questions from reporters. north korea, afghanistan, maybe even bill cosby. we have seen it all in the past. nothing is off the table. we will have that live as well. good to have you with me. i'm thomas roberts. we begin this hour of developing news, where nbc news has obtained dramatic video of an unarmed teen shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop in michigan. the boy's parents now suing the officer and the county. 17-year-old deven guilford had just left a church basketball game when he passed a police car that he said had its high beams on. guilford flashed his brights back and was pulled over. what happened next was caught on the officer's body camera. >> you do not have your driver's license on your person, correct? >> yes, i do. >> where is it? >> you do not have to see it. >> i do have to see it. >> why do you have to see it? you had your brights. i could not see. i was going to crash. >> the tape appears to show some kind of scuffle. deven guilford lays down on the ground but allegedly refused to put his hand behind his back to

be handcuffed. the officer uses his taser. then more scuffling and the teen is shot seven times. we do not have access to any more video from the shooting although more footage may exist. sergeant jonathan frost was not criminally charged because the prosecutor determined that he used his fivearearm within the limits of michigan's self-defense law but now comes a civil suit. chief legal correspondent ari melber has been following the story. what more do we know about what we can see on the body cam and reaction from the family? >> we have spoken with a member of the family. they also put out public statements. their emphasis is they have always felt complete faith and trust with law enforcement. that they say has been shaken to the core. as to your evidentiary question, what else do we know, when you look at the entire video of the five minutes that have been released, you see an interaction where there is basically confrontation and resistance from this 17-year-old individual not wanting to give up his license as required. he does ask for the officer's

badge number at one point which is not forthcoming. he refuses to get out of the car. when he does get out of the car, we see some of this on the video there, he is basically first on the ground partially on his knees, and the officer says get fully down on your belly. then guilford is trying to video with a cell phon ce camera. the officer basically takes that and throws it. there is an attempted tasing and pretty shortly thereafter, the shooting that resulted in his death. i want to be clear the police side is not only pointing to that state police investigation that did not find reason to charge the officer, but also to fairly graphic photos that shows injuries sustained. so the legal question is whether this was excessive force or denial of civil rights. the police in question even if this was legal is for folks who look at this and say oklahomay,e this was legal, is this a good thing, is there a way to avoid this kind of outcome if an

unarmed 17-year-old on a traffic stop ends up dead five minutes later. >> what conversations has the father expressed about what the family wants to see happen now especially since the officer has been cleared criminally? >> cleerared criminally, that's correct. they are alleging a constitutional claim this is not an accepted fourth amendment stop, an unlawful stop with wrongful death resulting. the second part of the claim, it alleges this is part of a larger pattern and practice and policy problem in the policing. that's a debate that may be familiar to many americans regardless of how you view this police officer's individual conduct. the question of whether even lawfully, even if it's lawful, whether these kind of policing practices are escalating or de-escalating, are they avoiding potential injuries or loss of life as much as possible. those are open questions. >> when we talk about injury to sergeant frost, there were photos released following the incident.

what more can you tell us about those? >> we have reviewed those photos and also been in contact with the police as well as lawyers for the family today. who tho what those photos show is what looks like significant injury. i can tell you the state police investigation looked at those photos and the prosecutor said that was part of his analysis that made him feel the officer did act lawfully because the injuries seen in those photos as well as a lot of other evidence we haven't seen yet suggested that the suspect here was in the words of this prosecutorial investigation, the quote, initial aggressor. the photos suggested that he started this physical altercation. >> ari melber, thank you very much. we appreciate that. we are following some breaking news coming to us out of houston. construction workers trapped and rescued after scaffolding collapsed at a work site. right now, it's just a scene of twisted metal as crews are searching for survivors. frances is following the breaking details on this. what more can you tell us?

>> this happened just in the past hour. we know rescue is still going on as we speak. you see the video of all that twisted metal from the scaffolding. we know at least at one point four of the construction workers were trapped there but we also know there have been four people who also have been rescued, two of them transported to the hospital with what's being described as traumatic injuries. another two treated there on the scene. a little bit of background about this area here in downtown houston. this is a luxury apartment complex that was under construction called the 500 crawford building. it is in between texas avenue and preston street, directly across from minute maid arena or minute maid park, where the houston astros play so right in the heart of downtown houston. you can soo he tee the fire cre looking to see if there are any other crew members or workers there. we understand there is a triage area about 30 units from the houston fire department there on

scene in what's being described as a domino effect. part of the scaffolding you see wet down, that domino effect with the other areas across the length of that building under construction. people were described as running to the scene to see if they could help. people were screaming, help me, help me. you can see this very active situation there. again, four people so far rescued. at one point at least four workers were trapped. not sure if they have gotten everybody, if everybody is accounted for but certainly following the situation as it is breaking in downtown houston. >> really is that larger aerial shot that gives us the scope of the damage and what happened at that construction site. thank you. we have breaking news out of washington, d.c. specifically on capitol hill. right now behind those doors, top clinton aide huma abedin is testifying before the house benghazi committee. it's expected to go well into the afternoon. her appearance comes just days before her boss, hillary clinton, testifies at a public hearing. that will be next thursday.

the clinton campaign is pushing back against the committee for announcing abedin's testimony saying quote, the republicans focus on her of all people, and their decision to leak details about her appearance is just another tactic in their partisan plan to go after hillary clinton. congressman elijah cummings, top democrat on the committee, said he participated in the hearing out of respect for the family members of those killed in the benghazi attacks and last hour, spoke to my colleague andrea mitchell about the questioning and what he said was fair and also he discussed why abedin was there in the first place. >> i thought so far that the questioning was overall fair. keep in mind, we know from previous interviews that she had no operational role. she was not with mrs. clinton on the night of this tragedy and she was not involved in any kind of policy decisions and really had nothing to do with benghazi. >> so we are looking at live

pictures of hillary clinton speaking in keene, new hampshire at a rally going on there. we will check in in a moment. first i want to speak to nbc's luke russert, just outside of where this hearing is taking place. explain abedin's relevance and why trey gowdy is not in attendance today. >> reporter: let me start with the second question first. it's an interesting one because he is the chairman of this committee and is a no-show today. the only republicans we have seen are congressman pompeyo and westmoreland. we do not know why mr. gowdy is not here. we have not gotten a clear answer but i'm sure we will know by the end of the day. in terms of abedin's relevance, she has been referred to as hillary clinton's second daughter, someone who is very close to her. i can actually tell you now she's having lunch behind these doors, we are in the middle of a lunch break during this hearing. the committee put out before this all started, that the questioning would focus on what happened that night, 9-11-12,

the night four americans died in benghazi, and what was the executive branch's response. what would not be part of the questioning is miss abedin's work outside the state department with private companies while she was there which some allege was improper. they said it was only going to focus on the night of the 12th and the administration's response including hillary clinton's which begs the question then how, if the folk focus is there and she was not with mrs. clinton that night, why would this go on so long. that's the question we are left to wonder and the question mr. cummings did not know, although he said the questioning was fair. we will see how it ends up. one thing's for certain, we will be here until the early afternoon at least. >> we will be talking later. luke russert on capitol hill, thank you. as i said, hallie jackson is traveling with the clinton campaign in new hampshire where a town hall is being held right now. has the clinton camp commented on what's taking police wilace

