homes in that earthquake still live in this camp. the government raised our hopes and then abandoned. politicians have promised that they won't allow a repeat of what happened after the earthquake in one thousand and five but the cost and complexity of housing hundreds of people living in camps is a major task and one that many people here think the government failed. from singing forests with drones to surviving drone to the. award winning environmental solutions program with. never heard from the real job but. meeting the people communities and do can i say she's addressing some of the greatest man might environmental problems threatening our planet. a new season of birthright so an al-jazeera.

kim jong un prepares to be the first ever north korean leader to cross the border meeting south korea's president moon j.n. for a historic summit. south korea's president is on his way to that much anticipated meeting. i'm richelle carey this is live from doha also coming up demonstrations in armenia as the opposition keeps up its push for power with more talks planned for friday. a controversy for members of u.s. president all trumps administration. bill cosby. three words for you guilty guilty a. u.s. court convicted entertainer bill cosby on charges of drugging and sexual assaulting a woman at his home.

there less than an hour away from a much anticipated meeting between north korean leader kim jong il and south korea's president. and it's only the third time since the korean war that the leaders from the two koreas have met kim has left he is on his way to the meeting it's to. to get underway and as we said in about an hour's time great chemistry crosses into the southern side of the border village obviously there's a range of issues to discuss including pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs leaders are also expected to sign some sort of agreement at the end of these talks are james face joins us live now from produce so we're inching closer and closer to this historic moment james house is going to play out. yeah well it's already started both leaders are making their way the supreme leader kim from pyongyang is on his way the president moon of south korea left seoul drove

along the road right behind me here and just moments ago we've seen live pictures of him arriving at the demilitarized zone in the joint security area as it's known where this meeting is going to take place we understand pretty much how this is going to happen we know that supreme leader kim will get out of his car on the north side he'll come towards some huts that are actually across the line between north korea and south korea the military demarcation line in fact one of those huts is a table in it half is in south korea half in north korea where officials in the past have met instead of walking through those hearts though he'll walk between two of the huts between t two and t three t. stands for temporary even though they've been there for a very long time and they're between the huts there's a line of concrete line that marks the border between north and south korea and we

are going to see in the next half an hour or so supreme leader kim cross that line the first time a north korean leader has entered south korea since the korean war he'll be greeted by president moon and then they'll go to a building called the freedom house go through that and then for the talks in the peace house i have to say this is an amazing turn of events if you look what's happened in the last eight months or so because remember last summer it was really the tenses time we've seen on the korean peninsula for decades so what changed things was it the tougher and tougher sanctions that the international community have put on the north korean government or was it the intervention of president trump particularly that speech at the u.n. general assembly when he threatened to destroy north korea i've been speaking to diplomats in new york at the united nations in european capitals and. here on the korean peninsula i filed this report from pyongyang. when you walk around pyongyang

everywhere you seem to go you hear military music blaring from shops and loud speakers last summer the drums of war beating particularly heavily it was arguably the tensest time on the korean peninsula in decades and september north korean foreign minister real young ho headed from his ministry here to new york to give his speech at the annual meeting of world leaders at the u.n. ahead of him in the speaking order the new president of the us the united states has great strength and patients but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. al-jazeera has learnt that hours after that speech foreign minister re saw to a brief meeting with the u.n. secretary general antonio good terrorists at the end of the meeting the north

korean invited a senior united nations official to pyongyang a trip the un had been trying to arrange for over a year at the beginning of december jeffrey feltman then the un's head of political affairs made a visit to pyongyang and meetings with north korean officials feltman suggested that kim jong un used his new year's speech to strike a more conciliatory tone he suggested too that the winter olympics which are about to be staged in south korea would be a useful occasion to improve relations it's not clear whether the north koreans listened to his advice but they did the things he suggested the leader's sister kim yo chung's visit to the olympics change the atmosphere between the north and south starting a diplomatic dialogue there was another important back channel to sweden's foreign minister margot will strum authorized expanded conversations with the north koreans at one point had been planned for foreign minister rio on ho to meet the venue u.s.

