forced to be displaced by their governments in one nine hundred twenty three. it was very greek and turkish villagers returned to their roots a century later. and reconnect with the past they thought they'd lost forever. the great exchange at this time on al-jazeera. of the problem and the headlines on al-jazeera that you ones who invites chief says syrian government airstrikes on the sea to rebel areas and eastern probably constitute war crimes and must be prosecuted say that other hussein also condemned rebel groups for firing shells into the capital damascus more than one hundred

people have been killed in the east and go figure in the past week the spotlight the un agreeing to a cease fire last saturday saying aha there has more from beirut in neighboring lebanon. the syrian army dropping leaflets over. again trying to encourage civilians to leave the besiege enclave in those leaflets are maps showing what they're calling safe exits in those leaflets as well calls on the rebels to lay down their arms promising an amnesty but no civilians are leaving eastern and there are no security guarantees is what we are told they are telling us that we're worried we cross into government controlled territory and what happens to us a lot of us are wanted by the government simply because we belong or we support the opposition a lot of the people inside are our media activists even civil defense volunteers are considered terrorists by the syrian government so civilians are not believing what the government wants or the pro-government alliance wants is a surrender and this is the aim of this two week bombing campaign to bomb the area

into submission so far the rebels and the people are remaining defiant but this is not to say that suffering is not immense and the biggest question is how long can they enjoy the suffering life is very difficult inside the lack of food the lack of medicine but the government keeping up the pressure on this enclave the united nations saying that there are indications that the government may give them permission to send in aid on sunday for at least one hundred eighty thousand people we have to remember that there are four hundred thousand people according to the u.n. inside so there are indications but no commitment as of yet but definitely if aid does get into on sunday it will help the people who are trapped inside. if you know fastens prime minister poor will be visiting the army headquarters which came under attack on friday at least sixteen people were killed including eight attackers and eighty injured in the capital. the families of those on board malaysia airlines

flight m.h. three hundred seventy have attended a memorial to mark nearly four years since the plane disappeared the malaysian government and the u.s. company have launched a new search for the wreckage and which three seventy disappeared in march two thousand and fourteen as it flew from kuala lumpur to beijing with two hundred thirty nine people on board is thought to have crashed in the indian ocean. now u.s. envoy is on a three day visit to asia to assess the crisis lisa curtis is in charge of south asia at the white house as national security council she arrives during a tough diplomatic situation there are new accusations of myanmar's army bullying and intimidation one hundred refugees near its border with the day she says the u.s. will keep doing what it can other countries to help the ranger. and .

only. those conditions are. there to make sure. they're safe. and.

thank you for watching. since we launched al jazeera english back in two thousand and six our library of

award winning documentaries has been growing year by year so here on rewind we decided to revisit some of the most important of those stories once again today rewinding to two thousand and ten and north korea for the past several months or korea's deteriorating relations with us and the administration of donald trump in particular have threatened to plunge the world into the darkness of a nuclear war earth chris increasing military buildup and testing of missiles now presents an apparent threat to japan and beyond across the pacific as far as the united states president trumps belligerent response and even included the threat of overwhelming military action john yang's rhetoric is equally bellicose and though the regime claims that it needs a nuclear strike capability to deter the threat of u.s. aggression there is history here as well there are north korean still living who have personal experience of american bombing during the korean war nearly seventy years ago back in two thousand and ten people in power travel to north korea to investigate claims that some of those bombs contained not high explosive but

biological weapons insects deliberately infected with deadly diseases it's a claim that the u.s. has always deny but filmmaker tim tate had unique access to this extraordinary story traveling deep inside the country to talk to men who claim to be survivors and attack that american sis never happened his dirty little secrets. almost sixty years ago this peaceful lake was the scene of either a terrible crime. or a cynical hoax. each of these over is either a witness to the crime or a participant to not. what happened or never happened here in nine. in fifty two is the key to one of the most intractable international disputes today. the

korean war it was the first armed confrontation of the cold war. in one thousand nine hundred six the united states unilaterally divided korea along the thirty eighth parallel. when in one thousand nine hundred fifty north korean forces backed by the army of communist china crossed the border to unify the country america persuaded the united nations to support military action against what washington saw as the global threat of international come to. the fact that calming the furthest have invaded korea is a warning that there may be similar acts of aggression in other parts of the word. over the next three years an estimated two million soldiers died. at least two million civilians were killed or wounded and millions more were made

