from berlin tonight political posturing and provocation on the eve of the winter olympics american president arrives in south korea for the games with promises of tougher sanctions on the north meanwhile. its military mine for some though it's all about the spectacle excitement builds in the host city. as the olympic torch ever closer. all the latest on the build up from our sports team

plus the german chancellor she might have won over the social democrats but can she keep her conservatives on her. look at the criticism aimed at the chancellor's coalition deal coming from some of her own closest allies. it's good to have you with us the feud over north korea's nuclear program has moved to center stage on the eve of the olympic games in south korea u.s. vice president has arrived in seoul and is promising new more aggressive sanctions against the north he met with south korean president move following on his warning not to allow yang to quote hide behind the olympic banner. and today kim jong un presided over a military parade

a show of force after sending athletes performers even cheerleaders over the border that is seen as either a bid to thaw or relations with the south or to provoke the u.s. . north korea and the united states are still sending mixed messages a day before the twenty eighteen winter games. despite signaling it was willing to talk north korea hasn't traded the savior for the olive branch quite yet pyongyang staged a massive military parade marking the founding of its armed forces. addressing his troops north korean leader kim jong un called on his military to be on the ready to repel quote invasive forces much further south young is trying to put its best foot forward sending kim yo junge sister of the north korean leader as part of their olympic delegation she'll be the first member of the north's ruling family to cross

the demilitarized zone. the u.s. is response is also a mixed bag american vice president pence is meeting regional leaders ahead of the games he's already warned the u.s. is preparing more aggressive sanctions on the north and he promised korea's president that the u.s. wouldn't rest until pyongyang abandons its nuclear ambitions. and allow me to do assure you. and the people of south korea that the united states of america will to need to stand shoulder to shoulder in our effort to bring maximum pressure to bear on north korea until that time comes when they finally and permanently. and irreversibly abandon their nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions. and the world may be coming together for the winter olympics but the gulf between washington and north korea is as wide as ever. and

joining me tonight is a familiar face to our viewers a good foster carter he has written about both koreas for the past four decades and joins us tonight from leeds university in england it's good to see you again you know those pictures we just saw there of that military parade in pyongyang i mean that is a move that that i was expecting considering the tit for tat that we've seen between the north korean leader in the us president it can't be though that north korea is that easy to predict him to read. with that it was sent oh it is in some in some regards i was actually a little surprised by that i mean that they've basically sort of invented this new holiday or are they reinvented their favorite of the eight is actually the rich is the real out of us or the cream people's army or any of us it's the nineteen seventies kamil so only the founder of the state the grandfather of the president changed it so they now or they tell that they've celebrated in april the origins of

a complete imagining this look guerilla band and manchuria was indeed a gorilla but he was under chinese camomile not to go too far into the so you suddenly decided what can we do we can get through the back and seemingly raynal the silence for a day south korea as far as i know hasn't officially come into it but i should think they must have been some something of teeth to say the least and of course america has fewer emissions of us say things and we know that the north north koreans diplomatic delegation is arriving on saturday and is slated to meet with the south korean president i mean how how much is the north south crisis in conflict overshadowing these games. it's really it's quite complicated i mean we're in some ways in slightly unknown territory with kim jong un sending his sister until a lot of the stuff will it was sort of very welcome and it made

a change after all the months of crisis but cheerleaders some athletes before me as a militants happened between the two koreas before and so right now the main conflict is not if you like between north and south korea the conflict which of course is not addressed the told by it is happening at the olympics including north chris presence is about north korea's relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles so the test roll on hold for now but how exactly to handle this is going to be difficult for them and i wonder if there isn't a u.s. south korea gap in the north korea one is obvious but we're in day in who's got a background in the circle sunshine policy it believes that engaging that old difficult though it is is trying to do smartly vice president and by his own account is trying his damnedest to stop and i would be very sure to see who shakes hands with who who sits where and so on going to be a very a very difficult set of delicate a couple of days and be interesting to see to help things stand once the olympic

games are over as well. in foster heart i am very night this from leeds university in england it's good to see you again thanks for being on the show thank you well away from the political posturing the athletes at the winter olympics are raring to go or some of them are at least thirteen russians have failed with appeals to the court of arbitration for sport they wanted to compete despite a doping ban on their country and additional forty seven russians will find out on friday if they can participate just as the olympic torch reaches the host city pyong check. the olympic torch his journey is almost over with the opening ceremony just around the corner flame took a spectacular ride on a zip wire on its way to be on chang. this stop is one of the more daring

stages of its two thousand eight hundred kilometer journey around south korea. not a fate for the faint hearted. at least the next leg was far easier for those watching to stomach and the olympic village there was an unexpected visitors russian athletes who had been banned from the games by the i.o.c. were presenting their case to the court of arbitration for sport in the hope of having the decision overturned at the last minute the hearing concluded we presented the arguments and the fifteen athletes were cleared last week voted to cast ballots and thirty two other athletes were not invited by you see a final decision is expected early on friday with only hours to spare before the games open but the i.o.c. on the only ones with a close eye on the course decision regarding the russian athletes the world anti-doping agency is also in south korea for the games president craig really made his views clear. but from what bunch of you much wider operates entirely.

