0 watching here in the united states, canada and all around the world. live in atlanta. ahead on "newsroom" the focus on on security in asia. president biden is visiting seoul. we're expecting a news conference following the talks with the south korea president. russia shows no sign of slowing down its relentless and destructive campaign. right now we're waiting to hear from the u.s. president and his south korea counter part. following the two leaders meeting in seoul. it comes on the second day of joe biden's first trip to asia as commander in chief. earlier he participated in an wreath laying ceremony at the south korea national cemetery. where he paid respects to the koreans who died protecting their country. biden is now the korean ministry of national defense for talks with the president. high on the agenda the nuclear provocations by pyongyang. saying the alliance with south korea is essential to stability on the world stage. here it is. >> for decades our lives have been a lynch pin for regional peace and prosperity. and today our cooperation is essential. to preserve the stability and global stage as well. >> joining us live from seoul. let's begin with you, kevin. president biden had the meetings in the brief comments so far, they highlighted security. and economic cooperation. >> yeah, that's exactly right. they met behind closed doors. for several hours including a lengthily one on one meeting before they went into the meeting we just saw with their aids. president biden staying that this visit to south korea would take cooperation between the countries to new heights. and said that cooperation was essential to preserving stability on the global stage. you get flavor for what they talked about behind the scenes with what the president was saying there in public. what the president is really trying to do in these talks is cultivate a new partner in asia. president unjust come into office. president biden sees this as opportunity to really advance the critical alliance beyond focusing just on north korea. which has been the case in the past. president biden wants to really expand it in something better. a trade alliance, economic alliance. he wants to position south korea as a more of a player in the indo pacific on security issues aside from north korea. that's kind of what we expected them to be talking about in this behind the scenes meeting. one of the others things the president was hoping to do is kind of cultivate an interpersonal information with the president. this is the first time they have been able to meet face to face and really talk issues on substance. president biden is really someone who places a premium on the relationships. it's essential when you are governing and the leader of the free world. you go around the world and try to meet the people and develop some chemistry with them. they do have certain commonalities. that's something you can expect the president did in that long one on one meeting. of course the issue of north korea even though the president wants to move the relationship beyond just that, it is still a major component of the talks. and the threat of a nuclear test or missile test is still looming over things here. that hasn't happened yet. but the president aid sort of are still on high alert for that to occur. another meeting did end a little while ago and waiting on the two men to come out and speak. >> absolutely. now i want to build on what he was just saying there. they don't want to just focus on north korea. but it's still a huge issue that hangs over them. i want to ask about how south korea's new president will handle the north differently. do you think the predecessor? >> we'll see a very different policy. we are already seeing a different policy to the predecessor. the former president was very much proengagement with north korea. really staked his legacy on trying to get to summits and talks between the u.s. and north korea. little came out of it in the end. certainly that was his focus. it's not the same case with this new president. baring in mind he was only inaugurated eleven days ago. we're still learning exactly what the policies will be. there's no doubt he's more hawkish when it dom comes to north career korea. reheard it during the campaign and now. if the conditions were right he said he could meet and talk with kim jong un. he hasn't ruled that out. we have heard from both the u.s. and south korea side they are willing to help north korea when it comes to the covid out break. they announced a week ago. now obviously it's very difficult to get accurate information from north korea. they are saying they have about 2 and a half million fever cases as they call them. they don't have the taste testing capability to say definitely it is covid. we're hearing from knot korea they believe things are getting under control and manageable now. clearly a week into a omicron covid out break things are not more manageable. so, this is the tap that north korea is taking. we have seen another meeting from the north korea leader yesterday. but of course the fact that north -- south korea and the u.s. both offering through their presidents aid and assistance to north korea is very unlikely north korea would accept it. that means kim jong un would have to admit to his people he's unable to give them what he needs and has