homeless. but early in one nine hundred fifty two north korea claimed that villages throughout the country were suffering unprecedented outbreaks of bubonic plague anthrax and typhus. it accused the united states of bacteriological warfare dropping germ bombs containing insects shellfish and feathers infected with plague as well as anthrax and color. america angrily denied the claim. to meet just released films lay bare the shocking truth behind communist charges of germ warfare in korea and ever since the germ warfare allegations have been dismissed as communist propaganda from an isolationist rogue state that was broadcast by the communist propaganda machine throughout the world. today north korea is the most impenetrable state on the

planet. yes over the past twenty years professor morey musser taka a leading japanese academic has gradually won the confidence of peon young secretive rulers. a healthy boy i don't condone violence. shows how was i not already saigon orders and president of the us so they must. now mari has persuaded pyongyang to allow our cameras to follow him through his latest visit it is an unprecedented step foreign journalists are routinely banned from entering north korea we will be working under strict control told where and what we can film and accompanied by government officials at all times. yet we will also be taken deep into the heart of this most hidden country to meet men who claim to have witnessed america's use of germ warfare firsthand.

in the center of pyongyang the korean army maintains a vast museum dedicated to documenting its version of the war with america. inside professor morey examines a room given over to watch north korea claims to be direct evidence of germ warfare by the united states including specimen jars filled with flies mosquitoes and fleas all allegedly infected with deadly pathogens is it the has what the disease typhoid cause there are pests like decide heavy disease is injects like a small boy says into the insects and any thoughts inside like disposed and dropped into evidence it's not. according to north korea american pilots dropped specially

adapted bombs these carried no explosives but split open to release the infected insects which would then pass on the diseases to the local population so this is to joan joan long as it is i'd like to speak bombs they put some insects. i mean this thirty four kinds of insects. in a separate projection room mari is given a private screening of what north korea claims is new skill shot in one thousand nine hundred fifty two. the footage appears to show masses of insects crawling on snow covered ground beside the bomb casings a highly unusual phenomenon. and also logic in.

concerti that isn't even any. and all sounds i sent out i didn't notice and. thout there i don't i. j they can i want out of the restlessness but humans from which country would these insects drop by american pilots or placed here by north korean propagandists is this evidence of a war crime or is america claims merely crude propaganda you don't need you want you to meet. him and us must get him so he call it. cairo or cut out if she will kill me i wish to us he show he'll miss things that are serving us sekai no question about the. court orders that the knish you know. or committees and commissions that you know. some of his in a campaign doubtful you so you must send in the hoga your quick haughty start their

. cause had attained to your discharge and. the. dawn of a pyongyang. at seven am government sirens wake the city summoning its people to begin a new day's work. morry massa tucker is leaving pyongyang and heading out into north korea's rural hinterland in search of people who claim to have witnessed and survived germ warfare. but the very nature of this country means that he is completely reliant on the p.r. nyang government to provide his transport and to put forward his interviewees. on

the outskirts of one gene a village forty five kilometers east of pyongyang two elderly farmers are waiting to meet him young chan bynum toxic lost their fathers during the war both claim that an american plane dropped a germ bomb close to the village. finding a residential side a goal. and you know new york. i'm calling them and they're still one hundred. percent over in much of the how call it will you put out of need to go. has another. so it's only to bore a hole in the. danny in view of going to. you now in you.

mind you're making a very probably twenty seven tomorrow night. on a.b.c. you're made during the war captured american pilots made filmed confessions in which they admitted dropping bombs filled with infected insects on north korean villages might never be clean. i mean not many not. only will they didn't see or don't drown you in the funny your madison or your. kid i mean middle school came in he played a song. and the kid didn't hear them and now you. are close to being there when i am more than there could be.

and then when. i have eyes in the arm of him i'm going to do it isn't. it's here getting home. and you mean that here in monotone that i thought you knew me as a sunni and you won't come isn't that i'm the second guy in kind of one goalie i love it although i never want to put in the pay back your money who was there and . i guess you might say all of our not going and doing god's will. in their filmed confessions the american air force officers expressed apparently genuine remorse for their actions can i go back and take my family and them alive or. how can i tell them me thanks but i am a criminal and i love you man. but when they returned home at the end of the war

they all retracted their confessions. so where does the truth lie for professor mori at least the north korean witnesses are the more convincing the. thousands on all here. know them and in a code of mess and it's gonna. kill me is on static kill any time of the. night but this is also one economist's. yeah i believe i'm a judge in sox terminal connecting the case to as i wasn't over to him not in any court. mores mission is taking him deeper into north korea's a rural hinterland and into the areas most heavily bombed during the war.

