it's a great day in south carolina. >> joining us now, the governor of the great state of south carolinang, governor. >> good morning, it's a great day in south carolina. >> the republican governor of the fine state with us right now. governor nikki haley. governor, good to see you. do you have any horses in this race? >> hi, neil. first of all, it's a great day in south carolina. >> noticing a pattern? it is not just a personal crusade that the governor is on there. she actually makes people in south carolina say that. by her order. seriously. >> whenever someone calls your department, we need to say, "it's a great day in south carolina, how can i help you?" every person. not just the main line.ç every single person that is called. "it's a great day in south carolina. how can i help you?" >> by order of the governor. today two south carolina legislators filed legislation saying, oh, please top it. saying that nobody should be forced to answer the phone with governor's mandating cheery greeting, quote, unless is really is a great day in south carolina. this has a trigger. no state agenc

the south korean president is asking the south koreans on to continue with their daily life, while thenment in seoul has raised the military alert to the second level of three levels as well as placing all government workers on an emergency footing. south korea continues to monitor the north, but according to wire reports they say there is no evidence of increased north korean military activity in the light of kim jong il's death. calling for calm too is china. a close ally of north korea. they too will be keeping a very close eye on the situation inside north korea. fearful of any implosion of the regime which is obviously still a wild card if you like it, at this statement. fierce speculation, it does seem to be business as usual while they plan the funeral for kim jong il and while they plan to hand over the power to kim jong il's youngest son, kim jong un. let's go to stan grant, he's live for us once again. for china, and beijing, a period of calm and trying to keep the situation normal in these unusual times will be of paramount. >> yes, a lot at stake here. let's look at what ch

you were born in south dakota. >> born in south dakota. >> stephen: grew up in arizona. >> grew up in phoenix, yeah. >> stephen: what's a guy in south dakota and arizona doing ballet? why aren't you doing the boot-scooting lie dance and eating a chili dog? >> first i saw fred astaire on tv. he was my main inspiration. i was obsessed with him and what he did. he was unbelievably on the silver screen, secondly, as an artist, there is this calling that everyone speak up when you have... when you love what you do, and for me that is dance. as an artist i had this natural calling. i was never pushed in ballet, forced to be in ballet. it was my own dedication, my own obsession really. and that's true even to today. >> let's talk about dance and obsession. i saw that movie the "black swan." did you see that movie? >> of course. >> stephen: is that true? are all you guys crazy? do you have visions you have feathers coming out of your body all the time? >> if the movie got anything right, it's the fact that we are crazy and dedicated for our art form. >> stephen: also in that movie they are li

they had the criticism in south korea. this young man is inexperienced he didn't have years to be groomed for the job. he did have a military background. the north korean military ran the place for generations. they have to do something to show he's up for the job. my guess is he might precipitate a crisis. >> along those lines geraldo this is just crossing now the associated press wires. the south korean military is declaring an emergency alert following the death of kim jong-il. this is right along the lines of what you and casey are talking about a reaction in south korea. >> i think it is likely as tensions will escalate particularly as the heir apparent tries to solidify his position with the military or some of the people in the military the general decides they don't need this young man to run things. >>> general buchanan hz exercises with the south korean. how problematic is the death of this dictator general do you believe? >> certainly as greg mentioned a couple minutes ago, it's a series of opportunities that ca

that's according to south korean, a south korean news organization. this is a live picture and that's all, am i correct, that the north korean television is showing. they just have a picture up of kim jong-il. they say that the veteran leader died at about 8:30 a.m. on december 17th and that the announcement was made by a weeping announcer on television. but this is all north korean television is showing is just a picture of the supreme leader kim jong-il. so there are news organizations there that are reporting that kim jong-il has died. our international wing of cnn working on information. we will get more to you within this broadcast. but again, this is what's being reported. north korean leader kim jong-il has died. cnn checking to verify all of that information. make sure you stay with us. >>> we want to go to the philippines where the death toll is rising rapidly from a devastating tropical storm that engulfed the islands this weekend. more than 650 people are now confirmed dead. at least 125,000 people have been displaced or otherwise impacted.

