: well, rosemary, this happened, according to the north koreans at 10:00 a.m. local time. they say it was a successful hydrogen nuclear test, as you say. we don't know whether or not that is the case. south korean officials are casting doubt on that. we're hoping to get a press briefing from the defense ministry in a few minutes. hopefully they'll have more indication. some officials say it could be days whether or not they know it was a successful hydrogen test. as far as pyongyang is concerned, they say it was, and they say it was needed as a defense of the united states, saying they have a legal right to defend their country. if the u.s. does not violate north korean sovereignty, they won't use the weapons. using that justification of what they perceive as u.s. p

cnn's paula hancocks reports from south korea on how he got into the country. >> reporter: another u.s. citizen detained in north korea. this time a student on a tourist visa who pyongyang claims was carrying out a hostile act against the country. state run media says otto frederick warmbier was acting to bring down the regime at the con knife advance of the u.s. government. the utah embassy says it is aware of the of report. young pie year tours says he traveled with them and was detained january 2nd. tour group says his family has been informed and they're working with the state department and north korea's foreign ministry to try and secure his release. this is not the first incident of this type. earlier this month, cnn was allowed to visit a korean american man who the north says it being held for espionage and a canadian pastor sentenced to life hard labor bore. the north koreans say he was trying to overthrow the government through religious means. half a dozen u.s. citizens have been detained and then released by north korea over the past five years. the u.s. state department s

cnn's paula hancock has more from seoul. >> we understand he was detained on january 2nd.s been some time that the north koreans have been holding him until they actually announced this. they announced it today. the state-run immediate is a saying he's been detained and investigated for hostile acts against the country. they are accusing him of trying to topple the regime and say it is at the tacit connivance of the u.s. government. we are reaching out to the state department to get reaction. we are understand from the group who actually took him into the country that the family's been informed. they are working with the state department and north korean's foreign ministry to work out a deal and secure his release. we don't anymore details at this point. he's the third detainee from the west we know of at this time. earlier this month the korean american was shown to a cnn team in pyongyang. he said he was being held on charges of espionage. and at the same time a canadian korean pastor is being sentenced to life hard labor for subversion. so this is not the first time thi

paula hancocks is live in seoul, south korea for us. >> reporter: well, michaela, certainly the repercussions from this nuclear test, it's said that north korea would pay the price if it went ahead with this test. now, they've decide they had will go ahead with these propaganda broadcasts. they stopped them back in august because they decided the two sides were getting along pretty well. obviously, that's not the case anymore. these propaganda broadcasts will start again on friday at midday. they're annoying, in pyongyang, with talking about how dreadful the north is effectively. and they also broadcast songs. we know that this is going to ratchet up tensions and it will annoy north korea. so just one of the steps they're taking. we heard yesterday, the u.s. officials, everyone around the world is saying, it's not consistent with what we'd see with a hydrogen bomb. some analysts say maybe an element of hydrogen, bought not the actual h-bomb which was hundreds of times more powerful than this simple atomic bomb. we knowed u.n. is meeting