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NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We have kicked the can down the road long enough. There is no more road left.</s>KOSIK: Ambassador Nikki Haley telling the United Nations that North Korea must face strong sanctions as South Korea suggests Pyongyang may test another weapon.</s>BRIGGS: The Trump administration expected to end the immigration program that protects young, undocumented immigrants. Can Congress fix the program that shields Dreamers?</s>KOSIK: And, Hurricane Irma strengthens to category four. Florida and Puerto Rico bracing for impact.</s>BRIGGS: Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. Five thirty-five Eastern Time, 6:35 p.m. in Seoul, South Korea. We'll be live there in a moment.</s>KOSIK: And good morning, I'm Alison Kosik. It's 30 (sic) minutes past the hour here and we begin with North Korea defying international condemnation over its latest, largest nuclear test with signs of more tests to come. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley arguing at an emergency Security Council meeting that the international community must exhaust every last bit of leverage over Pyongyang to avoid a nuclear war.</s>HALEY: The time has come to exhaust all of our diplomatic means before it's too late. We must now adopt the strongest possible measures. Kim Jong Un's action cannot be seen as defensive. His abusive use of missiles and his nuclear threats show that he is begging for war.</s>BRIGGS: Among North Korea's few remaining pressure points that could be targeted with sanctions, oil imports, textile exports, and the regime's other sources of foreign currency. Pyongyang slamming the U.S. via state media, bragging it will use its quote "nuclear strategic weapons to eradicate the land of the U.S. with no trace left on earth."</s>KOSIK: All of this as South Korea says it has spotted continuous signs the North is preparing another ICBM test. CNN's Ian Lee joins us live from South Korea where that country has been conducting exercises off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula. Good morning to you, Ian. Do you see any reaction from the North about these exercises from the South?</s>IAN LEE, CNN REPORTER: Well, North Korea has come out time after time again with these threats against the United States and against South Korea when these live-fire exercises take place. This latest one, the South Korean Navy having a live-fire exercise off the country's east coast. We've also seen the Army, the Air Force -- really, the whole -- the whole breadth of the South Korean military showing that they're ready in the event of a war. And this is also coming as we're tracking developments in North Korea. South Korea's National Intelligence Service saying that they're tracking a projectile they believe could be an intercontinental ballistic missile on the move, and this is significant after Sunday's developments with North Korea saying that they can put a nuclear weapon on top of an ICBM. They also had that nuclear test, that hydrogen bomb, which they said could go on top of an ICBM. Also, President Moon had a conversation with President Trump last night. In it, they discussed continuing the military cooperation between the two countries. President Moon also brought up South Korea's own ballistic missile program, talking about how they want to lift the limit of the payload that their missiles can carry. Also, they talked about purchasing billions of dollars' worth of U.S. weapons and equipment -- Alison.</s>KOSIK: And this coming with the backdrop of very strong words from North Korean state media saying that North Korea will blow up the U.S. mainland and annihilate Americans. Very disturbing. CNN's Ian Lee, thanks very much.</s>BRIGGS: More, North Korea has evolved from a regional menace to a global threat. Some strong words from Yukiya Amano. He's the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. He called Sunday's test of what Pyongyang claims was a hydrogen bomb a new dimension of threat. For more on the diplomatic efforts to cool tensions on the Peninsula let's bring in CNN's Nic Robertson live from the IAEA in Vienna, Austria. Nic, tell us what the head of IAEA agency told you.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Dave, what I really wanted to understand from him -- from his perspective, his expertise -- everything that he knows is, effectively, North Korea in a position now of having a nuclear weapon system that can threaten the world, as they say they can. His view on this was we can't say that for sure. But what he said we do know is that when North Korea says it's going to do something it generally follows through. And his assessment of this massive test of the weekend -- of the tests -- of the nuclear tests in recent years shows that North Korea is making rapid progress -- those were his words -- rapid progress towards this goal and, therefore, they've shifted from that regional to a global threat. This is how he put it.</s>YUKIYA AMANO, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: I think North Korea -- a North Korean threat is a global one now. In the past, we believed that is a regional issue. It is no longer the case. Everyone is aware that this is a global threat.</s>ROBERTSON: So, the IAEA's hands are really tied until there is some kind of international diplomatic agreement and Amano says he's trying to get inspectors ready to go if that happens. But where do we stand for diplomatic agreement? Well, the United States could not be further apart from China and Russia at the moment. The principal players are going to be required to get a U.N. Security Council resolution to stick because it's going to be China who is going to be the principal player that would have to enforce an oil ban, for example -- oil being exported into North Korea and textiles being exported back from North Korea out to the rest of world, principally through China. So having China onboard is key. And right now, China and Russia are saying there should be a freeze- freeze scenario which is an anathema to the United States and much of the rest of the world. This is not a situation of equals here -- of reciprocity between --</s>BRIGGS: Right.</s>ROBERTSON: -- North Korea's nuclear weapons systems and what South Korea and the United States is doing in response to that. So, diplomatically, a long way to go.</s>BRIGGS: Vladimir Putin adding that he thinks further sanctions are useless and ineffective. Nic Robertson live for us in Vienna. Thank you. Later today, the Trump administration expected to announce a program protecting young, undocumented immigrants will end. They will offer Congress a short window to come up with a fix here. Can they possibly pull it off? We'll ask Chris Deaton of the "Weekly Standard," next.