ABC wrote:
Clapper, she explained, had been “working throughout the day on important intelligence matters, including monitoring military and political developments on the Korean Peninsula, providing answers to questions concerning the ratification of the START nuclear treaty, and other classified issues. He wasn't immediately briefed on London because it didn't appear to have a homeland nexus and there was no immediate action by the DNI required. Nevertheless, he should have been briefed on the arrests, and steps have been taken to ensure that he is in the future. The intelligence community as a whole was fully aware of this development and tracking it closely.â€
Asked about Clapper not having been briefed on the arrests, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said "Jim Clapper is, I think, the consummate DNI. He was working on developments in the Korean Peninsula, in terms of political/military developments. He was focused on trying to provide support to the Congress as far as the START treaty deliberations were concerned. He was engaged in a variety of classified matters."
Brennan continued: "Should he have been briefed by his staff on those arrests? Yes. And I know there was breathless attention by the media about these arrests, and it was constantly on the news networks. I'm glad that Jim Clapper is not sitting in front of the TV 24 hours a day and monitoring what's coming out of the media. What he is doing is focusing on those intelligence issues that the president expects him to focus on and to make sure that we don't have conflict in different parts of the world."
Source.
Should he have known? Yes. Was it his fault that he didn't? No. Is it a huge problem? No. Was he busy doing all the other sh*t he has to deal with? Probably. Do I consider Korea the bigger issue? Hell yes. Does it worry me that he didn't know? Not at all.
For all you know, he was scheduled to be completely briefed just after that interview. If the US was still investigating, there's really no SPECIFIC reason he needs to know about it. It didn't happen on our soil, it isn't in our jurisdiction and there were no deaths involved.
Actually, considering the WEALTH of other, more important topics, it's stupid that the 12 arrests were even part of that interview. I would much rather know about the highly shifting political landscape we have with two nations. You know, stuff that's actually important to us.