to go to countries he declared to be enemies in order to get that help. but we'll and have already seen a different response to north korea from the president. even though he's saying that the door is open to dialogue, if north korea reaches certain conditions or if it looks as though it's on the way to denuclearization, which few experts believe it will be. otherwise, it does appear he will have a more hawkish approach. he's very much in favor of boosting the defenses of south korea and of course doing that with the help of the united states. to his point as well, talking about president biden wanting this to be more than a security alliance, that's exactly what we heard from south korea president while he was a contract in the presidential election. saying he wanted more from this relationship. he wanted trade, he wanted economic partnership. not just a military partner. >> staying with you, china obviously a huge issue for both biden and yun. china isn't staying silent. beijing complained the rhetoric was ramping up and now a different type of response. china now launching its own military drills. what message are they sending? >> we have seen from china -- it speaks for itself that they're not really necessarily needing to give a direct message from beijing. the fact they're carrying out military drills, they believe that much of the south china sea is territorially owned by china. which international law and many countries around the world disagree with. the fact is, from south korea and the united states point of view, they appear these two presidents to be at the same mind. when it comes to beijing. at this point. previous south korea presidents have always had to fairly delicate line and tight rope walk between the u.s. and china. there's always been in the background a sort of pressure to choose if you'd like. south korea is an ally of the united states. but china is one of the biggest trading partners of south korea. so it is a difficult position south korea has been in before. during the campaign, and i keep referring to the campaign because he's been in power 11 days. during the campaign he specified he wanted to be closer to the u.s. and that was read by default he would be harder on china. or at least less willing to go along with china. we simply have to wait and see if that's what he'll do. >> all right. in seoul, thank you very much. we'll come back to you as soon as the two leaders speak. we're expecting that any minute. all right. turning to ukraine. the situation at the steel plant in mariupol. russia claims 530 of those soldiers surrendered on friday. after the ukrainian commander ordered his fighters to stop defending the city. cnn can't confirm if all ukrainians have left the massive industrial site. we have more from cnn. >> reporter: the latest picture -- a soldier with the who helped the world to see the steel plant in mariupol. posting -- that's it, thank you for the shelter. the place of my death and my life. a steady stream of injured defenders has been leaving the last few days. russian forces and their allies in the militia surrounding the plant. >> nationalists are actively surrendering. 1,900 people laid down their arms. >> the injured taken to hospital. the evacuees now prisoners of war. in the self-declared people's republic. >> some of their families finally beginning to hear news from their loved ones. >> so my husband two days ago. the situation is really hard and horrible. my husband is on the way from one hell to another hell. >> russia promised to treat the fighters according to to international law. but said nothing about any exchange of prisoners of war. according to ukrainian officials, negotiations are difficult. after weeks of bombardment, the place that symbolized ukraine's resistance seems at last to be quiet. >> rush just made good on the threat to halt natural gas to finland. vladimir putin regime wants all payments from quote unfriendly countries be made in russian rubles or risk having supply cut off. they rejected the demand. moscow already shut off supply to poland after they refused to pay in the rulssian currency. they will look at other sources. and will be no disruption. the announcement came just days after finland and sweden formally applied to join nato. ukrainian judge could hand down a verdict on monday in the first war crimes trial of a russian soldier since the war on ukraine began. 21-year-old tank commander pleaded guilty to the fatal shooting which happened in ukraine on the fourth day of the war. he testified he didn't want to kill an unarmed civilian and only did so under direct orders. his lawyers say the court should blame russia's leadership instead. >> the leadership of the russian federation is to blame for this war. not this boy. he was trying to save his own life. especially from a threat that came from the fellow servicemen. >> he told the man's widow he was sorry for killing her husband. prosecutors ask he receive a life sentence. australias going to the polls today and soon one of the two men will know whether they will be the prime minister for the next three years. we'll have a live report after the break. plus a federal judge blocks a plan from the biden administration to end the program on migrant at the border. we'll explore what the white house is saying when we come back. stay with us.