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What is the information -- Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Pentagon officials looking at this statement out of North Korea shaking their heads. The North Koreans appear not to be giving up on their rhetoric.
Most officials will tell you that they are not capable of striking the United States, the West Coast, Alaska or Hawaii with a nuclear-tipped missile. But there are some 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea. And the entire Asia region, certainly on edge.
One of the reasons, the Pentagon announced it is sending missile defenses to the territory of Guam because the North Koreans have also threatened Guam.
Even before all of this happened today, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was out in public talking about this. Very sober.
CHUCK HAGEL, DEFENSE SECRETARY: They have nuclear capacity now. They have the missile delivery capacity now. And so as they have ratcheted up their bellicose, dangerous rhetoric -- and some of the actions that they've taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat to the interests, certainly, of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan, and, also, the threats that the North Koreans have leveled directly at the United States regarding our base in Guam, threatened Hawaii, threatened the West Coast of the United States.
STARR: Now so far, U.S. intelligence officials say they see no unusual troop movements by the North Koreans. That is very key.
But in addition, they say the intelligence is very iffy about North Korea. There's no U.S. assets on the ground, no direct information. The information comes from U.S. satellites flying overhead or what they are able to glean from North Korean news reports or talking to the Chinese.
So the whole problem is a very tough one because they just aren't sure what North Korea is up to -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's go to Seoul, South Korea.
Barbara, stand by for a moment.
CNN's Kyung Lah is on the scene for us there.
How is all this playing out in South Korea?
Oh, and you're only, what, 20 or 30 miles from the demilitarized zone?
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very, very close. People here have been living next to this threat for a very long time, Wolf. Something we should point out is the timing of this message. It was not aimed at people here in Seoul, it was aimed at the United States.
The message came out around 4:00 a.m. local time here in Seoul. And this message, while it may seem alarming to Americans, here in South Korea, they've been living with this threat for a very long time. Pyongyang has been threatening to melt down Seoul for many, many years.
What's unusual and what's difficult for South Koreans to try to digest and try to read is what is Kim Jong Un doing?
Because he's putting out these threats almost daily. There's some sort of movement out of Pyongyang almost every single day. Back in the what's now looking like the good old days of Kim Jong-il, there was a little more time, a little more gap between these bellicose threats. So now, the timing of it, how quickly it's coming. But this country accustomed to looking at what North Korea does, not what it says. So when you look at what it does, what's a little concerning is what's happening at the border, this unusual business complex where North and South Koreans work side by side, the only place where you see the two countries working together. They're still technically at war.
And there, what's happening there, Wolf, is that there are 800 South Koreans that are still working in that facility. No South Koreans are now being allowed in. They are being allowed out, but that's very concerning. So that's really what people are watching here in South Korea.
BLITZER: The tension pretty high on the Korean Peninsula.
Kyung Lah, we'll get back to you.
Stand by, Barbara Starr, as well.
Later, we're also going to be speaking with the former secretary of State, Madeline Albright. She's been to North Korea. She met with Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong-il. What she has to say about what's going on, that's coming up.
Meanwhile, here in the United States, President Obama has taken his push for gun control on the road once again. Right now, he's in Colorado, the scene of two horrific massacres, at Columbine High School, back in 1999; last year in at the movie theater in Aurora.
The president has just met with victims and families from both shootings, along with law enforcement officials.
We're waiting for a speech at the Denver Police Academy. We'll have live coverage of that once he starts going.
Meantime, let's bring in our chief White House correspondent, Jessica Yellin.
She's on the scene for us in Denver.
Are we getting any advance indication, Jessica, of what the president has to say? JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we are. And he is going to highlight Colorado's tough new gun safety laws. And he'll make the case, according to sources, that if a state like Colorado, that has a long frontier tradition of gun ownership, can pass these laws, then so can Congress.
Now, to remind you, Colorado passed these new laws last month that require universal background checks. They make gun owners pay for the cost of their own background checks and they also limit magazine clips to 15 rounds.
And I'll tell you, the president is due out here any minute. I think he's still in that meeting with law enforcement officials and the families of victims -- Wolf.
BLITZER: What kind of response have we seen in Colorado to these new laws as far as guns are concerned -- Jessica?