south korea or anything related to that. however, this once again leads to the uncertainty and that's what the situation is, wolf, it is uncertain. china stressing once again the need for stability in the region. this is the key relationship. china and north korea described in the past as close as lips and teeth. a relationship forged on the battlefield when chinese fighters fought alongside north koreans in the korean war. china seemed to exert the most influence over north korea, bringing north korea to the negotiating table with the six-party nuclear talks. but remember, china has influence but it does not control north korea. north korea has caused strains in that relationship before, particularly with the nuclear tests in 2006, 2009. china concerned about its own border. there are a lot of people who fled across that border. around 30,000 refugees. here at the moment china very concerned that any implosion in north korea could see more of those people heading for the border. now kim jong eun has been brought here in the

troops helped defend the south while chinese forces backed the south.lmost 3 million people lost their lives. the two nations remain technically at war. they've agreed to a truce but not a treaty the dmz, the demilitarized zone around border remains one of the most heavily guarded in the world. south korea, much of the regionen is concerned about what might come next in north korea's leadership. we asked hon sung ju about that. >> i was the foreign minister when his father, kim il-sung died in 1994. and we had then and i'm sure right now, we had plans to military ready for unforeseen provocations or events and also we had to see what's going on. the very important part of the preparation would be to have very close consultation with other countries, particularly allies, the united states, japan, china, russia and so on. >> and so what do you think is happening inside pyongyang right now? >> well, pyongyang took two days to announce the deaths of kim jong-il and also announced make-up of what they call the funeral committee, which consists of 232 members

though the population of south korea is more than twice as large, the gdp of south korea is i don't know how many times as large, but the south is still worried, given the proximity of the capital of the south to the dmz, of seoul to the dmz, and again, the fact that the north has thousands and thousands and thousands of artillery tubes, has the nuclear weapons and has an entire country that's potentially mobilized. >> richard haass, who clearly does not have caller i.d., because he took our call this morning. thanks very much, richard. we always appreciate your insight. >> any time. >> what does the news out of north korea mean for global markets? cnbc's jeff cutmore is live in london. >> hey, good morning to you. the instant reaction in asia was to sell and sell hard. by the close, the south korean market was down 3.4%, so it came off its lows. the other great market that was affected, of course, was the japanese market, but it only fell 1.25%, which really wasn't a great deal, given how nervous initially investors seem to be. come to europe, we're in the european trading day, and we'r

a year ago i was on the south korean island that was hit by the rockets in south korea. >> come aroundd get the sun. >> we thought some of the aggressive activity could have been atrib dtribute to do the s trying to flex his muscles in an ancillary way but to show that he is also a strong man. we have seen the nuclear bomb test. we have seen the rocket test. this is the aggressive behavior of the father some of the aggressive behavior we have seen in the past year to some degree attributes to the son trying to get his own combat legs on more or less. that is what most will be concerned about right now. >> do we have ambassador? we have david hunt. kourm david hunt served in south korea one of our finest military analysts. counsel hunt welcome aboard. what say you about these events? >> this is the problem we have with north korea. it is blocked off to us. we don't have very good intelligence even from the south koreans. the country is extremely unstable. now we have to turn a lot of efforts to find out what exactly is going on what will happen after this event. we are very blind when i

south africa, the epidemic in south africa is the worst than any other country in the world. number of premature deaths caused by hiv/aids increased from 39% to 75%. we are only 1% of the population. we are 17% of people living with aids and hiv in the world. so, you start hearing things like that and, like obviously i'm south african so it made sense to me. i think if i wasn't a south african and heard those numbers -- >> what is the main reason it is so bad in south africa and what can be done? >> i think it's a lack of education. i really believe that. this program made me aware of that. we take for granted people knowing how to prevent hiv and aids. there's a lot of money pouring into immediate care for people who are positive. i think it's very important. we have a real problem with governments and dnaors not dealing with preventive care. to end this vicious cycle, we have to seriously start looking at prevention care. it's all about education. when we launched the program in 2007, we started the sex educational part of it. you know, culturally it's not accepted to talk