secretary of state rex tillerson in stockholm that plan changed when president trump surprised his own officials saying he wanted a face to face meeting with kim jong un and then secret dispatched his cia director mike pump a.o. to pyongyang to begin the negotiations back to james live now so james there is a lot of air stagecraft there is a lot of geography or a literally just a few feet or a few meters makes a big difference draw a clear picture reiterate for our viewers what they're going to be saying with this this particular concrete line when we're going to pull up a picture so you can speak to. yeah well this is something that's been very very carefully planned and choreographed the north koreans have been here as well so everyone is aware of the image that's going to be seen by the world and it is the concrete line between the two blue huts that marks the point where

supreme leader kim is going to step over from north korea to south korea the first time that has happened since the korean war ended that devastating war that went on until nine hundred fifty three a war that has never had a peace treaty so although it stopped in terms of the conflict it is still legally a war zone he will step for the first time in that sixty five years across that concrete line that is the historic moment of the day the historic picture of the day and that i think is the number one thing they hope to achieve beyond that of course there are the talks of what they can achieve in the talks and of course that will be watched very closely in washington d.c. because the plan is not just for this one historic summit that we're going to see starting in less than half an hour's time it. leader kim is on time but there's supposed to be another summit within about six weeks or so with president trump and kim meeting face to face ok another one more settings geography question for you

james as you are very clearly describing that concrete line and there's blue houses on each side can you tell us what those houses are that our viewers are saying. there are a number of different hearts temporary heart soul that have been there for a long time to walk between the two of the blue hearts there are actually some white hearts as well all of these heart straddle the demarcation line the white ones actually controlled by the north koreans the blue ones. the south koreans and inside those hearts at least one of them has a table with the table having one side on the north korean side one side on the south korean side so in the past to try and resolve conflicts and difficulties both sides have had meetings in these hearts as a say he's not going to go into the hearts this time what we're going to see the historic moment the moment of the crossing and then the handshake will be between

two of these blue hearts ok and again this really a lot of what is happening here can be seen as a sort of a set up if you will for what's going to be happening with the meeting that is supposed to happen between the u.s. and north korea as well what needs to happen here to lay that the proper groundwork for that meeting. well i think the u.s. will be looking for signs that north korea is serious about proper negotiations that they're not just going through the motions in order to get rid of the pressure that they're under the comments that you heard in my report from president trump on those very heavy sanctions they want to see a real commitment that north korea is going to talk about giving it up its nuclear weapons i don't think they're expecting to get a firm commitment at this summit but they want to see that the north korean side is

serious and i think watching this summit will be one of the factors that will decide whether finally they press the button and go ahead with the u.s. north korea summit no venue is yet been suggested for that some venues are being floated in europe some in asia even a suggestion that perhaps it could be back here again as one possibility if they don't find another venue but in addition to what they see from this summit there are ongoing negotiations underway between the north koreans and the u.s. and those i'm told and you saw the visit from the former cia director now the secretary of state to pyongyang those are being done by the intelligence agencies so the north korean intelligence the head of intelligence will be accompanying kim when he arrives here shortly and on the other side the cia those negotiations as well as that trip here. now the secretary of state going on i'm told pretty

constantly so james will be and as you were speaking we were just showing and video what happened is ticking minutes ago he has arrived at the militarized zone what type of pressure is he facing considering that south korea is a democracy as opposed to what. kim jong un will be casing. yeah south korea democracy relatively young democracy only democracy since the one nine hundred eighty s. but yes he has democratic pressures on him he's riding high in the polls right now people are generally pretty optimistic about what he's doing here but of course if it goes badly then it could all turn very spectacularly and could affect his his public rating here if people see a summit that doesn't go according to plan as often in these things look at the

official declaration at the end in the words and we're parsing those words carefully but look to the body language of the two leaders kim when you see him often in official photos when he's in the comfort of his own capital is often smiling it seems always in many of the photos giggling are you going to see that photo of kim or are you going to see the photo and we saw a couple of pictures released of him with might compare on his trip to pyongyang and we saw a very stern looking north korean leader then so some of it's going to be about the body language which we'll have to watch extremely closely but it is worth noting that the way international diplomacy works and i can tell you for example the iran deal i traveled around all the various places where that was negotiated for a number of years these things take a very long time there's normally a process in place all of the details are sorted out and then you get the leaders in at the end to sign the deal this is happening completely the wrong way round