to. that greed and to try to clean the compliance and the improvement of the russian and you don't think it intially. organizers are hoping the legal wranglings and other issues surrounding the games will fade into the background once the action is fully underway freezing host city pyong chang is ready for its moment in the sun for the next two and a half weeks it will be at the center of the sporting world. well european leaders are welcoming the deal reached by germany's two biggest parties to form a coalition government it's been more than four months now since germany held elections european council president all of those who travelled straight to berlin for talks with angela merkel today he called of the deal good new coalition agreement reached on wednesday would see berlin contributing more to e.u. budget something brussels sees as

a welcome change merkel is also due to meet with the commission president john told you later today. let's find out what this would be government could mean for europe i'm joined now by our political correspondent thomas ferrer he is here in berlin on the story for us tonight good evening to you joe must so the united we saw there not wasting any time to high profile e.u. leaders in berlin today meeting with the chancellor and this is just to ratify to stress the key role that europe and the european policy plays in this coalition deal that was agreed by the conservatives on the social democrats if you look at the deal it's one hundred seventy seven pages long but right at the beginning you see that european chapter that idea that was described by political leaders as a new start for europe and that was obviously welcomed by need as any europe and

that reflects why these two very important european politicians came today to berlin to talk to the chance of the european policy is such on the at the center of the coalition deal that was agreed here in berlin and for many politicians and party members here in germany this deal is obviously a yeah a loveless marriage if you will i mean do you do germans even like it. on the one hand i do believe that many are relieved about the fact that there is a nice to coalition deal in place the elections were held in september so germany has not had a new stable government for over four months and that has come with a lot of uncertainty uncertainty that many germans have certainly felt so on the one hundred you can say that there's a certain relief here in germany but there has been criticism especially by those who believe that the deal does not go far enough or that it knocks the tails on the has also been criticism even within the parties themselves let's have a look at what some see you conservative members think about the deal that was

agreed to here and. it was not exactly her moment of glory but the waiting was finally over german chancellor angela merkel had to be persuaded to publicly present a new coalition agreement that was wednesday night right after the big breakthrough many of merkel's allies were not amused younger people like spawn for example because he will probably not get a ministerial position but others were angry because they couldn't understand why key ministries such as finance are now going to the s.p.d. . i am very worried that if we look towards the challenges we face in europe when it comes to distributing money for example i would have preferred to see the ministry of finance in the hands of the c.d.u. rather than the s.p.d. . to do what it was when it comes to portfolio distribution i would say that the c.d.u. did worse than the s.p.d. if it were to stay within the conservative family we could deal with it but we

handed over the finance ministry to the s.p.d. and only got the economics ministry of the lot also which the larger party the c.d.u. left the table with the least important ministries says the party's members in sex and it. what i see now in social media is difficult it will be very hard to get back on the right path there's lots of dissatisfaction in the c.d.u. and fear that the party has sold out before cove there was no other way otherwise the coalition agreement would simply not come about says c.s.u. party leader horace d. who for yeah we would have accepted the finance ministry that was our first priority as we would have taken the foreign ministry we would have taken the ministry of social affairs but the s.p.d. insisted from the outset that it wanted those three ministries and without them they would not join the coalition because it's called many in the c.d.u. say the chancellor negotiated badly others simply call it

a conservative social democrat coalition compromise. and it was we knew that the members of the social democrats they now have to approve this deal briefly what are the chances that they will say no well exactly that is the point that is the very big hurdle that implications they'll face because we're talking here of more than four hundred thousand s.p.d. members who have to give the green light to this coalition deal on this a lot of them especially among the youth wing of the social democrats are very skeptical about the prospect of another grand coalition so it is indeed a very big hurdle that the politicians still have ahead of them and one where it is very difficult to predict in which way it will go our political correspondent thomas fare on the story for streamlines here in berlin thomas thank you. and that's going to wrap up this edition of news for all of us here thanks for the company i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the

day tonight we're going to take a look at the u.s. president and his wishes for a. german lawmakers in washington think about the grand coalition back home. crime fighter the new season of radio crime thrillers mediums. for investigative cases that will keep you on your toes. stories. so every young person needs to listen to crime fighter and shantell. crime fighters don't miss it.