abedin? >> reporter: a spokesperson released a statement he sngsly saying the committee is focused more on abedin and partisan politics than what happened in benghazi and how to keep diplomats safer abroad. mrs. clinton has not focused on that but is focused on a different issue, gun control. she was introduced rather emotionally by a shooting survivor. clinton coming out strongly talking about gun safety measures. we have heard about it a lot this week, particularly after the democratic debate on tuesday night. clinton again drawing that strong distinction between herself and bernie sanders. sanders of course from vermont, a big hunting state. so sanders during the debate referenced this. he said that shouting, all the shouting in the world isn't going to solve these problems. clinton alluded to that today. >> some people say that we shouldn't talk about it. some say we shouldn't shout about it, that i shouldn't shout

about it. well, i think we have to keep talking but more importantly, we have to act. >> reporter: that distinction could be very key in a state like new hampshire where she trails bernie sanders by double digits. back to you. >> i want to bring in democratic congresswoman titus. you heard elijah cummings earlier today say that so far this questioning of huma has been fair but went on to say she was not with hillary clinton the night of the benghazi attacks. do you understand the purpose of her testimony today? >> i can't imagine that it's anything other than political. we have certainly seen lots of evidence that that's what's going on. we suspected that to start with. then you had mccarthy admit it. you had representative hanna say the big gest crime in washingto is telling the truth, that this was political. you had an investigator who was on the committee, now a whistle

blower, saying the was political. how much evidence do you need? >> as a clinton surrogate, we know the secretary will be testifying next week on thursday, what do you think in your opinion she needs to do to maybe make this go away once and for all? >> i think the important thing is that she has forced them to have a public hearing. this committee has met in secret, they have had only three public hearings. even watergate committee had 137 public hearings. she wants the public to hear this. i think she will be able to make her case. remember, this ambassador was a friend of hers. these people worked for her. she was probably more upset than anybody about what happened and wants the state department to fix the problem. but this has just turned into a witch hunt. >> we shall see how the rest of the day goes and how next week goes for the secretary. thank you very much. i appreciate your time. don't count out joe just yet. new hints that the vice president is still considering a

full run at 2016. despite the suggestions his window could be closing. we are asking in today's bing pulse has biden missed his chance to make a presidential run. weigh in now. the pulse is live. plus, debate drama. donald trump now says he will be onstage the next time around after threatening to pull out of the next gop debate. so who won the debate over the debate? and this. >> took about maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds for all this to happen. it was very very scary. >> flash floods trigger mud slides. cars and trucks stuck on a busy highway, swallowed whole in certain areas without warning. we take you live to california where the water is gone but the mud isn't. it takes a lot of work... to run this business. but i really love it. i'm on the move all day long... and sometimes, i just don't eat the way i should. so i drink boost® to get the nutrition that i'm missing. boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals,

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more now on that breaking news out of houston. we brought it to you moments ago. look at this. scaffolding collapsing at a construction site. frances is following the developments and joins us with more. >> that rescue is going on. at least four construction workers have been pulled from that scaffolding. but let's confirm they are still searching for any others. i want to bring in kenyatta parker, public information officer for the houston fire department. thank you for being with us. you can start by telling us can you confirm, are they still looking for any other workers who may be missing at this point? >> yes. as you said earlier, we have rescued four of the workers. two were transported to the hospital. the others were treated on scene for minor injuries. the search is continuing for either more workers or pedestrians that may have been under the scaffolding when the collapse happened. >> so that is the understanding. i know the search initially was

for workers. this is a busy section of downtown houston across from minute maid park where the houston astros play so is that the case, you think some pedestrians may also be trapped there? >> correct. we don't want to take a chance of anybody being under there. because it's a busy area, because of the time of day, there could have been people underneath the scaffolding when the collapse happened. we just want to cross our ts and dot our is, make sure no one else is under the scaffolding. >> hopefully that is the case as this rescue is still ongoing there in downtown houston. kenyatta parker from the houston fire department, thank you very much. continuing to watch this, especially making sure it is safe and that all the pedestrians, anybody there as far as workers as well are all accounted for. >> thank you. keep us posted. we move on to politics now. it looks like two powerful presidential front-runners will get their way when it comes to an upcoming presidential debate. donald trump and ben carson had

joint forces at least temporarily to demand that cnbc limit the october 28th debate to no more than two hours. the pair threatening to boycott otherwise. today a twitter-happy trump wrote cnbc just agreed the debate will be two hours. fantastic news for all, especially the millions of people who will be watching. nbc's katy tur was brieaking th details of this yesterday. it wasn't just the length they were worried about, let's just be honest, this is our sister network, cnbc. >> i'm not sure they were ever not going to get their way with the length of that debate. in past statements, cnbc had said it would be a two-hour debate. i think the talk was if it went longer, they were just going to be commercial breaks but the substance of the debate would actually be limited to two hours. this is donald trump claiming victory today with that tweet saying i was able to convince cnbc to limit the debate to the time frame that i wanted. notice he didn't mention dr.

carson in that tweet. not just for me, donald trump is saying, but for you, the american public, the viewer. he said that the past republican debate, he had complained it was way too long, that you couldn't focus and that the viewer was losing out, they weren't going to watch that whole thing. he mentioned the cnn debate for the democrats was two hours so that's the way it should be. donald trump taking a victory lap. not sure he deserves that victory lap. there were others talking about that debate and how it would run and there weren't many other complaints, i'm being told, about how things were going. there were still discussions going on. i don't think anything was ever set in stone in regard to this debate but donald trump is a master at the media athis is ho he's playing it. >> katy, thank you. ahead of that debate, the republican race between ben carson and donald trump may be

tighter than ever. msnbc's steve kornacki has the details of the latest nbc news online poll conducted by survey monkey. >> this is the first scientific poll that was taken after the democratic debate on tuesday night, the first look on how that race stands right now. on the republican race, let's go to the big board and see the numbers. these are basically hot off the press. this is our in-house poll. let's start with the republican race. right now, nationally, you see donald trump continues to lead 28%. ben carson, the big story here is from the same poll a month ago, he's up nine points. he's jumped from 14 to 23, right behind donald trump right now. we should say it has now been three months, almost exactly three months that donald trump has been leading these polls on the republican side. that's a lot more staying power than people thought he would have. the other thing to point out is jeb bush. remember at the start of this year, jeb bush was going to be the big front-runner. you heard about shock and awe, he was going to win the republican nomination. he's sitting back in sixth place

at just 5% right now. if you want to look closer inside these numbers, this is interesting. why is ben carson suddenly doing so well? why did he climb nine points in the last month? the answer has to do with one very particular type of republican voter. white evangelicals. they are a huge force in the iowa caucuses, a huge force in the south, a huge force in the republican party in general and look at this. a month ago, ben carson was at 20% with them. running second place to donald trump. donald trump was winning evangelicals. now ben carson is radically increased his support, he's ahead by ten points over trump among evangelicals. that's why ben carson has been surging. again, the significance of that, if you are winning white evangelicals by ten points there's a very good chance you are winning the iowa caucuses. if carson wins iowa, that's a very big deal. let's take a look at the democratic side. again, this is the first scientific poll taken since that debate on tuesday night. we asked who do you want for president, democrats. hillary clinton continues to

lead by double digits. you see something noteworthy here. joe biden, he want at the debate, he's flirting with running, he's lost one-third of his support in our poll over the last month. maybe this waiting game, maybe hillary's strongly reviewed performance in the debate not helping joe biden. you can see his numbers have dropped. here's the most interesting thing. if you want to know why hillary clinton is ahead by 14 points, why she's been ahead solidly all along, take a look at this. you can break down the democratic race by demographic. look, among white voters, it's a dead even race right now. among hispanic voters, it's a close race. here it is. among african-american voters, hillary clinton is leading bernie sanders by 54 points. thomas, that's why she's got the double digit lead nationally. >> steve kornacki, thank you. appreciate it. still ahead, drivers trapped, flash flooding triggering mud slides that swamp a busy highway. we take you to southern california, where miles of road are still closed at this hour. but it is more bad weather on

the way. plus, we are getting a first look at former nba and reality star lamar odom inside a nevada brothel. we get the latest on his medical condition. when you're not confident your company's data is secure, the possibility of a breach can quickly become the only thing you think about. that's where at&t can help. at at&t we monitor our network traffic so we can see things others can't. mitigating risks across your business. leaving you free to focus on what matters most.