YELLIN: Well, I'll tell you, not everyone is a fan of these new laws. Some of Colorado's sheriffs have already warned that they're not going to enforce them. About a dozen or so say that they are still weighing whether they're going to pursue -- let the law stand in their counties.
Listen to what one sheriff had to say.
SHERIFF JUSTIN SMITH, LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO: The president and the vice president made their presence very well-known throughout this. Between them and Mayor Bloomberg there's a feeling by a lot of Coloradans that a lot of these at the state level were pushed from Washington, pushed from New York and pushed from Chicago. And I can tell you, in Colorado, people don't like that.
What's been passed is not effective and it's going to create a very expensive bureaucracy in the State of Colorado.
YELLIN: So you see it's become a political football a little bit. But that view is not really representative of the state overall. Polling here shows that 80 percent of voters here, Wolf, support the central component of that law, background checks. And as you know, 90 percent nationwide support background checks. So even more support across the country -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Certainly, that's a fact.
Why was Colorado, though, able to pass a strict law, as it has, when here in Washington, the nation's leaders seem stuck -- at least for now?
YELLIN: It's an excellent question. There are two central reasons that people point out here. One is that here in Colorado, there was a -- the -- the threat of gun safety or gun violence, I should say, is very present in people's lives, because Columbine and the Aurora massacre happened here, two of the worst massacres in U.S. history. So people feel it in a very real way. So they're more responsive, both politicians and voters, to these issues.
And secondly, it's just a matter of the votes when you come down to the political concern. Their state legislature is run by Democrats in both bodies. Both their statehouse and state senate is Democratic controlled and their governor is a Democrat. You know, in U.S. Congress, you -- we have divided control, one Republican House and a Democratic Senate. It makes a big difference in how legislation moves -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We'll stand by to hear the president.
While the gun control push seems to have stalled, at least for now, in Congress, the Obama administration may still have some reason to hope for an agreement when all the dust settles.
Our chief Congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, has been looking into this.
Where does all this stand, especially on the very sensitive issue of universal background checks?
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I'm told by sources familiar with the talks that there is still some hope that there can be compromise on this issue of background checks. Central to that hope is Senator Tom Coburn. He is a conservative Republican with a 100 percent rating from the NRA. And he's for expanding background checks to private sales and gun shows and elsewhere, to make sure criminals and those with a history of mental illness can't get guns.
But -- this is the important thing -- but he opposes forcing people to keep records of those checks. And, Wolf, that's really where the rub is. Gun control advocates say that if sellers aren't required to keep those records, then it's impossible to force the background checks and it's hard to trace these guns if they are taken by criminals. And that's really the issue that they are trying to work out -- Wolf.
BLITZER: -- and they wouldn't necessarily want that.
BASH: Oh, no, not at all. And that really is the big concern. But I should say that I've been talking to sources on both sides of this. They say that that is not on the table right now. Nobody is proposing a national registry, despite some of the rhetoric out there. Even sources close to -- to Senator Coburn say that. But what they do say is that they want to keep the current law in place. And the current law -- federal law -- is that the -- what's called the NICS system, the system that is used for background checks by gun sellers in -- federal licensed gun sellers -- they have to get rid of their information within 24 hours. The gun sellers keep the paper information, but the federal government has to get rid of that. And nobody is proposing changing that.
BLITZER: Why is Senator Tom Coburn all of a sudden so critically important on this issue of background checks?
YELLIN: He is important because he, as I said, has a 100 percent rating from the NRA. But he is a conservative Republican who could bring -- because of that, could bring on Republicans, but even more importantly, Wolf, conservative Democrats. That is where Democratic leaders and those who want to push gun control really feel the biggest problem, because they can't even get some in their own party, especially those who are up for re-election in tough states and rural areas.
So he could give all those people cover.
I'm also told, though, that there is another avenue that is a possible way to get other Republicans and that is Joe Manchin, another conservative Democrat from West Virginia. He is for guns. He has been talking to other Republicans.
I'm told that there's a mystery Republican out there that he's talking to. Unclear if he can get him on board for another way to deal with background checks.
BLITZER: Is that mystery Republican the Republican Senator Kirk of Illinois?
