this is news coming to you live from berlin kim jong il and sister arrives for south korea's winter olympics it's the first ever visit to the south by a member of the ruling kim dynasty is her trip across the border a sign of fall or just a political ploy we go live to kill in china also coming up. it's not all about politics the olympic flame is in the final few stages of the torch relay and on its way to the opening ceremony of the twenty third winter day. and germans have had

a day to mull over the new government that's taking shape we talked to a determined opponent of the new grand coalition. hello i'm terry market thanks for joining us high level north korean delegation has arrived in south korea ahead of the opening ceremony for the winter olympic games the delegation includes kim yo june the sister of north korean leader kim jong il and she's the first member of the north's ruling dynasty to visit the south officially the two countries are still at war but these games being held in south korea appear to have started a thaw in relations at the opening ceremony athletes from the two countries will walk side by side under a unity flag. well correspondent jason strother is in china for

us and joins us now jason tell us more about kim you joy and why her visit to south korea is so significant. i mean it's unprecedented that a member of the ruling kim family has come to south korea and i think there is some expectation or perhaps hope that she is bringing with her a message from her big brother ruler kim jong loon of course. the world was surprised earlier this year when kim announced that he wanted north korea to participate in the peeling chong olympics and ever since then president moon j.n. here in south korea has done all he can to accommodate the north koreans. but now we're getting ready for the opening ceremony there's a lot of expectations what's going to happen not only tonight but throughout the games with north korean athletes compete including a joint women's hockey team that is formed with south korean athletes it was so

much attention being given to the north korean delegation there at the olympic games are at the posts in the south not concerned that the political dimension will overshadow the athletic competition titian when ever in north korea is in the equation and old it always overshadows everything else course there was a lot of attention to the games before north korea said it would participate but ever since it dispatched it that its athletes here right straps to work history here and now with these high profile regime figures here in the south it really is all about north korea. could this be a political solve jonathan do you think there could have be some real political implications for this for the two koreas. well let's see what happens we have not only the olympics and followed by the paralympics which will wrap up in mid march

and then the u.s. and south korea are expected to launch their annual military exercises and that always antagonizes. so if all the goodwill generated during the olympics lasts into march into april. then we can determine whether or not sustainable peace has been made because of these games jason thank you so much struggle there at the olympic games and can charm south korea. thank you well the course of our tracing for sport the c.a.'s has turned down an appeal by forty seven russian athletes and coaches to compete at those winter games the russians have been banned from taking part by the international olympic committee over state sponsored doping install chief porn years ago they argued they've been wrongly executed for making it excluded from the games but the i.o.c.

his decision was not unfair or discriminatory. now the opening ceremony for the twenty eighteen winter olympics is just a couple of hours away and that means on all russia preparations for host south korea and china politics and doping scandals have dominated much of the coverage but for most people in south korea that's just background noise to the main event. the olympic torch is on to the heinz stretch. the final few stages of the flames journey brought it ever near its appealing chang and the games opening ceremony as the torch made its way along the coastline athletes and fans were gearing up for two and a half weeks of winter sports action with expectations high. the german house in pyongyang is up and running and here confidence in a good metal hole is so high that the champagne is already on ice everything here is set up to give competitors and supporters alike a taste of germany

a long way from home. for organizers it's about making sure everyone has a good time. has not done we want to welcome many happy guests and see many sports stories written and watch many happy athletes who are truly enjoying their time here. meanwhile in the capital seoul too controversial figures made their entrance impersonators of donald trump and kim jong un have a rived in south korea with a message of peace and friendship. it seems like the olympics event like this has started a dialogue between north korea and south korea which i have to think that dialogue even if it different produces a little bit of shouting between people is better than people shooting each other lethal tropic can. they will do you think talk to probably go because in my opinion to pretty much the same people an unlikely friendship made reality by the people in

chiang games and with official opening of events just hours away people here will be hoping diplomatic relations can piggyback on the feeling of good will to make the winter olympics more than just a sporting success. but. say look now at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today the u.s. senate has passed legislation to end a government shutdown all stuff that. it midnight on the bill is now before the house of representatives if the house adopts the vegetation government offices will be able to reopen it is normal in the morning passages not certain. activists say air strikes in syria is eastern guta near the capital damascus have killed over two hundred people in the past four days alone the bloodshed has led the united nations to call for an urgent ceasefire to evacuate civilians and deliver humanitarian aid . rescuers working in taiwan are searching for seven people missing in this week's