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edible string was lucy's idea... and charlie's. new friskies pull 'n play. the whole new way to treat 'n play. developing weather news this hour out of southern california, where heavy rain has caused mountains and land to virtually melt away. the drought-stricken region was thirsty for rain but it's all come at once and you know what that means. this. devastating mud slides flowing like a river. hail falling like ice cubes from the sky. and now, cars stranded everywhere. emergency crews forced to shut down nearly 40 miles of california's busy interstate 5 after a flash flood spurred mud slides. it's unclear when the highway will be completely reopened. some cars were completely trapped in the thick endless sea of brown and now forecasters are warning of possible thunderstorms tonight.

nbc's jennifer bjorklund is live in one of the hardest hit spots. are there fears for more slides on top of this? >> there absolutely are. this is just a taste of what we can expect in the year to come. more on that in a second. i want to show you the aftermath on the side of this road. this is lake elizabeth road. you can see piles and piles of mud that have come up off this road and over here in the actual road you can see this mud flow. it's a sticky mud flow just running everywhere. this is all a result of those terrible storms that came through yesterday. you can see that car that's swamped up there. yellow tape around it indicates that crews have come through and ensured there's nobody trapped inside. so hundreds of cars that are still stuck in the mud are actually being tagged with that yellow tape just to indicate that it's been checked, there's nobody trapped inside. they did make some rescues yesterday around 3:00 in the afternoon and they are running some convoys through here as they clean up the road.

you can see some trucks going by. behind us, past this road, you can see this big dry lakebed. that is elizabeth lake. that is an indication of this california drought. this is usually full of water but in the last few years has sunk down and this area also has been very hard-hit in the last few years with fires, ongoing fires. so because of the fire debris that's been running down the hill and also just the dryness of the areas that have burned, it's either running off like it's running off asphalt or is bringing mud and debris with it. the big headline is that california needs rain. not really. california needs snow, up in the sierra, to run down the aqueduct and water this area. these downpours we have had in the last difficuay or so are definitely not what we need. we are expecting more to come later this afternoon. >> amazing images.

thank you. as we await word on nba star lamar odom fighting for his life in a nevada hospital, nbc news has obtained surveillance video of odom checking into the love ranch brothel saturday. he is the estranged husband of khloe kardashian and seen here touring the place where he stayed for several days before being found unconscious on tuesday. sources close to odom say the case is being treated as an overdose. the manager of the brothel says she talked to odom at length during his stay and gave details about their conversation. i want to bring in msnbc's morgan radford in las vegas. i understand you spoke with t.j. moore, the person who runs the brothel. what did they say about lamar odom's condition when he arrived? >> reporter: that's right. right now we are standing outside of sunrise hospital and medical center in las vegas where lamar odom is still hooked up to that ventilator. we learned new details about the moments leading up to the time when he was found at 3:15 p.m.

on tuesday unconscious. i spoke with t.j. who was the manager at the love ranch last night for hours at length and she showed me exclusive video from three separate surveillance cameras where you can see lamar odom taking his first tour of the facilities and then finally ending up at a corner table in the bar, where you see him bopping his head listening to rap music that she said was being played from youtube. you see women approach him, serving him glasses of champagne. take a look. >> he's been here for about half an hour back in the private suite. that's where we brought him into the house. and this is where he has taken his tour of the brothel. one more closer image of him coming into frame. >> reporter: so what happened also is we also got the receipts of lamar odom's stay where you can see the $75,000 transaction that was charged to his credit card.

we spoke to the cashier who actually swiped his card when he first showed up and she said he seemed polite, reserved, even in good spirits, and made small talk with her. that $75,000 encompassed his stay at the villa, the footage from the party as well as companionship of the two women you saw in that video. >> morgan, thanks so much. appreciate it. so on to political news now. the questions about joe biden, whether or not he's going to get in. the watch over his decision continues. what the vice president is doing that leads some to believe he is a step closer to entering the race for the white house. also, we are following developing news this hour from the white house. we are standing by for a live news conference from president obama. he is expected to be joined by the president of south korea who is currently here visiting. we will have that news conference live as it happens. 130 yards now... bill's got a very tough lie here... looks like we have some sort of

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finally be over. no, really perhaps within the next three days. there's a source close to the vp saying he's making calls to organizers in early voting states, trying to assess whether he's got a real shot at the democratic nomination. if he decides to jump in, biden will have a lot of catching up to do. the first filing deadlines for primary states are only two weeks away. he would be behind in the money race as well. check out these numbers. brand new fund-raising totals. hillary clinton and bernie sanders have a combined $60 million cash on hand. just moments ago, kristen welker asked the president to weigh in during an oval office meeting with the south korean president. >> we are having a press conference. >> nbc's kristen welker joins me from the white house. the clock is ticking and i'm sure the vice president is being made aware of the timeline here but explain about what you're

hearing from sources about the frustration, about the pressure people seem to be putting on the vice president about making a decision. >> reporter: well, it is our understanding that the vice president is frustrated, that people are pressuring him to make a decision and that is one reason we believe that former delaware senator ted kaufmann, also a former biden advisor, sent out a letter today to biden's former staffers essentially saying if the vice president decides to get into the race, we are going to need 150% from all of you. i will read you a snippet of that letter now. it says quote, he believes we must win this election, everything he and the president have worked for and care about is at stake. if he decides to run, we will need each and every one of you yesterday. so this aimed i think at giving the vice president a little bit of space and also at sending a message to his supporters that he is taking a very serious look at this and that he's in his final stages of deliberations. as you said, he's reaching out to organizers in those early voting states.