the south seemed to be bearing fruit. but kim jong-il pressed ahead with his nuclear weapons program. it was labeled the axis of evil in 2002. in 2006, the north conducted a nuclear test and test-fired missiles. it added extra urgency to the party talks designed to deal with north korea's nuclear program. a breakthrough came in 2007 when kim jong-il finally agreed to disable the nuclear reactor in return for fuel and better relations with the u.s., but despite dramatically blowing up the cooling tower, north korea seemed to back track, the deal seemed to be in jeopardy. the capture of two u.s. journalists on the north korean border sparked another crisis in 2009. it ended when former president bill clinton flew in and successfully negotiated their release, prompting hopes there would be further engagement. observers say kim jong-il will be remembered as a nearly impossible man to bargain with, stubborn and fickle in easy measure, a man who kept people in a totalitarian nightmare, in one of the most reclusive regimes in th

the south korean military requested the u.s. military stationed in the country to step up the monitoring of developments in the north. inter-korean relations were badly strained last year after north korea allegedly sank a south korean naval vessel and shelled a south korean island. but the two sides resumed contact this year, which included high-level talks on the nuclear issue in the autumn. but the news of kim's death is likely to slow down dialogues to rebuild trust between the two countries. experts in south korea say the possibility of sudden political unrest in the north is slim. but the south korean government plans to closely watch the impact of kim's death which came as the north tries to consolidate the power of his son, kim jong un. >> thanks, anna. >>> next we go to beijing, where our kango komodo has spent the day gathering reaction. >> reporter: the north korean embassy in beijing has beijing has its flag at half staff. the north koreans going in and out of the embassy said they couldn't believe kim jong il was de

especially since the sinking of a south korean ship and the shelling of a south korean island last year. kim's death puts the lee administration on alert. but also showed it's ability to be flexible. earlier this week, the government announced it will not send an official condolence delegation to north korea. but it's not stopping private organizations and civilians from reaching out. south korea did not permit official visits or expressions of condolence when kim jong il's father and predecessor, kim il sung died 17 years ago. professor koyu fun of south korean university says they see kim's death as a chance to reestablish inter-korean relations. >> translator: as his term for president approaches its end, he doesn't want to be remembered as making the north/south relationship worse than ever. >> the professor also says the way china and the united states deal with north korea will affect south korean policy. >> translator: while those countries are trying to increase their influence on north korea during this transition of power, it is possible that the lee government might be left b

it wasn't facing towards south korea. so at the moment, suzanne, they are playing down that act. >> all right. anna, thank you so much right there in south korea. >>> for much of the world the big concern right now, who controls north korea's nuclear arsenal? cnn's former senior asia correspondent is joining us by phone from los angeles. he is a senior fellow at the university of southern california's u.s./china institute. 's written a book called "meltdown, the inside story of the north korean nuclear crisis." thanks for joining us. you're clearly an expert in all things north korea. the you number one concern regarding this nuclear weapons nation, do we think they are secured nukes? >> i think they are secure. the leadership keeps a very tight rein. the question is who's in the leadership now? obviously the north koreans have made it clear that kim jong un, kim jong il's son, is the designated heir, and the way the succession process is played out, the military and the ruling korean workers party appear to have been goi

. >> reports of an earthquake which has hit new zealand's south island. the reported magnitude is 5.9, and it is near christchurch. north korea says it will accept all south korean delegations wishing to express condolences. >> the prime minister accused of creating a political crisis in iraq after bombs across baghdad kill nearly 70 people. the u.n. appeals for more money to help those harmed in a typhoon washing the southern philippines. >> it is 10:00 a.m. in singapore. >> it is 2:00 a.m. in london. this is "newsday." >> as we go to air this hour, more reports of an earthquake in new zealand. the u.s. geological survey says an earthquake of 5.9 magnitude struck near the city of christchurch on the south island. there are no immediate reports of damage or casualties. this comes 10 months after a 6.3 earthquake hit the city, killing 180 people. i am joined by phone by a resident of christchurch. can you tell us your experience of this earthquake? >> i was entering a suburban street, getting back into my car, when the earthquake hit. there was violent roc