according to most international diplomat you having the summit first you're having are trying to get the political agreement first and then work the details out at the end it is of course doing it this way around a very high stakes strategy and here there is and james ok stay right there will be coming back to you shortly. now the center and summit it's only the third of its kind in history as james said the first was held in two thousand during the so-called sunshine era another followed seven years later despite pace declarations at both summits or korea pressed ahead with the development of its nuclear weapons program kathy novak looks back at those events and what might be different this time around. he was the architect of the so-called sunshine policy the koreas had been technically at war for fifty years but in two thousand liberal south korean president kim dae junge backed by the clinton administration in washington was promoting in gage meant warmly welcomed into enemy territory by then

leader kim jong il kim jong il had been north korean leader for six years and was fresh from his first overseas visit to china with pyongyang on the world stage fascinated citizens across the border watched events unfold on television. the europeans keep saying that i live like a recluse thanks to president kim's visit i'm liberated from reclusion. this three day display of friendship culminated in an agreement and one of the south korean president a nobel peace prize among the promises reunions for families separated by the korean war and a joint business park at kaesong just north of the border. but global politics weren't on their side. in two thousand the u.s. had a change in administration from clinton to bush and the hard line policy became prominent the results of the two thousand summit weren't sustained. don young was unification minister under the next south korean president roh moo hyun who continued his predecessor's sunshine policy in two thousand and five chung delivered an

invitation to kim jong il for another summit and two years later president roh stepped over the border with then chief of staff the current president and watching on. your team and this line is the wall that has been dividing our people for the last half century this state. we will demolish the four be the wall and heal our people suffering. it was two years after north korea pledged at the six party talks to give up its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid kim and rose signed another peace declaration agreeing to implement that six party deal but it was never enforced. on october fourth two thousand and seven there was a great agreement after the south korean presidential election two months later that green agreement went straight to the garbage north korea conducted nuclear and missile tests conservative south korean president shifted to a tougher policy and relations deteriorated now liberal president moon j in his

reprising language from two thousand and seven about ending the armistice and building permanent peace what may be a key difference this time is like u.s. president donald trump has only been in office for a year and has more time to implement any agreement and for the first time a u.s. north korea meeting is expected to follow the entire career and summit kathy novak al-jazeera soul. here's what we can expect throughout the course of the day kim jong un will travel into the demilitarized zone under tight security to meet moon in making him the first north korean leader to cross the border since the korean war so kim will be joined by nine officials including his sister of course she led a delegation to this year's winter olympics after meeting in the morning and kemah moon will have lunch and plant a tree using soil from both countries in the day we'll wind up with a dinner and a movie called spring of one joining us from seoul this coral fried off he's

a fellow at the chicago council on global affairs and a scholar at the korea foundation mance phil foundation we appreciate your time very much i want to pick up on an observation that our correspondent james phase made a minute ago that generally with something like this there have been lots and lots of meetings working out details of the summit is kind of sort of a culmination of that and it seems that this is almost going backwards there's this summit happening and then depending on what happens there they can work out the details later which what does that mean for the chances of any type of success at this event. well it has been a very interesting approach and he was right in the fact that this is being done in a backwards way but this is the looks like a kind of gordian knot moment in our own times you know for very long i think president trumpet had rightly noted that not a lot was done because they were trying to work from the bottom up and there were too many sticking points and so this seems like an effort that may actually have have some hope of working i'm not overly optimistic but given where we all were

a year ago tensions were incredibly high people who i know who have lived in seoul a long time who have been watching this very closely even they admitted that this was the most nervous or at that time was the most nervous they had ever been so any kind of talks i think we really need to to move seriously forward with and at least test to north korea on this so you said that you spoke of a chance said this working what does working mean what does that look like to you what does success look like to you from this. so first we need to get korea north korea on the record saying that they are willing to at least discuss to see that and then starting to take steps to move forward from that unofficial spokesman for the moon government at a security conference here this week in seoul said that they were thinking of something that would work along the lines of a two year timeline with north korea taking progressive steps towards denuclearization quite frankly i don't think they have that much time given who is in the white house and the people that are surrounding president trump two years is

obviously going to be too long they're going to think that this to your timeline is just north korea stalling and waiting perhaps to make more advancements my guess is that the trump administration is going to push something more along the lines of six to eight months and that's going to be a very tight timeline one of the things we'll see need to see out of north korea if not at this summit perhaps in the following days in the following weeks is at some point they're going to have to declare their nuclear facilities and this is not just the one young beyond which we all know about but they have other facilities around the region once they do that the u.s. will be able to try to match of that information with the information that the u.s. believes it has and then start a list in on its negotiation about what the syllabi north korea has what is on the table and what this is all going to be about why would north korea do that what would be their motivation to do that. well there has been talk about if he's going to give up nuclear weapons you know this is kind of his key to survival and he's going to have to convince the u.s.