it comes, though, as we are getting some new polling information which the biden team will undoubtedly be looking at closely. this is from the suffolk university boston globe which shows secretary clinton has now overtaken bernie sanders in new hampshire, 37% to 35%. vice president biden comes in at 11%. this is significant because this poll was conducted after this week's debate and suggests that she got a real bump from that debate which by all accounts, a majority of democrats believe that she won. so the biden team has to be watching this very closely. one of the arguments for biden potentially getting into the race was that secretary clinton seemed to be a somewhat weakened candidate given the e-mail controversy and some other issues. she assumes to have turned the corner on the e-mails and certainly delivered a very strong performance this past week during that debate. so those are the considerations for the vice president but sources close to him say this is a personal decision for him. it's one that he's going to make with his family and ultimately he will determine if they have it in them, having recently lost

his son beau. >> we will be speaking to an advisor to the draft biden super pac coming up in a moment. real quickly, push ahead, we expect to hear from the president shortly in this joint press conference with the south korean president, park geun-hye. do we have an idea of where this is going to go? the president's gotten everything before, questions from we know war-torn areas all the way to bill cosby. what are you hearing about what people want to hear from him? >> reporter: i can just tell you the press corps has been talking a lot about vice president biden so i would be surprised if he didn't at least get one question about whether vice president biden should get into this race and if he needs to decide soon. as you reported at the top, i tried to get the president to weigh in a little bit earlier today and he said i will answer all of your questions at the press conference. we are hoping someone does in fact ask that question. he will of course likely get a question about afghanistan as well and possibly tensions between south korea and north korea. >> the intrepid kristen welker,

thank you. vice president's younger brother frank told the palm beach post that biden's decision will be based on a dialogue between his head and his heart. for more on that, steve shale, democratic strategist in florida, he's helped president obama carry florida in '08 and 2012 and is one of the advisors to the draft biden super pac. we have the nbc news online poll conducted by survey monkey, 56% say hillary clinton won that debate. so do you see an opening going forward for vice president biden, the rationale for him to put together a bid? >> absolutely. first of all, the opening is he's the vice president of the united states of america. he's got 100% name i.d., a national network of friends and donors ready to go to work for him. anybody of his stature has an opening on the stage to get in. listen, secretary clinton had a great night. there's no question about it. but we believe, i believe that the vice president first of all, his record as vice president, virtually every consequential decision this president has been

made has been made with the vice president, not to mention the background he brings. hard scrabble guy from a blue collar background can talk about issues facing blue collar workers as well as anybody. we are hopeful for good news next week. >> when we think about the "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan writing that the crisp and lively performance closed any opening for biden to get in, saying quote, she to tank and very obviously for him to swoop. she didn't. if he jumped in now he would look like a spoiler doing it not to save the party but fulfill his sense of destiny. is there an issue of perception about what the vice president's calculations could be about why wait, why decide, is it all about whether or not a clinton campaign collapses? >> i don't think so. first of all, again, joe biden is vice president of the united states of america. not like he's a random junior senator from a small state or somebody on a quixotic mission here. he's obviously run for president

before, has been a major figure in the administration, the major figure besides barack obama. perfect justification in his own right to run for president. again, i think he's got plenty of reason. >> is it your estimation and your opinion that prior to the personal situation, loss of his son beau, that he would have been likely in this and in it a long time ago? >> well, honestly, i would be talking out of school if i tried to answer that. i don't know. i have been in this for a few months now. as i said, we talked a few months ago. i have a strong personal affinity for the vice president. when i found out he was thinking about it i wanted to help out. >> great to see you. i appreciate your time. i'm sure we will talk more in the future. thank you, sir. to our bing pulse question today, focusing on the vice president. while the political world remains on biden watch, we want to find out do you think the window is closed for joe biden to make a successful presidential run? let's take a look at the responses so far. here's what you're saying. 85% of you think yes. 15% of you say no.

now, the pulse is live. go check it out. pulse.msnbc.com. more of your responses throughout the show. we move on to developing news out of israel. tensions are reaching a boiling point after hamas called for a day of rage. the israeli military says an attacker disguised as a journalist stabbed a soldier earlier today. police shot him, killed him. overnight, hundreds of palestinians set fire to the jewish holy site, joseph's tomb, in jerusalem. israel called it a quote, despicable act and mahmoud abbas condemned it. back in this country the u.n. security council is holding a special meeting to discuss the situation.

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she's there to testify before the special committee on benghazi. closed door testimony expected to continue through much of the afternoon. we are also watching developments coming to us at the white house, where any moment we expect president obama to hold a joint press conference with the south korean president park geun-hye. you are looking at live pictures inside the white house east room, where we have reporters, everyone is assembled. earlier today, president obama and park held a bilateral meeting at the oval office. all this just a day after the administration announced u.s. troops will stay in afghanistan longer than planned. nbc's chris jansing, our senior white house correspondent for nbc news, joins me now. north korea is expected to be at the top of the agenda. explain what's at stake here. >> reporter: yeah, without a doubt. obviously the big picture is that this is part of the rebalancing of u.s. foreign policy toward asia but you mentioned north korea and the nuclear threat and that is a concern that south korea and the

united states share. where they diverge is over china. we have seen overtures towards president park as a hedge against that north korean nuclear threat at a time when the united states has been working hard to diminish china's influence in the region and the world as part of that sort of restructuring of foreign policy with more of a focus on asia. having said that, the bilateral meeting that we saw dtoday in te oval office and a lunch, by the way, this press conference is getting a late start because the lunch they are having together seems to be running over, that's a sign that they want to show very outwardly that there is still a close relationship between these two countries, particularly at a time when there has been a lot of activity on the heavily militarized border between north korea and south korea. just as a reminder, there is still more than 28,000 u.s. troops in south korea left over as a remnant of the korean war. so a lot at stake here. having said that, besides those

issues i think at this press conference, you mentioned afghanistan. we may hear something about that. but you were talking to kristen welker about that. you can look for a question potentially on joe biden. obviously the president's closest advisor in this administration. he has talked and his senior administration officials have talked about how important they feel it is to continue the president's policies, to elect another democratic president. while he may demur on picking favorites, make no mistake, this is something that is much talked about and thought about in these circles. >> i know you have been a witness to these types of press moments, can go anywhere from the serious of war-torn countries or what's going to be happening with foreign policy in asia all the way to questions about bill cosby. explain how long we anticipate this to last and the types of questions other than maybe the joe biden, the wild ones that may get tossed at the president today. >> reporter: yeah. you never know. it's so interesting.

what this is called is in the parlance of being inside the white house is a two two which means there will be two journalists from each country that get to ask two questions, one and they get to ask two questions, one of president park and one of president obama, and obviously what the priorities are of the south korean journalists may be different from the american journalists, and it could be a specialized media outlet that is focused on the economy or foreign affairs, so you are right, anything is possible for these news conferences. typically i would say 25 to 45 minutes, and it depends on how long the questions are and how long the answers are, and we know when something is of interest to him, he can go on for a while. >> i have a yogurt here on set and we will carry the whole thing live. >> thanks.

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new details in the search for the notorious mexican drug lord, joaquin guzman. how close were officials to catching him? mark has new information for us. >> source information continues to come in suggesting that early last week the mexican marines actually came very, very close to capturing el chapo guzman. the reports we have from a number of sources is that marines and helicopters raided a ranch area after getting intelligence information from the u.s., which had done some

cell phone intercepts and went in with choppers but faced fire from people believed to be the security forces surrounding el chapo, and they went in on foot and missed him and they think he got away on an atv with his security team. they are saying now, though, they think he is injured, that he either broke his leg or was shot in the leg and he is also suffering a facial injury to his nose, they say. they went into the camp and they believe he was there and they found medication, cell phones and radios and things indicating he was there, and at one point after that they thought they had him surrounded in a two-mile area and went in there, but now a week and a half or so later they feel they have lost him, that somehow they got away and people came and got him and took him away and that search continues, and they will interview people they detained in that area to see if they can get information and try again, and he is still a fugitive.

>> yeah, and we know he has great resources to keep evading. we are waiting for president obama and the president of south korea to come out and address the cameras jointly. there are the podiums in the east room of the white house and they are going to hold a press briefing, and we will bring it to you live when it happens right here on msnbc. -tiara, kind-of-day. live 24/7 with 24/7 digestive support. try align, the undisputed #1 ge recommended probiotic. ♪ hp instant ink can save you up to 50% on ink delivered to your door ...so print all you want and never run out. plans start at $2.99 a month.