BASH: No, he's not a mystery.
BASH: We know about Mark Kirk. It may be somebody else.
BLITZER: I just want to make sure.
BASH: Once -- once we find him, we'll let you know.
BLITZER: All right, we're standing by to hear from the president of the United States on this issue of gun control. He's making a major push out in Colorado. Once he starts speaking, we'll have live coverage. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden share the spotlight here in Washington for now.
But will she be the center of attention heading toward 2016?
Also coming up, South Carolina's Mark Sanford, he shares the stage with his former mistress, now his fiance -- why his comeback hopes may depend on women voters.
BLITZER: Looking at live pictures of the Denver Police Academy. That's where the president of the United States is getting ready to address folks on what he describes as common sense measures to reduce gun violence to law enforcement, community leaders, and victims of gun violence. We'll have live coverage of the president once he shows up there at the stage.
In the meantime, we'll move on to some other political news we're watching here in Washington. It seemed his political career was over back in 2009 when then South Carolina governor, Mark Sanford, snuck off to Argentina to visit his mistress. But after a nasty divorce and years in the political wilderness, Sanford has now won the Republican battle for a vacant House seat. But can he win over women voters in this Congressional district?
Let's bring in our national political correspondent, Jim Acosta, who's looking at this very sensitive issues. It's a race all of a sudden in this Congressional district.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And he has proved that there are second acts in politics, Wolf. But just because Mark Sanford is now officially the GOP candidate for a special House race in South Carolina does not mean he's been embraced by the rest of his party, especially women voters.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Mark Sanford just moved one step forward on the trail to political redemption.
MARK SANFORD, (R) S.C. CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Incredibly humbled, incredibly gratified, incredibly thankful for this night for what it means at many different levels.
ACOSTA: The former South Carolina governor who once tried to cover up an affair by saying he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, not only won a GOP Congressional primary, he had his one-time mistress, now fiance by his side at the victory party. A local reporter even snapped a pict of the winning kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning. This is Elizabeth Colbert Busch.
ACOSTA: But his Democratic opponent in next month's general election, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of comedian, Stephen Colbert, instantly went on the attack. Her campaign released a statement saying, "The families of this district need a representative who they can trust. Mark Sanford simply has the wrong values for our community." On CNN's "The Lead" with Jake Tapper, Sanford said he's focused on the issues.
SANFORD: At this point, the thing that they know about her is that she's a famous comedian sister, and at the end of the day, I think it's issues that make a difference in the race.
ACOSTA: Even though Sanford is running in a conservative district, it's a campaign filled with risks. Attacks on Colbert Busch could turn off women voters at a time when Republican Party chairman, Reince Priebus, wants to hit the gender reset button.
REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I think that we had some biologically stupid things that were said in the last election that make it more difficult for us to make that case.
HOGAN GIDLEY, GOP STRATEGIST: I think Colbert-Busch could definitely win this race. I mean, she's well liked, she's well-known, and she's well respected. And I think that could trump party loyalty in this particular instance.
ACOSTA: GOP strategist, Hogan Gidley, who served as a spokesman for one of Sanford's rivals in the party primary says Republicans should consider giving up the seat for a year and wait for the midterms in 2014.
GIDLEY: We could potentially come back and take that seat with someone who doesn't have fatal flaws like Mark Sanford.
ACOSTA: Raising the question, what's a Republican to do?
EMILY MILLER, WASHINGTON TIMES COLUMNIST: From the Republican Party standpoint, they want that seat. South Carolina is an important seat. I think conservative women, it's been a really tough pill to swallow. I mean, there is probably no politician in America more unpopular with women than Mark Sanford.
ACOSTA (on-camera): Democrats are already raising money for this race on behalf of Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, and that race will be decided on May 7th. But a party strategist here in Washington who know that this is a different. Mitt Romney carried by 18 points last November gave the race three letter, TBD, as in to be determined -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We'll see what happens. I suppose both can raise as much money as they can. They don't have a lot of time. They have April, basically, the week in (ph) May.
ACOSTA: That's right. You take Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, the sister of Stephen Colbert and Mark Stanford, this is instantly a national race with big implications. And both sides are going to pour a lot of money into this race. The Republican Party down in South Carolina isn't exactly running behind Mark Sanford at this point.