will be a matter and village in the east of the country he meets shake young stock in one hundred fifty two he was in his final year at school. of the camera he could have been all you know going down from hong kong you knew reasonable water. that they're going to google you going to school but you got it in. the to me they thought of it but now there's a. pod jonathan. can you go monitor the need that i would in a death a content in order that i not again. in march nine hundred fifty two this peaceful rural area was heavily bombed by the u.s. air force. by then the war ground to a stalemate and. american military chiefs had already dropped thousands of tons of

napalm and were considering a nuclear strike. but the people of maton village claimed to have been the victims of a very different weapon a lawyer known. he going to be no good at me he told me he wouldn't be. able to get to didn't there. who would they may kiss me good luck incidents he. would have you would have been there. to me wouldn't have if they saw the poem you didn't book me can you did you do have or do anything i can do i will you to get in there. none cause. if you get there. then don't already know somebody this. could be

home since you. according to the villages within days many of them fell sick and began to die the symptoms apparently consistent with bubonic plague a disease with no recent history in korea. already killing your own one. also one of the people who. ordered one hundred more normal overall parking hubris from people who didn't know what part of what i thought would hold on i'm not sure how the loss will. be going to come true though. i'm going to law. there's all. the time to work through. who want to rule we're not talking about. a special car to crush more. of the product. that they be or can

just sign me thank you send here yet they still have. the music on the play again with us no. no no no no it's not up. so you sure we're going to put you on with us now that. but the state decides what he's about but marty knows that testimony from north korean citizens will not be enough to convince a skeptical world that the united states used germ warfare in korea said your high your stuff so i just saying you know chores are a handy guy going to need in a creditable dollar. in fact within months of the allegations being made the north koreans did invite an international commission to visit the country . composed of scientists from france italy sweden the soviet union and brazil and led by a distinguished if left leaning british embryologist it toured the affected areas

interviewed the sick and the dying and carried out a detailed analysis of their infections. the commission's six hundred page report included results of post-mortems on the victims these identified plague typhoid cholera and anthro. it concluded the germ warfare had been deployed exactly as the north koreans claimed but despite its wealth of scientific evidence it was dismissed by america as communist this information. no. they're. going to snare and you know i got used pushed and you know i had a chore son she know or provide under their eyes in doing this for something they're calling out there's a. whole lot of things what are you doing. today

at the thirty eighth parallel korea remains divided north and south korea remain technically at war every hour of every day the border guards square up to each other across the symbolic dividing line under the constant gaze of american forces . but tucker's search for information about biological warfare in korea will take him far away from this disputed border. harbin northeastern china. in the one nine hundred thirty s. and one nine hundred forty s. japan occupied this part of china. inside these brick buildings a division of the imperial japanese army unit seven three one carried out grotesque human experiments as

a result japan became the first country ever to perfect the technology of biological warfare. agents in this. city and to chen. said early. on the. theory. helen said only all. color to mean. the trash the japanese experiments exposed to their living victims insects or shellfish infected with plague anthrax and cholera while weapons experts created unique bombs to deliver these pathogens to their target during world war two japan dropped thousands of these bombs throughout northern china infecting towns and villages with plague cholera anthrax and tie for you to see.

him as a woman the powerful that they don't unit seven three one was run by japanese scientists and led by general shiro. yet despite clear evidence. that unit seven three one used biological warfare on such an industrial scale after the war now the shira she nor the leaders of his germ weapons team was ever prosecuted for war crimes. it's a deal so when you're. doing. that it's. hard to we article gotten. a dollar but he's out for a. day or so and they all hurt all the force and yes all of. the techniques and the germs used by unit seven three one match exactly the details

of north korea's claims of american biological warfare and today chinese officials at least a convinced that there was a link between the two may say your wording in there was. show you all the details. yet. should you. just heard here. for professor morrie the narrative he has heard amid the ruins of unit seven three one is deeply shocked. as nails or they can you know or she should or innocent young when i was in japan come later when i was in their. own interest there. some your kind us had some they could to mess. with us.