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country longer than planned and it comes after russia launched air strikes inside syria's borders, and there's a lot of ground that could be covered today at the white house. we're going to bring you that news conference live when it happens. joining me live at the top of the hour, chris jansing, and martin fletcher, and the author of the new book "the war reporter" and msnbc contributor, steve clemens of the "atlantic." chris jansing, tell us what we should anticipate -- >> reporter: when is a very good question, because we are running about 20 minutes late. they are still in that working lunch. the president and the vice president and president park, this is clearly the meeting earlier today, the lunch today, a show of unity before two countries that do share that

goal of diminishing the threat of a nuclear north korea. having said that, there are also disagreements that we talked about earlier over china and south korea increasingly getting closer as a hedge against that nuclear threat. there's also a little tension about how the united states wanting to increase its footprint, its military footprint in south korea where it has 28,500 troops. they have been looking to put an anti-ballistic system in south korea, something park has not assented to. you asked about the difficult questions on foreign policy the president is facing now, and yesterday he said he was not disappointed, that he was going to leave troops in afghanistan until the end of his administration. this is a president who ran on getting troops out of both iraq and afghanistan. he may get a question on that, what is going on in syria with

russia, in israel? there are a lot of very difficult foreign policy issues that are out there. again, two questions from two journalists from each country. we will see. if i was a betting woman, i would say the one sure thing will be what his thought is on joe biden running for president, thomas. >> i see members of the south korea delegation starting to file in. talk to us about the military aspects of the relationship as chris was referencing there, concerning a nuclear north korea there? and also the questions towards the president about what you were able to ask ash carter yesterday when it comes to our presence in afghanistan. >> well, as far as the u.s. military and north korea, anything that would diminish the tensions between south and north

korea including dekn de-nuclearization would be a godsend. not under any immediate threat, but it would relieve some of the pressure and some of the workload for the u.s. military worldwide. >> real quickly, the reviews 24 hours later about the numbers of troops being left behind in afghanistan, sufficient or insufficient for the military mission? >> well, it really depends on who you talk to. the agreement or the recommendation, if you want to call it that, from general john campbell, the u.s. commander there for afghanistan for 5,500 troops sounds more like a compromise, something that he thought would work as opposed to something that he really believes in, because if you talk to many military leaders they think the number should be much hier, at least at the current level it is now to continue to

carry on the counterterrorism mission and the train and equipped, and as secretary of defense, ash carter, acknowledged again yesterday, sometimes troops -- u.s. troops will be called in to combat to protect the afghan forces as they were several weeks ago when the taliban not only overran but seized a city. one of the discussions right now is how long will a deployment to afghanistan now be? some of the forces who were there on a six-month rotation may be extended now to as long as nine months or those on nine-month rotations will be extended a year. even some of the troops already on the ground are looking at a longer stay in country. >> thank you, and i see the door opening up, and i want to make sure i see it correctly, as we are having the people working

with the president and the president of south korea come out and put planned remarks down. martin, the death toll since october 1st, 38 palestinians and seven israelis. how do you think the president is going to address what are the deflated peace talks currently and how to reinvigorate them? >> i am not sure what he is going to say, but clearly in the middle east, between israel and the palestinians, what they need in the region is leadership, american leadership. the violence in the last few days and weeks which is fight now with the deaths of seven israelis, and 30 palestinians, and dozens more wounded, what we are seeing is name calling, insults between the palestinian leaders and the israel leaders, and netanyahu calling the palestinian a liar, and one

calling the jews who go to the holy place, dirtying the place with filthy feet. this kind of name calling is completely unhelpful, and there's claims from both sides that the other side is inciting the violence. john kerry may be going to the area to try and bring some kind of tone, to tone down the angry rhetoric between the leaders and lead to a decline in the violence. as far as a real peace process, we are far away from that in the moment and all we need to see in the area is a decline of violence and the beginning of some kind of talks and maybe secretary of state kerry can help in that. >> we know the reports from today, the most recent being that a palestinian man wearing a

yellow press vest stabbed and wounded a israeli soldier, and he was shot dead by the israeli troops. over your years of coverage, explain between 1 to 10 of how heated -- 10 being the most heated, where you think we are at this current scale in this cycle of violence? >> you know, thomas, given the frequent spikes of violence and the wars between palestinian and israel, the fighting with the palestinians and lebanon, and taking all that together i don't think we are over a 3 to be honest with you right now. it could get so much worse quickly, and if a whole israeli family is killed, you had one couple that was killed in a car by a palestinian, and their four children were in the backseat and they were unharmed, and if those children were killed you would see a whole different level of violence, and the same as if the israelis kill a whole

punch of palestinians, and it's looking bad and you are seeing people stabbing others with knives and you are seeing the videos, and it's not really -- it's nowhere near the violence of the past. what we are seeing is social media repeatly showing the video. it just looks worse than it is, and not that it's not bad enough. >> martin fletcher, thank you for standing by. and the press is waiting for president obama to come out with his south korea counterpart, park guen-hye. steve clemens, part of our conversation here, he is editor at large for "the atlantic" and an msnbc contributocontributor. if you were in that room and picked what is the question you would want to ask president obama? >> i am interested in south korea and the region, so there

are a lot of questions out there, and i want to know what the contours of the japanese behaviors are with the erratic behavior of the north. she is spending more time there in china. in august, two months ago we suspended military exercises with south korea because of a near -- what the north korean leader called a quasi military situation. >> i am going to ask you to stand by as we go to president obama and his south korean counterpart. >> good afternoon. last year in seoul, president park welcomed me to the blue

house, and today it's my pleasure to welcome her back to the white house. madam president, in your last visit you addressed a joint session of congress, which is an honor reserved for america's closest friends and you noted the founding document of both countries, our independence and your constitution inshrined to our commitment with the same words, to the pursuit of happiness. americans have stood shoulder to shoulder in that pursuit, and madam president, your time here includes a visit to the veteran's memorial, and we are grateful for that and it's a reminder people have fought and died for one another's freedom, and i know your gesture has meant a lot to the american people and the proud war veterans.

in recent years president park and i have strengthened the reappliance for the future, and i want to reaffirm today the security of the republican of korea will never waiver. our alliance remains a lynchpin of peace and security not just on the korean peninsula, but the region. as we agreed in seoul last year, our militaries are investing in insured capabilities, including the technologies and missile defenses that allow our forces to operate together effectively, and we want to insure that our korean allies have the capabilities to take on greater responsibilities for the peninsula and the control of the alliance, and we are determined to maintain a readiness against any threat.