that he's being fully on us there is the talk that the trump administration for all of the problems it creates domestically on north korea there has been progress made and that the trumping ministration with the talks of the bloody nose with military strikes preemptive war preventive action that this is really scared a north korea and this is why they're at the table i'm not sure i exactly buy that line of thought i think this is more of a longer term plan from north korea starting with the olympics and quite frankly the other previous solid ministrations on their in young bach and poc and they all the south korean administrations come in basically wanting to try to pursue some kind of summit or peace regime or good relations with north korea the changing factor here is that north korea is actually now ready to come to the table when it was never willing to do that in the past ok so let me ask you about that the fact that this summit is happening the fact that in the future there are supposed to be a meeting between donald trump and kim jong il is is that a level of success for kim jong il is that something that puts him on

a playing field with the bigger players. well it certainly is this is something that north korea's been trying to do for at least twenty years get a bilateral meeting with you president of the united states i think the gambit here is that if they can get through this initial summit which looks like from all accounts is going to be relatively successful if they can get through that and then make it to the u.s. summit then all the cards will be on the table perhaps they can get president trying to agree to something that the allies are not going to be. perhaps supportive of that would be something like giving up all of the i.c.b.m. and perhaps not all of the nuclear weapons of course that means that the united states is no longer in range but keeps the allies in danger so i think it's all about getting to that u.s. summit and once they're in kind of sitting across the table he may be able to try to put something over the president's eyes and try to get a big win in that way so let me ask you this. depending on what happens today

between now and when donald trump actually does finally meet with kim jong un that that could be a while a locket happen then is there something that you see that could derail that the next that particular summit happening depending on what happens today honestly even if it's. donald trump's what's the word i'm looking for unpredictability. so i actually think that there's very little north korea could do to derail this at this point they've already said they're not going to test nuclear weapons they're not going to test missiles if they move forward something like that yes of course then the summit is in deep peril and not going to happen but my view on this is essentially this is a an opportunity that is too good to pass for donald trump this is something he imagines himself to be the great statesman a great negotiator and we have to remember that when this happens it's going to be a major media event and depending on where it is there are going to be a numerous number of cameras that are going to put him on

a world stage and allow him to dominate the world headlines in a way that he probably hasn't to this point and that's really saying something giving the presidency of donald trump so i think short of a major problem that the u.s. is going to go through with this summit if for no other reason than it will satisfy the u.s. president to go he said that the south koreans you have spoken to were especially anxious over the past year with all the missile tests. have you spoken to south koreans that are optimistic about this or what do they tell you when when you talk about this historic summit. so there's a lot of cautious optimism about this but that doesn't mean to say that south koreans are moving into this blindly and neither is the moon ministration for for for what it's worth i think there is an understanding that north korea there's very little trust you look at the public opinion polls that are done here either from some of the local houses or from outside talking about real meter gallup korea institute they're all doing polling and what it showing is that you know the south

koreans want this summit to take place but there's not a lot of faith that north korea is going to be and honest partner in the end so north korea is going to have to do a lot of work to convince the south korean public that it's serious about moving forward with this in a way that will lead to denuclearization that will be able to be verified think the other part of this as one of the missing pieces i think so should be talking about is not only the nuclear weapons but also the conventional weapons let's not forget that their artillery pieces and rocket launchers all along the d.m.z. and this would be a wise time to start talking about north korea if we're going to enter some kind of more longer term peace regime some time peace agreement that north korea is going to need to start moving those off the d.m.z. as well to show that it's committed to a peaceful korean peninsula ok and fred as you were talking the group of minutes you can see there that we're saying is they south korean president. moon j.n. . to go into one of the several buildings on the demilitarized zone where these

meetings are supposed to happen. and again you were talking about that the south koreans are cautiously optimistic that perhaps he will be able to accomplish something he's actually not been president of south korea for very long but this is already further than many previous time presidents of south korea have have gotten so again this is the demilitarized zone and we just saw the delegation with south korean president kim jong i mean moon moon. enter that building so so karl if you could just sit tight for just a moment i want to introduce something else into the conversation then we will come back to you so the secretary of state mike pompei o recently the white house released photos of him meeting the north korean leader so travel earlier this month when he was a cia director and a meeting that very few people knew about it was to lay the groundwork for this meeting between kim jong un and us president donald trump and then on thursday the senate confirmed my pump a zero as the secretary of state by

