CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And on to the nuclear stand-off with North Korea now. The White House says it is willing to have those face to face talks with North Korea over its nuclear program. U.S. officials are huddling with South Korean and Japanese diplomats over the crisis and there is word from Seoul this morning on possibly reopening dialogue between North and South Korea. CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon has more.</s>REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: South Korean officials have confirmed a North Korean proposal to hold high level talks here in Seoul from the 21st to the 24th of this month. This will be part of an ongoing series of high level meetings between North and South Korea, as part of the reconciliation process, part of the sunshine policy for dialogue with North Korea under President Kim Dae-jung, who will be leaving office in February. Now, of course, at this meeting, the South Korean side does intend to bring up the U.S.' latest proposal for dialogue with North Korea, hoping for some kind of positive response. So far, there has been no response from North Korea on that proposal. North Korean Radio on Wednesday repeated Pyongyang's call for a non-aggression treaty. The radio broadcast said, "The Bush administration talks about peacefully resolving the nuclear issue, but its stance is contradictory because it rejects dialogue and says it won't give us a legal guarantee against military attack." Meanwhile, South Korea is hoping that it will be able to broker a solution before Kim Dae-jung, the current president, leaves office in late February and the new president elect, Roh Moo-hyun, takes office. Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Seoul.</s>COSTELLO: And about an hour from now, we'll wake up State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel. She'll tell us what her sources are telling her about the North Korean nuclear showdown. Korea Over Nuclear Program>
White House Says It's Willing to Have Talks With North Korea Over Nuclear Program