madam president, i want to commend you in the actions of north korea that wounded two soldiers. likewise, kim jong-un's missile program achieved nothing except to deepen north korea's isolation. today president park and i are reaffirming our nations will never accept north korea as a nuclear weapons state. we will continue to insist that kim jong-un must abide by the obligations in a peaceful manner, and given the horrific treatment of the north korean people by their government our two nations will continue to expose abuses and call for accountability of human rights violations. at the same time, we do support

president park's efforts to improve relations between south and north korea. as my administration has shown with iran and with cuba, we are also prepared to engage nations with which we have had troubled histories, but kim jong-un needs to understand it will not achieve the economic development it seeks so long as it looks at nuclear weapons, and park has a vision that we very that support. beyond the peninsula, president park shared her proposal, the northeast asia peace and cooperation initiative to build greater cooperation among countries in the region and we welcome those efforts. president park and i met with abe of japan of last year to address shared challenges and the summit that park will host

this month can be another step forward in building positive relations between south korea, japan and china. with respect to trade, we reviewed the first three years of our trade agreement, bilateral trade is up including exports of american autos and we still have work to do and i convey with the issues of implementing chorus have arisen, they have been resolved but we need to resolve them quickly and president park discussed the regulatory reforms she is pursuing, and those are reforms that we welcome. finally, i am pleased our alliance is increasingly a global one. south korea is not just an important player in the region, it's increasingly an important player on the world stage. south korea remains a partner in development in afghanistan, a member of the coalition against isil, and a jgenerous donor of

refugees, and we are expanding our cooperation to new frontiers, for example, given the increasing cyber threats to both of our nations, and we are stepping our efforts up to strengthen our cyber defenses and coordinating at the highest levels, the white house and the blue house making sure that we are in sync in dealing with that challenge. in the fight against climate change, we are accelerating our investments in clean energy, our new civil nuclear agreement reflects our shared agreement to the safe use of nuclear power which is a low carbon energy source and i want to commend south korea for announcing its post 2020 target to limit carbons. south korean leadership can be an example for other nations around the world. finally, we're expanding our cooperation to promote health and global development, and

having already worked together against ebola, south korea stepped up as a true leader in advancing that. both of our countries are standing together to promote education, and health for girls around the world. our let girls learn campaign and initiative. madam president, thank you once again for your partnership, your leadership and friendship, and i believe that we have shown again today that our unbreakable alliance is not just a coalition, more and more our alliance is helping people around the world in their own pursuit of happiness, and the prosperity and dignity they seek for their families and nations.

madam president. >> translator: mr. president, thank you very much for your remarks. i thank you and the american people for the warm welcome you extended throughout my visit. in today's summit you and i discussed about the alliance and the issues around the peninsula and north korea. during the past years we have been able to resolve issues and a revision after 42 years after the agreement, which evidences that the current u.s. alliance is stronger than ever. our alliance is now moving beyond a security alliance and an economic alliance and evolving into a comprehensive global alliance. the biggest threat to peace and security on the korean

pennsylvania is the north korean provocation and advancement of north korea's capabilities, and president obama and i shared recognition in many aspects of this issue, and first the provocation by the north, korea and the u.s. will continue to strength strengthen, and we will try to fully utilized the multigatherings that are to take place. second, with a sense of urgency and firm commitment, we have agreed to strengthen diplomatic efforts to solve the north korea nuclear program on the basis of u.s. japan coordination and we will strengthen the coordination among five parties, while korea and the united states will deepen consultations with other countries including china, and third should north korea create

a genuine willingness, we will extend cooperative measures to the north. in our discussions we looked beyond the current present issues of the pennsylvania and spoke about the policies on north korea, and at the same time creating conditions we will deepen strategic consultations between korea and the u.s. i would like to thank president obama for the ideas on peaceful reunificati reunification. today we adopted a joint statement on north korea that contains our shared recognition on these related issues. the alliance is the lynchpin of peace and stability in the asia

pacific, and there exists initiative, and i would like to thank president obama for his warm words of welcome and strong support for napc. and in late november, the summit will be held in seoul. president obama also recognized korea's initiative is reviving korea, japan and china try lateral talks that had been on hold for the past three years and he also expressed his high hopes for the korea and japan and china summit that will be held in two weeks' time, and we also talked about such meetings could improve the bilateral talks in our region.

president obama affirmed that korea-u.s. relations and korea-china relations could be compatible. the recent summit meetings between korea and china, the u.s. and china, and now korea and the u.s. have served to build consensus regarding north korea and its nuclear program, and we believe that this will play a positive role in insuring peace and stability on the korean pennsylvania and throughout northeast asia. in dealing with the north korean nuclear problem we will seek to strengthen relations between korea, and the u.s. and the japan. that will enable us to open new channels for stronger cooperation. regional peace and stability becomes stronger when countries within the region build closer

ties on economic dependency, and in this regard i would like to congratulate president obama for the negotiations. korea and the u.s. already have an fta with high standards, and we will be partners in terms of the tpp, and negotiations have now conclude and we will be engaging in closer cooperation with north korea's participation in the tpp. today's meeting was particularly meaningful in that it provides impetus to strengthen the global partnership. korea and the united states will notice first on cyber security and space and arctic corporation which are gaining the spotlight in this 21st century.

in the realm of space, particularly, we will work to quickly conclude talks on space cooperation, to establish an institutional foundation for such cooperation, and the cyber world in order to enhance common response capabilities against attacks we established a hotline between the white house and the blue house for cyber cooperation. on global issues, president obama and i have agreed to strengthen corporation on climate change, and u.n. peace keeping operations and nuclear security and humanitarian aid for refugees and other global issues including extremism. today's summit served as an opportunity to set forth a clear vision and strategy for the future of the korea/u.s. alliance.

a new pennsylvania and northeast asea and new world, i am confident the alliance will continue to evolve into a comprehensive strategic alliance. >> we will take a couple questions and start with michelle kaczynski of cnn. >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. on 2016 and now that we have seen the presidential candidates and how they did, and maybe you can share your thoughts on how much you watched that, do you feel the window has closed on the vice president entering the race and if you don't feel it's closed do you feel he in a sense owes it to fellow democrats to get in very soon? also on israel, we heard secretary kerry say one of the roots of what is going on there now is frustration over settlement activity? do you feel that's a root cause of the violence and do you feel like president abbas has a responsibility to condemn attacks and try to stop them? president park, welcome.

as you know, the u.s. has reached this deal now with iran over its nuclear program, and i'm not sure if i should start over. were you able to hear that, president park? as you know the u.s. has reached a deal with iran over the nuclear program, and how would you feel if that was north korea >> would you welcome such attempts for such a deal and do you feel you would trust north korea to abide by such an agreement? thank you. >> the democratic debate was taking place at the same time as some ball games, so there was a little bit of clicking back and forth. i am not going to comment on what joe is doing or not doing. you can direct those questions to my very able vice president. the one observation i will make

about the democratic debate was that those are all some very fine people, and they share a belief in an economy that is working for everybody and not just a few. they share a belief that america has to project strength around the world by maintaining the finest military skpls making sure that we have a strong economy back home that we're employing diplomacy and working with nations wherever possible to solve big problems like climate change. what was interesting to me was that degree to which -- although there are very real differences among the candidates and i am sure those will emerge, and there may be for each candidate some differences with my administration overall, and they very much -- we very much share a vision of an economy that

works for everybody and effective pursuit of america's national security through all the tools that are available to us. i was very impressed with all of them and i know them personally and they are good people. beyond that i think it's up to the american people to decide. so i will have a vote like everybody else as a citizen, and that ballot is private and i don't have to share my views about that right now because i think it's important for the american people to make their own decisions. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]? >> i think the vice president, like every other candidate, makes their own decisions about these issues and they will have to figure out if it makes sense for them. with respect to israel, we are concerned about the outbreak of violence that is initially

centered on jerusalem, but we are always concerned about the spread of violence elsewhere. we condemn in the strongest possible terms violence directed against innocent people, and believe that israel has a right to maintain basic law and order and protect its citizens from knife attacks, and violence on the streets. we also believe that it's important for both, prime minister netanyahu and israeli elected officials and president abbas and other people in positions of power to try to tap down rhetoric that may feed violence or anger or

