Can you provide context for the scene?
In a flashback, the Americans discover a strange object that is soon revealed to be a strategic nuclear submarine, scheduled to be completed by the North Korean leader's birthday.
This shocks the US military and government officials, who initially believed the vessel to be a "3,000-ton piece of junk." They go so far as to plan a preemptive tactical nuclear strike on North Korea's nuclear facilities, despite the risk of escalating into all-out war.
The US Deputy Secretary of State (played by John Cho), a Korean-American, objects to this, and is quickly taken off the agenda, so he secretly sends satellite photos of the ship back to South Korea along with a letter to a contact in South Korea in hopes of preventing war... sort of.