TAPPER: Welcome back. Turning to our world lead now, the escalating crisis on the Korean peninsula. Before sunrise this morning, President Trump tweeted, quote, Kim Jong-un of North Korea who is obviously a mad man who doesn't mind starving or killing his people will be tested like never before! That warning in direct response to Kim calling President Trump, quote, mentally deranged and as North Korea's foreign minister threatened the regime could conduct the, quote, strongest ever hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean. CNN's Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon. And, Barbara, just yesterday, the president was potentially open to dialogue with North Korea.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the question now, today, Jake, appears to be, could North Korea really, really launch a hydrogen bomb attack against the U.S.? And what could the U.S. do about it?</s>STARR (voice-over): North Korea is already getting ready for next launch according to officials, possibly a missile that could hit the U.S. Kim Jong-un now threatening the highest level of hard line countermeasure in history, following President Trump's speech at the U.N. North Korea's foreign minister suggesting the regime may launch potential devastation.</s>RI YONG-HO, NORTH KOREAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): I think this could probably mean the strongest every ever hydrogen bomb test on or above the Pacific Ocean.</s>STARR: Detonating a hydrogen bomb above ground could change everything.</s>CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: What you are looking at from a radioactive standpoint is large areas of East Asia, the Western Pacific, all the way potentially to the West Coast of the United States being blanketed by radiation.
Trump: "Madman" Kim Will Be "Tested Like Never Before".