misunderstanding and try to get all people in israel and in the west bank to recognize that this kind of random violence is not going to result in anything other than more hardship and more insecurity. i don't think that it's -- i don't think we can wait for all of the issues that exists between israelis and palestinians to be settled in order for us to try to tap down the violence right now. i think my views are well known that over time the only way that israel is going to be truly secure, and the only way the

palestinians will be able to meet the aspirations of their people is if they are two states living side by side in peace and security. those talks that secretary kerry put an enormous effort in, and before that a number of our envoys and secretary clinton put enormous effort in have stalled and i think it's going to be up to the parties, and we stand ready to assist to see if they can re-start a more constructive relationship. but in the meantime, right now, you know, everybody needs to focus on making sure that innocent people aren't being killed, and even though you didn't ask me the question i will horn in on the question that you asked president park, because we actually discussed iran and what it could teach us about the situation in north korea. these are both countries that have a long history of

antagonism towards the united states and we are prepared to have a serious conversation with the iranians once they showed they were serious about the possibility of giving up the pursuit of nuclear weapons, and i suspect president park agrees with me here, that at the point where kim jong-un says we are interested in seeing relations and denuclearization, i think it's fair to say we will be right there at the table. even if they made that gesture they would be willing to subject themselves to the kind of rigorous verification regimes that we have set up with iran,

particularly given their past violations of agreements, and that's a separate question. we have not even gotten to that point yet because there is no indication on the part of the north koreans as there was with the iranians in which they could foresee a future in which they were not pursuing nuclear weapons. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]? >> i don't think that's what secretary kerry said. i think what secretary kerry said was that we have to end the violence, that israel has a right to prevent its citizens from being subjected to random violence, that all parties have to lower the rhetoric, that the religious sites so important to three of the world's major

religions inside of jerusalem need to be respected and the status quo that allowed shared worship in and around these spaces needed to be maintained, and then i think as an addition to those statements, what secretary kerry said was that the atmosphere in which there is so much tension and suspension between palestinians and israelis, obviously creates the potential for more misunderstanding and triggers, and that's something that has been true now for decades. if we can make progress there, obviously it's going to help, but, you know, there's not a direct causation here and what we need to make sure of is that we are focusing now on insuring

that innocent people aren't being killed. >> translator: with regard to the iranian agreement and whether it could be applied to the north korean situation, i think that was what the question was about, if you look at the iran negotiations how it was concluded and how you reached an agreement, we saw the united states and the leadership, the u.s. leadership lead the whole process and other countries made efforts, and we had international efforts that came together and made this possible and that's a very important lesson we need to take away from this. if you look at the north korean nuclear problem, we do have international cooperation in that area. we have china and russia that are also vehemently against

north korean nuclear capabilities so we have cooperation there, but the difference there could be something that president obama just said, and i totally agree with him, and what is important here is that you need to have this genuine willingness on the part of north korea that they will give up nuclear capabilities. this might not be a perfect example, but you can take a horse to the trough but can't make it drink water, and that's the saying, and it's the same thing here, north korea has to come to its own conclusion that it is genuinely willing to give up nuclear capabilities and become a full-pledged number of the international society and they need to have that. if they don't have that, and even if we have international concerted efforts we won't see a conclusion to the negotiations or talks like we saw with iran and that's the big difference i see here.

>> who would you like to call on, madam president? they seem capable. >> reporter: the trust process has been improving current relations but despite the efforts north korea has not changed its attitude towards developing nuclear missile capabilities, and the second half of your term in office how do you plan on stirring korean ties? one more, from your visit to china in september we have been seeing you say that you want to see unification of the two koreas. do you think this will be possible during your term in office? i have a question for both of you, finally, in korea they say that you see each other often

and start to grow fond of each other. this is your fourth time meeting and you see each other a lot at multilateral talks, and so i want to ask, you have grown closer? >> let me ask the last answer first, yes, that answer is yes for me. so let me continue with my answers to your question. now the korean trust-building process, basically we have this principle, and we will be very decisively dealing with any provocations and we are leaving the door open for a dialogue and will continue to make efforts entrust, and this is a basic principle and this is a basic underlying foundation of all our north korean policies. in august there was a provocation in the demilitarized

zone and we stuck to the principle and applied it to the situation and we were firmly responding to the situation and as a result we were able to reach the august 25th agreement between the two koreas. so we had this vicious cycle where north korea kept provoking us and we rewarded it and it went on and on and we want to stop this. we are very clear that our north korean policy will not change because north korea continues to provoke and threaten us. the korean government will try to implement the august 25th agreement, and we seek to put into place concrete measures for reconciliation and cooperation for the improved korean ties. in the past, some people -- you might have thought that if you let things some slide, won't you

get along better? but if you look at the results of that attitude, they were not really good. we need a principled approach and this principled approach might make it difficult for the time being, the immediate time being, but that is where improved relationships will actually start, that is my belief. reunification is something that nobody can really predict and in the summit earlier, too, we talked about germany, and how the chancellor said that germany reunification would happen in ten years time and three days later the berlin wall game falling down, so it's really something that is unpredictable, but no matter when it happens for us we need to be prepared. i think that is the most important point for us, so for

any circumstances we need to be prepared and we are making efforts in this regard. now we do have a reunification preparation committee that are look into the practical aspects of the reunification how we prepare for it and it's not just between south and north korea, it affects the greater international community so we need to look at our neighboring countries and we need to create an environment throughout the world where there is a consensus that people agree, yes, reunification is needed and this will be good for the region, for peace and prosperity, and we need to be able to tell our neighbors and the greater world that that reunification is a good thing for the region and the world and will continue to make efforts in this regard as well. >> i was impressed the first time i met with president park and have become more and more impressed with her leadership,

the clarity of her vision, and she has not only been a great partner to us, but i think has helped to continue korea's role in broader affairs, and i think our strong relationship is a reflection of the extraordinary friendship and close relationship between the american people and the korean people. >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. now that your administration said iran clearly violated a security council resolution with the missile test, what are the consequences going to be? would you accept u.s. sanctions against iran, and given the missile test and iran's actions and syria, how concerned are you

that they are being this aggressive before they have gotten billions they are supposed to get under the nuclear deal. russia and the u.s., are they going to be at cross-purposes in syria going forward? if you could, are you disappointed that secretary clinton opposed your trade deal, particularly given that your administration has not released the final draft? president park, you recently appeared in beijing with the leaders of russia and china. what message were you trying to send to the u.s. with that appearance? >> i have to write these down. iran, and what was the second? >> russia and military. >> hillary. >> yeah, got it.