If you go to the South Carolina GOP website, there really isn't any mention of Mark Sanford. So, there are some concerns, I think, out there that, perhaps, he's not the best candidate for this race, but they're going to go with him at this point. Obviously, he's their candidate and they want him to win.
BLITZER: We'll watch this race closely and see what happens. Jim Acosta reporting for us.
We're waiting for the president to speak on gun control. He's out in Colorado. We'll have live coverage once that happens.
Also coming up, incredibly intimate details and personal stories that you've never heard about the victims of the Newtown shooting massacre. Some of their families are speaking out for the first time since the tragedy.
BLITZER: President Obama has just started speaking out about gun violence. He's in Denver, Colorado. Let's listen in.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, the good news is Colorado has already chosen to do something about it.
OBAMA: But this is a state that has suffered tragedy of two of the worst mass shootings in our history, 14 years ago, this month in Columbine and just last year in Aurora. But this is also a state that treasures its Second Amendment rights. A state of proud hunters and sportsmen. And by the way, the governor wants me to remind everybody that there's outstanding elk hunting here in Colorado.
There's a strong tradition of gun ownership that's handed down from generation to generation. And it's part of the fabric of people's lives. And they treat gun ownership with reverence and respect. And so, I'm here because I believe there doesn't have to be a conflict in reconciling these realities.
There doesn't have to be a conflict between protecting our citizens and protecting our Second Amendment rights. I've got stacks of letters in my office from proud gun owners, whether for support or protection or collection who tell me how deeply they cherish their rights don't want them infringed upon, but they still want us to do something to stop the epidemic of gun violence.
And I appreciate every one of those letters, and I've learned from them. And I think that Colorado has shown that practical progress is possible, thanks to the leadership of Gov. Hickenlooper and some of the state legislators who are here today. When I was talking to Steve, he mentioned that, you know, Aurora is very much a purple city. It's got a majority of Republican city council. Majority of the state legislators are democrat.
But they came together understanding that out of this tragedy, there had to be something that made sense. And so, we've seen enacted tougher background checks that won't infringe on the rights of responsible gun owners but will help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
OBAMA: Now, in January, just a few weeks after Newtown, I put forward a series of common sense proposals along the same lines as what's passed here in Colorado, to reduce gun violence and keep our kids safe. In my "State of the Union" address, I urged Congress to give these proposals a vote.
And by the way, before we even ask for a vote, I'd already signed numerous executive orders, doing what we could administratively to make sure that guns don't fall into the hands of the wrong people. But what I said then is still true. If we're really going to tackle this problem seriously, then we got to get Congress to take the next step. And as soon as next week, they will be voting.
As soon as next week, every senator will get to vote on whether or not we should require background checks for anyone who wants to purchase a gun. Now, some say, well, we already have background checks. And they're right. Over the past 20 years, those background checks have kept more than two million dangerous people from buying a gun.
But the loopholes that currently exist in the law have allowed way too many criminals and folks who shouldn't be getting guns. It's allowed them to avoid background checks entirely. That makes it harder for law enforcement to do its job. It's not safe. It's not smart. And by the way, it's not fair to responsible gun owners who are playing by the rules.
Now, I understand, nobody is talking about creating an entirely new system. We are simply talking about plugging holes, ceiling a porous system that isn't working as well as it should. If you want to buy a gun, whether it's from a licensed dealer or a private seller, you should at least have to pass a background check to show you're not a criminal or someone legally prohibited from buying one. And that's just common sense.
OBAMA: You know, during our round title discussion, Gov. Hickenlooper, I know, was in the midst of this passionate debate about the legislation here in Colorado and some people said, well, background checks aren't going to stop everybody. Governor first (ph) want to acknowledge, yes, they won't stop everybody, but as he pointed out statistically, there a whole bunch of folks who have been stopped.
As -- background checks, law enforcement's been able to stop people who have been convicted of murder from getting a gun, people who were under restraining orders for having committed violent domestic abuse from getting a gun. A couple of cases, the governor mentioned to me, law enforcement has actually been able to arrest people who came to pick up their gun, because they're criminals. Wanted. So, this does work.