deadly earthquake the six point four magnitude quake tilted this twelve story building on a forty five degree angle all seven people are trapped in a hotel on the bottom floor of the building. and the reuters news agency says an investigation into the massacre of ten row hinge of men by now more soldiers led to the detention of two of its reporters way loan and coie so who are awaiting trial on charges of illegal possession of state secrets while reporting on the ongoing revenge a crisis in rakhine state. and seven of the ten tourists arrested for pornographic dancing in cambodia have been released on bail they were arrested in january after photographs of emerged of people imitating sex acts at a party those out on bail cannot leave cambodia their passports have been confiscated. the leaders of germany social democratic party are set to begin

a campaign to win their party's backing for a coalition deal reached earlier this week with chancellor angela merkel's conservatives. and they have not less hope to convince nearly half a million party members to vote in favor of the agreement polls suggest a narrow majority will do so clearing the final hurdle for germany to form a new government but opposition to the deal has been spearheaded by members of the social democrats view swaying there calling it a betrayal of the party's values. was talked about a close enough she's the reasonable chair of the young socialists here in berlin as the youth wing of the s.p.d. party thanks for being with us today you we've talked just a couple of weeks ago about this i know you're a strong opponent of the grand coalition the party's future the future of this grand coalition is in your hands essentially because you get to vote on it all of the members of the s.p.d. get to vote on it how are you going to vote i'm going to vote against the credits

and contract that's for sure because looking at the results of the coalition talks after say basically is the same as the result of the explorative talks and the criticism saying this is just keep going as it was a contract and not a change that we were asking for stays the same our strong points that we want to push for are still missing in the contract and i don't see how this is going to change anything in german politics now many from outside are looking at this coalition agreement between medicals conservatives and your social democrats and they say wow the social democrats actually got a really good deal in this coalition agreement isn't that something that you should support. i don't know i think if we if we look at the circumstances that when negotiating was a conservative party i guess the results are quite they were negotiating very hardly and they got out some pride ok results but looking at the big picture and

looking at the reforms and step the germany would need right now and the big change in politics that we were campaigning for for these elections and i have to say no that doesn't change anything really so now i can't be happy with that so the entire youth wing of the s.p.d. party is campaigning against this coalition agreement you've been recruiting members into the s.p.d. to try to get them to vote against this coalition agreement and scupper the whole deal which would then presumably trigger fresh elections in germany understand some twenty twenty five thousand people have joined the s.p.d. over the past couple of months what how do you think that vote is going to go i think it's going to be a very close call and it's not you can't really say right now how the vote is going to go i think that we have some strong arguments right there and the twenty five thousand people who join most of them i think are supporting us they don't want to keep the great crowd this isn't what you have had for eight of the power of the

past twelve years and they really want to change in politics so they joined and they're campaigning with us together against the great and i think that's quite some back out for us some strong support and we have trying to convince every member we can get to vote against the coalition and we won't keep we won't keep quiet until we get the majority well if let's say you get the scenario and say you are successful and you manage to vote down the coalition agreement and now there's going to that would result in no government what's scenario would you like to see happen well first of all that's not true re still if a government in office and on the other hand it's now i know america responsibility . you form a government and because before you get new elections she has to go to the bundestag and face a vote three times before she can even have the procedure but if the result the options are rather limited there is a minority government there is forming

a guy with other minorities which he tried and failed and the other option is fresh alexion he might be voted into office by a minority crawfish and that's a possibility of course also maybe other minority quotations in the german bonus track might also be an optional minority get. their thing on the long run we gonna have then you elections maybe next year maybe in two years and i think that's the s.p.d. has to really reform itself start over new as a really strong social democratic left wing party where the people know what the party really stands for and then we're gonna have a campaign that a totally different from the one last year i'm just wondering about this recruitment drive for getting people into the party just to vote against the coalition agreement are you not concerned that this kind of opens up the party to manipulating the way a government is formed actually we were not campaigning for having members just joining for the vote it was whatever you want to enter the party vote no i think i

would say they should vote they should enter and vote no if they against it but we also need them to reform our party and have a fresh start in politics we need those critical people we need those people was courage who are willing to change politics so they need to stay no matter how the result is at the end of the votes they need to stay because we badly need the party needs members to close the regional chair for those young socialists the youth wing of the s.p.d. party here in berlin thank you very much for talking with us thank you. before you go just reminder the top story we're following for you here today on d w news north korean leader kim jong un's sister has arrived in south korea ahead of the winter olympics opening ceremony came you know joel is the first member of north of the north's ruling kim dynasty to ever visit the south it's a diplomatic overture from the nuclear armed regime that's been met with mixed reaction internationally. that's your news wrap certainly will be with you at

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