I think our response has been appropriate. Cool, calm, but at the same time, putting our military resources ready in case there’s an emergency, but if they try anything with the United States, it’s suicidal. That’s not going to happen.

Former Ambassador Richardson talking about the tension between the U.S. and North Korea. He’s not the only one. China and Russia are traditionally allies of North Korea. Those countries are urging everyone involved in this situation to stay calm. An American official says North Korea moved a missile and launch parts to its east cost in the last few days. The U.S. has intercepted communications that indicate North Korea might be planning a launch sometimes soon. You can see the range of one type of North Korean missile outlined by the red circle here on your screen. You see the island of Guam, down toward the bottom? That’s U.S. territory, and it’s home to a major U.S. military base. The U.S. is sending a missile defense system to Guam. It will be like the one you see here. It’s designed to shoot down incoming missiles.

So far, nothing has been launched, no shots have been fired. Tom Foreman talked with a military experts about what might happen if a conflict did start and why this expert doesn’t think it will.

Despite the global implications that would follow if North and South Korea went to full-on war, the truth is the Korean Peninsula would really bear the brunt of all of this, and that’s where most of the fighting would take place. So, we know that the DMZ between the South and the North is so heavily fortified ...

That’s correct.

That neither side can just charge in and go across that land to attack the other. So, if the North wanted to step this up and make it happen, what do they do?

Tom, the very first thing we are going to see is large concentrations of artillery and missile fire from the North against targets in the south, for example, Seoul. Which is just a little south of the DMZ. The North is going to activate the insertion of special operations forces, both along the coasts.

Taking them in by ship or by submarine?

By submarines, most likely, as well as the activation of sleeper agents that have been in the South, in some cases as many as a couple of decades, identifying targets for these missiles and for these artillery pieces.

OK, the U.S. and South Korea is not just going to sit there while all of this happens. So what is the immediate response, if such an attack took place?

Number one is the U.S. Navy will increase its presence. For example ...

More aircraft carriers ....

With aircraft carriers ...

More aircraft is what we’re looking for. So you have aircraft that’s in Japan, you have aircraft that’s in South Korea. You now have these aircraft to go against these firing positions that are targeting the South. It’s called the counter-fire fight, and once that’s accomplished, they will then go after the command and control capabilities as well as the air defenses.

Communications, air defenses ...

You got it

So they can control the sky.

Completely own this air space above North Korea.

But you don’t think this is going to happen? You think ultimately that that’s not what is going to happen?

Not at all. I don’t.

This is worst case scenario ...

I think the risks are way too high, the North understands that. The United States and South Korea certainly understands.

So what would we expect?

Mostly limited objective attacks. Not unlike what we saw before.

When they bombed those islands, when they attacked the boat off the coast, that sort of thing?

You’ve got it, where the North Koreans will go after South Korea specific targets. Not targeting the United States and trying to keep it contained somewhat.

And yet send a very clear message that they have a strong new leader and a strong military and that they still need to be respected in that way in the world.

Our next story today is also in Asia. This time in China. It’s about a type of virus called avian or bird flu. You can tell from the name this type of virus usually infects birds, but humans can get sick from it, especially if they come in contact with contaminated poultry. At least 14 cases have been reported so far. At least five people in China have died after they caught this virus.

Viruses like bird flu can mutate. This specific strain is called H7N9. It had never been seen in humans before. Authorities are trying to figure out how exactly the people in China got infected.