no. nonsense and. no more. was another. who says one hundred so last fall. we need some more. how could he she escape justice. did america really use his pioneering technology to wage biological warfare in korea. or would the convincingly detailed confessions of american air force pilots actually extract it under communist pressure. the truth may lie in another country thousands of miles from here. to take also built in less than one generation of developing countries and one of the newest developed countries in the world we have to be grateful for is the need

for new brigadier and fear to a pretty rough and tough men singapore's founding father created a nation of political dynasty family disputes undermining that legacy what's happened to their family and what's happened in singapore's institutions i just don't know what would have caused them all great people in power investigates the house that lee bell at this time on al-jazeera. news is happening faster than ever before from different places from different people and you need to be part of bat you need to be able to reach people wherever they are and that means being across all social media platforms this is where our audience lives as well as in front of a t.v. they're on the smartphone they're on the tablet they're on the computer. and that's the way al-jazeera is of all into a true media network. a survivor of the genocide there are people who beg me to kill when they're suffering but it is hard

to do who's dedicated his life to searching the woods for bones of the victims of the srebrenica massacre. you know finally letting the past to rest and giving peace to the victims' families if i could just find if i could bury him. at this time on al-jazeera. would be headlines on al-jazeera the un's human rights chief says syrian government airstrikes on the sea areas and probably constitute war crimes and must be prosecuted say that are condemned to rebel groups of firing shells into the capital damascus more than one hundred people have been killed in these didn't go through

during the past week despite the un agreeing to a cease fire last saturday. and other news but can a fall so as prime minister paul. visiting the army headquarters which were attacked on friday at least sixteen people were killed including eight attackers and eighty injured in the capital. egypt's top court has validated a deal to transfer to the red sea islands to saudi arabia the agreement was signed when king solomon visited egypt in two thousand and sixteen the situation between the two countries in the red sea and remained largely unoccupied but they live in a politically sensitive area. families of those on board malaysia airlines flight m h three seventy have attendant a memorial to mark nearly four years since the plane to. period the malaysian government and a u.s. company have launched a new search for the wreckage that makes three seventy disappeared in march two

thousand and fourteen as it flew from kuala lumpur to beijing with two hundred thirty nine people on board it's thought to have crashed in the indian ocean. u.s. envoy is on the three day visit to bangladesh to assess the hendra crisis lisa curtis is in charge of south asia at the white house as national security council. her visit comes at a time of new accusations of bullying and intimidating real henge of refugees near its border with. the united nations estimates around seven hundred thousand two hundred have been forced to cross from myanmar into cox's bazar since last august. the former head of the vatican bank has been indicted on embezzlement charges the vatican hole. and his lawyer responsible for losses of more than sixty million dollars from real estate sales in the third person died during the investigation the charges relate to real estate assets sold by the bank between two thousand and

one and two thousand and eight. rewind is coming up next. november two thousand and nine and the president of the united states issues a stern warning to north korea over its nuclear program. north korea behaves in a provocative fashion. then. is willing to return to talks talks for a while and then leaves the talks seeking further concessions and there is never actually any progress on the core issues. while in pyongyang north korean officials insist that talk about nuclear weapons depends on resolution of the fifty eight year old claims that america used to biological warfare in the korean war and.

the media are coming and. your need to talk to you money could be will be. good to you don't care you days or who were not able to win are you. and are none would really. call power in which young call. but while professor morey's inquiries continue in north korea the search for the truth about whether america did use biological weapons there moves halfway around the world. in the u.s. national archives just outside washington d.c. two documents reveal a disturbing relationship between america and she is she the mastermind behind

japan's biological warfare program unit seven three one. this show that after the war the american military intelligence shielded the leaders of unit seven three one from war crimes trials in return. for their expertise in advancing america's then embryonic germ warfare plans information procured will have the greatest value in future development of the u.s. b.w. program so we decide that we're going to trade in this sort of of deal we trade issues non-prosecution for his secrets which he smuggle out arm and so the deal is made the trunks of of raw data arrive and in a sense we've sold our souls because we need to know that they were able to develop weapons that were capable of killing hundreds of thousands of people these once top secret documents reveal that to speed its program the united states paid ishi and his top germ warfare scientists handsomely for their cooperation they were assisted