the old south that it is sometimes called to the black south and the deep south, georgia, alabama, simply, louisiana. the mississippi river. third great migration been the movement of black people of the deal itself from the south lewises of the north in the town sued century. there the total is over 6 million. of course our fourth migration, which is just beginning since 1965, that is the change of our immigration laws which have brought people of african descent, africans and people of african descent from all over the world to the united states. >> host: if we could cover the second migration, the internal migration, why did that occur? >> guest: it begins mostly after the war of 1812 and is, of course toward the civil war. it is driven by the fact of by the industrial revolution and the discovery of cotton in the manufacture of cotton cloth and the creation of this great to monday where we don't have will of homage to los co-stars can but this nice, soft cotton. of course a record the growing of come. the transformation of the southern economy, the american economy from growing tobacc

south korea were harrying out war games and south korea continued and south korea hit. hemdack was krit placed for this ti ever sif. yoo you know something which we haven't talked about since this news broke is king john ill the man. so, as far as history will judge him, how will he he be remembered? >> it is different isn't it. he was almost the son of god. a man who was line iced for his whole. he appeared to be god like and still hold in that way today. his son there was a myth around him. that he was porn on a mountain guided by a star. as you can see the marks in a biblical dirge. he was bone in the soefiate union. he lives the last of think it is on the platform shoes, the balanceroom dancing he saw himself as a film maker. he was set to have kid ym. this own dell ca sighs that he liked and had a fear of flying. a man was seen as exsensitive. but we he have to see him aa man who pass oil to saen, the primary diz is survival. the figure loss he fee is about calling inner to proek tecks mem he was ablg to survive and use the six party ne dpoegss to tee more things o

this complex combines south korean investment and technology with cheap north korean labor. 123 southanies work out of the complex. they mainly manufacture things like clothes, electronics and utensils. 707 south koreans work at the kason complex. they did leave work early today after the news came out. south korea says the north has assured that the facility will remain open and operating normally tomorrow. as for everyday life in north korea, i was very curious about this. i spoke with the director of "daily nk" that covers north korea. he said the monthly wage of a family in north korea is between $3.00 to $20 per month, and there's also something called the informal market where mostly women sell products like appliances, clothes, electronics from china, south korea and japan. it's these women who bring in most of the money to an average household because 80% of workers in government-run factories and facilities actually don't even get paid. it's very clear it's a difficult life in north korea and very much an economy that has a long way to go. >> we also talked about the isolatio

>> because south carolina is -- it's not a great day in south carolina when we have families who areople who are unemployed. we have sick people in south carolina who do not have health care. we have kids who are going to schools where there is no heat or no air conditioning in the schools and government is not trying to fix these things. and so until we get those issues fixed in south carolina -- >> have you introduced bills to address that? >> yes. we are introducing bills that will address that and as well as through this bill we will be adding amendments that will address theseç concerns that concern south carolinians all over the state of south carolina. >> well, from the governor's office we have this quote, while we have challenges, we are making great progress every day. the focus of the greet something to have state ep pleas pass along a positive attitude. is there something you find wrong with that and also what would you change the greeting to be? >> first of all, the people who are at the forefront of this are the employees of the state of south carolina who are answerin

and south korea. mainly because of kim jong il sea son, who is said to be this control of the isolated north korea. >> i don't know what happened next. >> reporter: a very unsettled feeling heading back to korea today. it is what he and his friends and family are talking about over breakfast this morning. >> only time may ease the uncertainty among these gentlemen, from the young, old and every generation in between, they are waiting and watching for what happens next. >> i wish peace. no attack. >>> president obama called south korea's leaders to reaffirm the support from the united states. north korea's government has announced a ten day period of national morning mourning. >>> the court martial of army private bradley manning has resumed today. manning is accused of leaking sensitive state and defense department documents to the whistle blowing website wikileaks. an army computer expert testified sunday the search of manning's computers in iraq revealed he downloaded those documents. if found guilt

