[John Vause, Cnn Correspondent:] OK, let's get to the North Korean nuclear crisis. The rhetoric heats up. Pyongyang now says there is danger of nuclear war, even as Washington says it's now ready to talk. Let's get more from Seoul, South Korea and our Rebecca MacKinnon, who's there for us Rebecca, what can you tell us?
[Rebecca Mackinnon, Cnn Correspondent:] Hello, John. Well, the messages coming out of North Korea continue to be those of pride and defiance. As it so happens, yesterday was the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which is the official name for North Korea, and a huge rally was staged in Pyongyang with 100,000 people. Now, in this rally there were all kinds of slogans calling on a great victory for the country this year and describing North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, as a godlike leader. Now, North Korea's rhetoric continues to be quite defiant towards the United States. The state run news agency today coming out and accusing the United States of using the nuclear issue of part of its strategy to dominate the world. So North Korea continuing to be very defiant towards the United States despite its offer of talks. Now, here in South Korea there was another demonstration, this time in favor of the United States, outside a U.S. Air Force base. Several hundred protesters, many of them veterans of the Korean War, expressing their support for the presence of U.S. troops here in South Korea, saying it's necessary to protect South Korea from the North and condemning North Korea for its nuclear program and for creating tensions on the peninsula. Now, this is in contrast to other protests that have occurred in the past several weeks with generally much younger people protesting against the U.S. troop presence here and protests that have been quite critical of the United States. So this demonstration today showing that there are citizens here in South Korea who do still support the U.S. troop presence. Now, the United States, for its part, has been continuing its dialogue in Washington with South Korean and Japanese delegates who have been meeting there. And that U.S. has said it is willing to talk to North Korea. CNN spoke to the U.S. ambassador to South Korea earlier today and in his interview, Ambassador Thomas C. Hubbard elaborated further on the U.S. policy.
[Thomas C. Hubbard, U.s. Ambassador To South Korea:] We're, of course, not prepared to negotiate, we're not prepared to provide quid pro quos for North Korea once again complying with obligations that they had for some time. But certainly we're willing to talk to North Korea and that is a standing offer.
[Mackinnon:] Now, diplomatic efforts to coordinate policy and strategy toward North Korea will be continuing over the coming week or so. Later in this week, a South Korean presidential envoy is in Washington meeting with the officials in the White House and the U.S. is sending the assistant secretary of state, James Kelly, here to speak with South Korean leaders at the beginning of this week John.
[Vause:] OK, Rebecca. One thing of note, that demonstration, that pro-American demonstration is something which has not been seen on the streets of Korea for quite some time. Rebecca MacKinnon reporting for us there from Seoul. Thank you for that this morning, Rebecca. Well, in our next hour we'll wake up Andrea Koppel, our State Department correspondent. We'll ask her about talks among the U.S., Japan and South Korea, about all of this. That's about an hour from now. She'll be getting a call. And you, too, can keep up with the North Korean nuclear controversy on our Web site. Just click onto cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.