PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the stand-off with North Korea. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly is continuing his talks to defuse the crisis with Pyongyang. Tom Mintier is standing by in Seoul, South Korea following all those developments. He joins us right now -- good morning, Tom.</s>TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Mr. Kelly has left Beijing on his way to Singapore. He will be back in the region visiting Indonesia, then Japan and then possibly back here to stock, as well. Before he left Beijing he did meet with reporters and said don't expect any sudden miracles with the Korean crisis.</s>JAMES KELLY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The Korean Peninsula needs to be free of nuclear weapons. That's something that China, USA, South Korea, Japan, Russia, really, the whole international community agrees on. And it's going to be a slow process to make sure that we achieve this in the right way.</s>MINTIER: While Mr. Kelly was in Beijing, there was diplomacy going on here in South Korea. The president elect, Roh Moo-hyun, was meeting with the Japanese foreign minister. The foreign minister in town, had planned a meeting with the current president, Kim Dae-jung, but that meeting was canceled by South Korea because the Japanese prime minister made a visit to a shrine over the weekend to honor Japanese war dead. At the same time that meeting was going on, South Korea's defense minister was meeting in parliament and telling them that the South Korean military was preparing for worse case scenario, saying that war was inevitable if the United States attacked North Korea militarily. It would surely affect South Korea, as well. So while the talking is going on, there are preparations. Apparently the defense minister trying to get parliament prepared in the eventuality that this goes beyond the talking stage -- Paula.</s>ZAHN: Tom Mintier, thanks so much. Crisis With Pyongyang>
Assistant Secretary of State Continuing Talks to Defuse Crisis With Pyongyang