by direct payments payments in kind food miscellaneous gift items entertainment. from one nine hundred forty seven behind this security fence at fort dietrich in maryland the u.s. army began work to expand issues use of insects to deliver bubonic plague anthrax cholera and typhus not very far from edgewood in historic frederick maryland biological warfare laboratory. we're working on delivery systems from plains and from nestle's and from other paratus of both fleas but primarily mosquitoes it was a very active program a well funded program a program in which we in fact were testing some of these delivery systems cloud a biological warfare agent can be generated so successful was fort dietrich in

perfecting the technology of biological warfare that in the late one nine hundred fifty one as american forces were bogged down in korea the u.s. joint chiefs of staff issued a top secret order. to begin testing germ weapons on the battlefield largescale field tests should be conducted to determine the effectiveness of specific b.w. agents under operational conditions. at the time america was fighting only one warning korea if the order by the joint chiefs of staff was a bait and there was only one battlefield where biological weapons could be tested in movies and video testimony given as he was dying by a japanese technician who worked to unit seven three one suggests that these trials may have been actively assisted by the original masterminds of biological warfare

okocha told her those are the. oh who. might have been conned the only. one who isn't as it was in my lesson. and he's on governor's on board but does a new. to his own needs has to be so they're going. to look at who caused the most. according to north korea america began dropping bombs filled with infected insects in january nine hundred fifty two near the end of the korean winter. in support it cites what it claims is contemporary newsreel footage showing scientists examining insects surrounding the remains of bombs on snow covered ground it's like a bomb casing from a standard leaflet bomb that was used to deliver pamphlets and that sort of information we showed this film to entomologist and biological warfare expert

professor geoffrey lockwood it's really difficult to say what that is there's there's no scale so i can't tell what the size of those insights are given that appears to be snow i would guess that of the big it could be something like stone flies crawling around on the snout but for professor luck would the problem is not with the insects the bombs or the snow it's with the ferocity of the film itself it has to be almost certain that what we're seeing here is a a recreate of what the koreans saw or claimed to have seen the possibility of getting a camera film crew to an area where insects at this sort of density have been dispersed in time to actually film that converges on zero so what we're seeing is is what they said they saw and this is probably as close as they can come to that does that necessarily mean that it didn't. no it doesn't it doesn't mean that it didn't happen it's simply that this is not evidence that it did happen so this is

is is i would gather this is their attempt to simulate the sorts of things that they that they saw in one hundred fifty two united states representatives took to the floor of the united nations it is no exaggeration to say. problem is the group is run now from the world they denounced the north korean evidence as a clumsy fake and a lie. but in doing so they told their own lies undermining the credibility of all american denials of biological warfare some of the denial was just absurd almost laughable when when for instance one particular u.s. official says we did not have any development of insight vector disease research in the united states at that time it's simply an absurd and bald faced deception it's a lie working up to fans is against chemical biological and radiological warfare is

the responsibility of the army chemical corps were insect dropped over north korea and parts of china my sense is that there were incidents that involved. probably quite limited but very very important u.s. testing of biological materials and how will the issue ever be laid to rest once and for all i don't know of the issue will be later i mean how would it be is with the smoking gun with with with definitive testimony from a u.s. official who was involved in the program and can say yes we did it. the key to the mystery may lie with the american ethel's offices who originally confessed to dropping jumbo trons. very few are still alive today.

but we tracked down one of the survivors to this peaceful senior citizens community near houston texas. kenneth enoch is eighty five years old today he enjoys a comfortable retirement sharing wartime memories with his. wife these are supposed to be bombs over here is that right does it. say and i think this is this man under given food. but from one nine hundred fifty on would left tenant kenneth enoch was another gates on u.s. air force b. twenty six bombing missions over north korea all but one or two more submissions weave through a night i favorite target was trains we were going to like trains you know sometimes the one would almost hit the engine. and actually if we drop the net napalm on the engine you know to try and discourage them i guess it was the you could feel the napalm go off on january the thirteenth nine hundred fifty

two after fifty three night bombing missions the next plane was shot down and he bailed out over north korean territory and landed and the parachute spilled and i found a corner of a rice paddy. and it was snowy there were quite a bit of snow want to go and i saw a dark spot over there on the corner and so i thought well that's a good place for me to be but in less than an hour kenneth enoch was captured by north korean and chinese soldiers it was the morning of this twenty seventh birthday they marched me done a house and i had a place to sit. and they had a guard there and they handed me a piece of paper in english. said. don't worry about it all that well so going to send any anyway you know they don't want to trouble for a while lease but anyway. left tenant enoch would be