whew! let's see if i can take these in turn. with respect to iran, iran has often violated some of the prohibitions surrounding missile testing, and our position with respect to u.n. resolutions, prohibitions and potential sanctions are unchanged with respect to their missile programs, and this is something i made clear during the debate around the iran nuclear deal, the iran nuclear deal solves a specific problem, which is making sure that they don't possess a nuclear weapon, and it's our best way to do that. it does not fully resolve the wide range of issues where we have a big difference, and so we are going to have to continue to

put pressure on them through the international community and where we have bilateral channels through bilateral channels to indicate to them that there are costs to bad behavior in the region and around the world. but we're not going to do that more effectively if they are also on a separate track pursuing a nuclear weapon. with respect to their actions in syria, as i have said before, they are just doing more of what they have been doing for the last five years as is russia, and it's an indication that their basic premise, their basic theory on how to solve syria has not worked and will not work. i mean, their preference originally was we will simply

send arms and money to assad and he will be able to clamp down on dissent, and when that didn't work they directed hezbollah to come in and prop them up and sent in some of their own military advisers, and that did not work, and now the russians have come in and iran is going to send more people in, but it's also not going to work because they are trying to support a regime that in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the syrian people is not legitimate, and our goal is even as we double down on going after isil is to continue to cultivate relations with a moderate opposition that can serve as a transition to a new government inside of syria and that we continue to have a process of getting the iranians, the

syrians and -- or the iranians and the russians and the turks and the gulf countries and all the interested parties to sit down and recognize we have to have a political transition if we want to end the humanitarian crisis and save the structure of a unified syrian state. with respect to russia, the only understanding that we have arrived at is how do we de-conflict in the event that our planes and their planes might be occupying similar space over syrian skies, so in that sense we have arrived at an understanding and some channels for communications where we will continue to differ is in the basic set of principles and strategies we are pursuing inside of syria.

president putin believes if he continues to do what he has been doing over the last five years, which is to prop up the assad regime, the problem will be solved. our belief is we have to go after isil and violent extremist groups, but the magnet that the civil war there is serving in bringing in foreign fighters and recruiting people to this extremist cause will only go away if we're able to get a political track and a legitimate inclusive government inside of syria, so there's no meeting of the minds in terms of strategy, but my hope is that as we continue to have these conversations and as i suspect russia starts realizing that they are not going to be able to bomb their way to a peaceful

situation inside of syria that we will be able to make progress on that front. with respect to the trade and how hillary views trade, i would have you direct questions to her. i mean, here is a general proposition, guys. during the course of what will be a long campaign, i probably won't be commenting on every single utterance or decision that the various candidates make because i think that natural and proper for candidates to run on their own vision and their own platform, and what is encouraging is the fact that i think everybody on that stage at the debate affirmed what i have said in the past, which is we

agree on 95% of stuff, and on the basic vision of a country that is building out our middle class and making sure that everybody works hard and gets a shot, and that believes immigration strengthens us rather than weakens us, that believes that, you know, people should be treated fairly and equally, and, you know, the vision of the democratic party that i fought for is one that is broadly shared by all the candidates. there are going to be areas where they differ at any given point. i am happy to make the case once again for the trade agreement yourself, and i hope you take the time to read it because what you will see is it meets the promise i made, the most progressive, highest standard

trade agreement that we have ever put forward, that deals with chronic problems like child labor or force labor and is enforceable and makes sure that we are upping our game in the asia pacific, and protects, and makes sure our businesses are treated fairly when they invest in other countries, and that opens up markets. keep in mind, we have some of the lowest tariffs in the world already, so we are already seeing goods and services being sold by other countries here and the countries that are part of the tpp have significantly higher tariffs. for us to get those lowers, just the example of japan, they slap

on, you know, 10, 20, 30, 40% taxes on some of our goods and services, for those to come down and in the case of u.s. manufacturing goods, those tariffs being eliminated completely, that's a big deal. i am sure we will continue this debate as we post the terms of the agreement and congress has a chance to view it. i am confident i will be able to persuade a lot of people once they see the outline of the deal and it's the right thing to do, and as president park indicated, there's a geopolitical reason to do it, we want those that already have high standards, to make everybody else does, too, and it's going to put our workers in a better position so they are not undercut by low wages or forced labor, that their plants don't suddenly shut

down because we have environmental laws that others aren't following. it's the right thing to do. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]? >> i think what we will be doing is we will review, as we have in the past, any violations of u.n. resolutions and we will deal with them much as we have in the past. so what i have been very clear about from the outset is that, although we are eliminating or suspending effectively sanctions related to the nuclear program, subject to snap back if we see violations there, that sanctions that are related to ballistic missiles and human rights violations and terrorism, those we will continue to enforce, and that's not just unilateral sanctions on our part, and our

expectations is there will be continued international sanctions where resolutions are violated. >> translator: that was a very long answer, and i kind of forgot the question that was asked to me. >> this is what happens -- >> translator: oh, yes. i think the question about my visit to beijing and what kind of message that i delivered, now i met with the president in china and also met with the leaders of russia, and north korea's nuclear region, in our region and even the world, it's a very large threat and this is something that we need to make

concerted efforts to resolve, and i had dialogue on that topic with them and we also talk about the security threat and also the north korea nuclear issue from the standpoint that from the korean peninsula, and we all want to grow together and there are so many possibilities there and right in the middle of blocking our way is north korea, and because of that the growth potential of whole asia and europe is being damaged a lot, and that's the message i had for the leaders that i met in beijing, and they agreed with me in terms of my remarks with north korea's nuclear problems and we all agreed we needed to make efforts to resolve this issue.

>> translator: first, i have a question for president obama. within the united states, with regard to the korea-u.s. alliance, there are some people that are concerned there are cracks. what do you see? and this situation, president park has visited the united states. what is the significance of her visit? i also have a question for president park. now, through this visit, you have said that you would like to open new frontiers of cooperation and i would like to hear details on that, please. >> actually, i don't see any cracks in the relationship at all. i would argue that the u.s. relationship is stronger than it ever has been, that the alliance is on firmer footing that it has ever been. across the spectrum of issues,

military, economic, people to people, scientific development, global issues, that we have excellent relations with the government, and our communications is strong, and our vision of a continued robust alliance that can deal with any contingency is not just given lip service to, but we invest in it on an ongoing basis, and our vision of what we need to do to see improved relations with the dprk. we have similar outlooks. so i actually feel very good about where the relationship between the united states and korea are. i think what is interesting, and this might connect to the

earlier question that carol had, sometimes there's a perception that if president park meets with president she that causes a problem for us, and that president was in this room meeting my food and we were toasting and having a lengthy conversation. we want south korea could have a strong relationship with china, just as we want to have a strong relationship with china. we want to see china's peaceful rise. we want them to be cooperating with us inputting pressure on the dprk. we want to be working with them to uphold international norms and rules of the road, so no contradiction with the republican of korea having good relations with us and good relations with china.

as i communicated to president park, the only thing we will continue to insist on is that we want china to abide by international norms and rules and where they fail to do so we expect the republic of korea to speak out on that just as we do, because we think that both of our countries have benefitted from the international norms and rules that have been in place since the end of world war ii, and we don't want to see those rules of the road weakening, or some countries taking advantage because they're larger. that's not good for everybody, including south korea. obviously given the size of china right there on your doorstep, if they are able to

act with impunity and ignore rules whenever they please, that's not going to be good for you, whether that's on economic issues or security issues, so again, i think there we have a shared interest, and my hope is that as a consequence to the outreach that president park has done, the outreach we do, the interactions that we have with japan and resolving some of the historical challenges that exists there, that we can create in northeast asia the kind of cooperative forward-looking relationship among all countries that will be good for our children and grandchildren. >> translator: with the united states, we are looking to open

new frontiers and cooperation, new horizons for cooperation as well. we're looking at climate change, infectious diseases, and space exploration. those are some of the topics we talked about, and these are global issues, too, and in order to effectively respond with regard to the issues we need a close cooperation between korea and the united states. these issues needs our attention in terms of cutting technologies and new industries we need to develop and only then can we approach these issues and resolve them effectively, and in that respect i think that we need to engage in cooperation to maybe jointly develop technology in both areas, for example, we could have joint projects in smart grids or clean energy projects, and in the aerospace, we have agreed