actually at south korea.ike that at all. at the moment, remain cautious. >> cnn tim schwartz who has been to north korea nearly 20 times. knows the region very well. tim, thank you very much. >>> bring in victor cha, a senior adviser at north korea. thanks for being with us. i'm reading something you published this morning in the "financial times" where you say, i could not think of less ideal conditions in a north korea context under which the so-called great successor could be given the reigns of power. the great successor what the north koreans are calling kim jong-il's son, who may be 27 or 28 years old. victor, why are you so concerned about this? >> well, ali i think largely because, if you ask anybody inside or outside the government and the region what would be the most concerning conditions under which the north korean regime would be existing, it would be, if someone told you the sudden death of the current lead perp that. that's basically the situation we're now in. they've basically been trying to

state department is that the united states undying loyalty and protection of its ally south korea south korea if you think there was a mistake because it seems to me that you know this is a time where everybody and i think we're all kind of in agreement on this program here it's time to kind of stand back and let them take care of their how get their house in order because the last thing they need is a provocation for somebody within the regime to either. upset the transition process or go around it or empower one part of the family over another i mean the last thing that the world should be doing now is saying this is an opportunity they're weak let's take a look at them more closely because this is going to create a great sense of paranoia and there's a lot of paranoia paranoia already there. yeah well that's true and i think the united states was responding to the kind of traditional expectation that north korea would take advantage of an opportunity to split the allies as it has in the past try to either woo south korea at the expense of the united states or with the united states a

south korea is on alert. our correspondent in seoul has more on that. >> reporter: the south will hold a parliamentary committee meeting wednesday to talk about the impact of kim jong-il's death. the director will take part in that meeting. it collects information from the north. they'll discuss about whether the power success to kim jong-il, the son, will be done smoothly 37 they will also analyze if the north korea military will show any signs of provocation against the south. on monday, news that north korea fired short range missiles made the south nervous. seven hours prior to the announcement of kim's death. the south korean defense ministry say the tests have nothing to do with his death as it was scheduled beforehand. but they have put the army, navy, and air force on high alert. they also asked the u.s. military to step up its monitoring activities on the north. south koreans are divided over whether the government should send condolences to the north. lawmakers hold a session on wednesday to deliber

il and his counterpart in the south. it seemed to be bearing fruit. but kim jong il pressed ahead with his nuclear weapons program. the u.s. labelled it part of the axis of evil in 2002, a year later north korea withdrew from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. in 2006, the north conducted a nuclear test and test fired missiles. it added extra urgency to the six-party talks designed to deal with north korea's nuclear program. a breakthrough came in 2007 when kim jong il finally agreed to disable the nuclear reactor. in return for fuel and better relations with the u.s. but despite dramatically blowing up the cooling tower, north korea seemed to back track afterwards. the deal appeared to be in jeopardy. the capture of two u.s. journalists, laura ling and euna lee sparked another crisis in 2009. it ended when former president bill clinton flew in and successfully negotiated their release, prompting hopes there would be further engagement. observers say kim jong il will be remembered as a nearly impossible man to bargain

south korea is preventing citizens from going. our correspondent is in the south korean capital, seoul. >> some government officials say they are not changing their stance. they have allowed it tw individual families to go to the north to express their condolences, and that is because they say those families themselves had with currie and condolences for memories of their rigid members of their family. they're saying there may be a small number of officials who have traveled with those families to north korea. apart from that, no other south koreans have been allowed to go. president lee said it was very important they do not waver on this. they said it could cause internal division within south korea. this new statement coming by website based in japan with strong links to the north korean government, this invitation is putting a lot of pressure on the south korean government. >>> staying with south korea, the country's top nuclear envoy has left for china to look for ways to start international the initiations on north korea's n

police standoff in south san jose. bob redell will give us a live report coming.up. >>> and we'll look at the markets on the last few days of 2011 >>> meteorologist christina loren telling us about the weather. >> we don't have to worry about rain. a lot of people are coming to celebrate the new year. across the country it's going to be more mild than what they'll see at times square. we like california for that reason. we have three quarters of a mile of visibility. something we are known for in the bay area. our thick fog. and this morning is one of the days where it's really, really thick all the way down the peninsula. and we'll see the fog drift east over san jose through the morning hours. right now you saw a look at the golden gate bridge socked in with fog. quite the contrary in san jose. this will change. we'll show you changes throughout the "today show." let's take you to the maps and show you where the thickest fog is. check ahead with your carrier or if you're trying to pick somebody up from the airport. w