held captive in north korea for the next twenty months but what happened to him and what he did during his time as a prisoner of war would prove to be one of the most bitterly disputed pieces of evidence in the allegations of american biological warfare. that. was. out. there. on april the first nine hundred fifty two can if he not committed detailed confession that he had taken part in a series of biological warfare missions. on film and over eight closely written pages left hadn't he not described his biological weapons instructions. or the techniques of dropping germ bombs yet they're. separate of the fact that. they and the code word

assigned to log them on his return three. or more. ordinary. in all thirty six american air force officers made written or filmed confessions of dropping germ bombs while in captivity. but when they were sent back home at the end of the war the us department of defense woman them that they could be brought before courts martial to face treason charges subsequently in response to identical questions each officer made a carefully worded retraction just released films lay bare the shocking truth behind communist charges or germ warfare in korea and the so-called confessions of captured u.s. airmen each retraction was filmed by military cameras and handed to television news

reel companies with their unit it is. time and. if you have been there the basic so-called germ warfare bombing the over north korea if you care to make a statement that guarding the. left tenant kenneth enoch's retraction was typical. movie we're recording interviews were forced upon me that johnny. said that due to my part they were due to my confession which was absolutely. in my confession i would now be branded by the people of the world as in fact a war criminal even describe that method you better find it. in your statement. yesterday they used both physical and mental pressure they put me around. me attention for

a long period. forced me to sit at attention. finally i could see that there was no alternative insanity or death they may threaten me and threaten me again that i should never leave alive if i didn't cooperate but nearly sixty years later kenny enoch now denies he was ill treated by his captors want to write these these very brutal thoughts no no no no no. no no no. but here i lay one time they had me and i did the stay in the same place although i can't recall one particular thing but. maybe maybe they wanted to move somebody else you know how whatever they do so i got transferred to another building another house not home and it was cold. the

so my room wasn't quite as big but it was it was all i needed you know. but they came with because it was so cold they came with. a pot full of charcoal you know. and they put it in the room to keep me warm the second reason flight left tenant he not gay for making his confession was mental pressure also forced to read their propaganda. to make a robot comment on it that is their. they're russian publications don't go on aren't carmina as of today once again his story changes try to let you. know it wanted me that really hurts. that. they had already and. i don't think so for dockery they are kind of books or if you want to know i guess

and if you bought one you didn't like you know the story so why then did he make such a detailed confession today he claims that it was a deliberate deception there was four days false and then also i could think of he says that he booby trapped the document giving his fellow crew members the names of american cartoon characters there was a fellow named dick tracy dick tracy you know dick tracy over there. richard tracy what that you know and i was going to put a junior in there for doing a trick you tell you only does this make you. know. what they were there i wanted them to be recognizable so i thought i'd get tracy and junior that would been great except that you know you can't put too many people i want to remember

it's worse it would have been a real dandy probably would have had a president from. the difficulty with this story is that many of the dates and places detailed in kenneth the knox confession have since been confirmed as accurate. the only mention of anything approaching a cartoon character is a passing reference to his gunnery officer sergeant tracy. and then nearly sixty years on kenneth iraq seems to make at least a partial admission that the united states did deploy bacteriological weapons first of all i think you have to understand what. what this. biological warfare or whatever. is a pretty big deal and it's health what you've got specialists and evil doctors in nonsense but but there's. the people who deal and they're don't have to go

high and so i was very sweet deal for them you know but they said you send it when you nevertheless he still denies that he personally played any part in the affair i don't want you to know i don't think this thing or this flight you know i was just . a passenger. official records of bombing raids over north korea held in the u.s. national archives one way to clear up the confusion about kenneth enoch's confession and subsequent retraction would be to examine the flight logs for his missions over korea. but they were removed from the files by the us air force on march the twenty third one thousand nine hundred fifty two two months after he was captured and one week before he made his written confession and after the war the us military imposed a top secret classification on all documents relating to biological warfare in the far east. many of the flight records for korea have never been released.