a vote of fifty seven to forty two so fred now that. is officially the secretary of state he's obviously still involved with this process for quite some time having been the director of the cia and having had this meeting knowing what you know of my palm peo and what he has done so far as the cia director what do you see now his effect on all of this will be a secretary of state. well i'm not expecting that he's going to suddenly draw in many people from the state department into these negotiations in fact i think this is going to continue to be a cia lead discussion when we think about some of them one way things that have taken place number one and number one i think is the fact that all of this is been able to been remain under wraps in a very large way you know as now the secretary of state colin powell was going through his confirmation meetings it was never brought up despite the fact that there were several senators who were briefed prior to the confirmation hearing

about his visit there i had no i don't think there's a lot of confidence that if this were being headed by the state department that this would have all been kept under wraps we would have seen leaks we would have seen some information coming out but because it's being led by the cia it has been tightly controlled and the same is true on on the south korean side i think i've been very impressed that on all accounts they've been able to largely keep this away from public view until today and that's why there's so much speculation about what's going to happen and what's going to be yielded even though i think they've already agreed to a large number of things behind the scenes and today is hopefully just a formality for what has been decided ok fred. paz down with you for just a moment and talk about some of the live pictures to go back to our james base who is then covering the lead up to this summit for quite some time and now it is actually happening so james i'm not actually clear can you see that the pictures that we are seeing right now. i can see the pictures that your

seeing right now from the pool signal that is coming from there you can see there i think the south korean delegation around president moon he's got his unification minister the only woman in that group is the foreign minister. they are waiting to greet the north koreans and we are now seeing the north koreans coming down the steps i believe and making their way a little early it seems for this historic gathering that those steps are on the north korean side that is the north korean some of the north korean delegation who are making their way and there is also the supreme leader kim himself making his way down a couple of minutes early i know there was some concern that maybe the north koreans would be late for this historic moment still on north korean soil as he

makes his way down those steps from what's known as the back hall the pavilion on the north korean side built in all of his father walking up to the line and greeting his south korean colleague with a handshake and they are shaking hands across the military demarcation line this is the historic picture of the day and what will happen next is we expect kim is going to cross that line this is a historic meeting only has this happened twice before in the history of this divided land that the south korean and north korean presidents have met and now for the first time a north korean leader is on south korean soil my understanding is they will now pose for the photos looking one way looking back at north korea and then turn and pose for a photo looking at south korea but this is a historic moment nothing has been. but you are seeing that. it is doing something

his father and his grandfather the found founder of the state never did he is now on south korean soil it's quite a moment let's just kind of take this. as you said wow. that is she is with wow that's quite a moment so james also there are people that are watching this their families that are watching this that have been separated for decades and decades i can't imagine what this must feel like for them as well to take this and perhaps to a combination of pain and maybe a little bit of hope and optimism perhaps. yes well that's certainly what they're trying to create here is some optimism to school children from a school in the demilitarized zone on the south side who live in this is not really

a very good name for it because it's one of those tense military areas anywhere in the world posing for photos with the two leaders as you say there are many families that have been divided since the korean war ended but without a peace treaty so it didn't formally end sixty five years ago there are people from japan who were abducted there are three americans who are being held in north korea lots of families we watching these pictures with some hope that the mood has changed the tone has changed but it's not all course going to be about the images as well it's a loan it's going to also be about what they actually achieve in the talks here and what comes out of a final declaration a lot of work has been done we're told by officials but some of the agreements can only be made by these two men and that's why they're going to intensive discussions both the swarming them are going to pause go separately for lunch i think to think among their own advisors of where they got to and then another session of talks

taking place in the afternoon after a symbolic gesture of planting a tree and then a formal banquet if everything goes well at the end of the day james if we if we look back over the past year for a time it seemed that it seemed that every month every other month there was some sort of missile testing there was something that just kept ramping up the tension over and over and over and then now we're at this point with these pictures and this honor guard that the leaders and the two koreas meeting each other as we're watching these pictures can you talk that's how we got from that point to this. yes i can and it's certainly an amazing turnaround to have seen the talk of imminent war the tensest moments many believe on the korean peninsula since the korean war with a nuclear north korea and the u.s. president threatening to destroy north korea i have to.