you saw you also know the danger which. it is never come up with other goings on in a committee someone you. wish is just a guy called ordinary car they know what. they're each tell you if you use a sage brush that they felt that. now make up a nice head in the middle that without us is no jewel just walk around. washington remembers the korean war very differently to pyongyang. the united states still on as its military men and women as heroes who fought on behalf of the free world to

hold back the march of international communism. and yet when we asked both the department of defense and the state department for filmed interviews to discuss the allegations of america's biological warfare program both refused they also declined to respond to ten specific questions about north korea's claims. instead a government spokes person issued a two line statement describing the allegations as baseless and the dissin from asian campaign that refuses to die. one thing is clear. until those allegations are laid to rest. and america's innocence or culpability is established beyond doubt perhaps by an independent inquiry. one of the most enduring cold war mysteries will continue to haunt

its relationship. with the world's most secretive state. dirty little secrets from two thousand and ten a persuasive story but one that has been consistently denied by every american administration for more than sixty years in north korea though this story contributes to a profound suspicion of the united states and its intentions and southeast asia i'm joined now from u.k. by professor hazel smith the korea expert from london school of oriental and african studies professor thank you so much for joining us so if all of this happened with you know deadly insects biological weapons if all this happened it was more than sixty years ago but having said that is this still a very real live issue for north koreans now the truth is about the korean war is that it was a very dirty war on all sides there atrocities by the north koreans by the south

koreans there were many many people killed and many many orphans and many maimed so the whole of the war still remains controversial particularly for north koreans and for south koreans because they've still got family members that have split since nine hundred fifty three once when the war ended there's been no communication between the two sides so the issues about alleged germ warfare a part and parcel of the discourse which takes place in north korea this is a controversial topic at the time in the one nine hundred fifty s. remains controversial now this story no smoking gun evidence this to took place but it forms part of the official discourse it doesn't however form part of the do. today discussions of north koreans i lived and worked in north korea for two years all over the country not so different settings in farms and hospitals and

. clinics and. talked to lots and lots of different people it was never raised once as an issue with me not even in passing where some other issues were raised of course things like the fact that there were so many men killed in the one nine hundred fifty s. in the war that there were disproportionate amounts of women left alive today for a brief moment there is a slight deescalation but obviously the tension is still there how do you see things playing out on the korean peninsula well there are different objectives the north koreans want to preserve regime security which for them means both territorial defense proper vention of military intervention from the outside but also security for the current government and for those in power it saw what happened in iraq to saddam hussein and in libya to gadhafi and their

argument is that if those countries had maintained nuclear weapons program or similar sorts of programs they wouldn't have been vulnerable to invasion from the united states and others although what's encouraging is with south korea north korea after all the heart of the matter on the korean peninsula at least talking to each other now in two thousand and eighty in a way that they haven't been for two or three years there are some diplomatic channels which will at least at this stage allow for talks on more sensitive issues but there is a long long way to go before we can see an end to these conflicts thank you professor hazel smith for joining us and that is it from us to check out the rewind page at al-jazeera dot com for more films from this series irish al carry thank you for joining us so you answer.

from the waves of the sails. to the contours of the east. welcome back to the americas this time starts in south america where you can see a lot of share activity across the amazon basin we've also got a frontal system further toward society some rain across paraguayan some showers are lightly for rio further south upon us aries santiago weather conditions are generally looking dry and fine the twenty nine degrees in santiago on sunday moving out through bolivia into proof few showers around but nothing particularly heavy at the state some heavy showers across more northeastern parts of brazil and as we

head up into the caribbean region still looking at fine weather conditions at the moment that's going to continue we have got the remnants of weak front just moving through the maybe a subtle change in the temperatures tending to drop a little bit as the breeze increases from the north but still very pleasant when she get to kingston jamaica it was a look at highs of twenty nine degrees up through the isthmus it's largely find plenty of sunshine in guatemala looking fine from a secure city highs of twenty five heading up into north america and we've got one area of low pressure pushing away from the eastern seaboard another one pushing in towards pacific northwest and through the rockies and that is going to be giving some heavy snow fall in place as we head on through saturday and into sunday meanwhile further towards the east coast it should be dry and bright in new york with highs of seven. the way sponsored by race. this is really. is a lot of misunderstanding of what the. context is hugely important setting the

stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera. the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. al-jazeera. and welcome to the al-jazeera news hour live from our headquarters in doha with me and i'm coming up in the next sixty minutes at least sixteen people killed in

coordinated attacks and booking a fast high security. syrians living in a struggle for food and medicine as the government strikes continue despite a partial ceasefire at. the top portion.