this is day two of the news live from berlin the leaders of north and south korea agreed to and have an unprecedented summit yields pledges to bring the korean war to a formal ends and with the potential of nuclear weapons but will actions follow works will bring you complete coverage also on the program the. course of a tree in washington is john the chance and i'm going back a little past to meet u.s. president donald trump for a look ahead to a meeting the promises to be brief and far from simple.

i'm still down welcome to the program the leaders of north and south korea have agreed to formally end the state of war between their two countries sixty five years after the fighting and it is a historic summit a kim jong un blue jay and said they would sign a formal peace treaty by the end of this year and work towards a nuclear free korean peninsula and they insisted they did not want to repeat the mistakes of the past. an extraordinary moment in korean history after decades of hostilities and the threat of a nuclear confrontation a new era of peace is declared on the peninsula. moments before the leaders signed to distort declaration which aims to end the longstanding conflict key points includes. replacing the armistice with an official peace

treaty plans to denuclearize the peninsula the reunification of separated families and a follow up summit in the north this autumn after the signing ceremony in the piece south korea's president made the historic announcement. or you saw me declare together or by will be no more war on the korean peninsula and age of peace has begun for years. with his sister in attendance north korean leader kim jong il address the audience . oh. i know him face to face i hope for me to realize that north and south korea will not just neighbors who live separately but rather a family. we who live so close by are not enemies who must fight against each other

but the farmers you share the same bloodline who must you know hurt. you. it was a day rich with symbolism and surprises this was the moment kim stepped over the border to the side in the demilitarized zone he's the first north korean leader to set fish in the site since one thousand nine hundred fifty three in a show of unity men returned the favor by crossing briefly to the north with kim. after planting a peace treaty on the demarcation line maine and kim held private talks on this fifth bridge the same color as the unified korean flag used in sporting events.

their spouses were introduced before the banquet where they dined on cold noodles a speciality from the north. despite the grain breaking meeting a history of field peace attempts has some critics wary of the north's commitment the next step a meeting between kim jong il in and u.s. president donald trump is planned for may or june. so what has today's ceremony achieved beyond warm words photo opportunities and headlines how this must look as director of research at the graduate school of east asian studies here and then welcome to t.w. we saw the declarations in the report has anything of substance been achieved today absolutely they put their pledges into writing this was the necessary condition for bringing about a peace process so they showed the world on it with this document their sincerity regarding their wish their will to to improve the situation

denuclearization of course is one of the big prizes that was held up as a pledge by south korea's president in his statement whereas kim jong un in his statement afterwards didn't mention it both sides really on the same page i would definitely say so literally i mean they put it on the same page and they signed it that he didn't mention it in his speech i think we don't have to overrated the important thing is that kim jong un himself he knows that there is no other way than denuclearization and he said that a couple of times in recent other meetings so he's it's only the question when how and who would implement these pledges including the. denuclearization one point of time it's the devil as ever it will be in the detail because you said that kim jong believes that there is no other way and yet for the last year he has done nothing but

a build up these arms test these arms and move in that direction so what changed his mind. he is was back then he was at a situation where he was able to develop his nuclear arsenal to an extent that he was sure that they are strong enough to bargain from now on because last korea is recently developing economic wise very well and they want to continue this because they have a middle class developing smoothly and they want to continue this and this doesn't work with the sanctions being pressured on them and that made the move so having spent. massive amounts of financial and political capital on developing. these this nuclear program is now go to give it up just like he will and that's a very simple calculation because in the long run this will will not pay out the state of division is much more costly than a unification maybe unification will be in the short term calculation very expensive but in the long run and that's the same for south korea and that's the

calculation he's doing and he knows he cannot continue this bargaining game with its nuclear weapons for other south korea during well economically what does it gain from this from this rapprochement well as i said for them it is also important that they end the state of war and replaces with with with a peace agreement because also for them the military expenditures a very high and also social costs the polarization within the south korean society is very high compared to a unified korea so they are highly interested in having a peace is that's cause quite interesting because if you look at it in terms of military cost the south korea says ok we don't spend all this money on weapons. looking out for our neighbors they stop doing that for united states look so it's going to look at that somewhat askance regardless of what will o.b.l. not happen in this meeting but also will or will not happen between donald trump and kim jong il and well yes of course the united states also have different

interests here in this matter but now that's why it is so important that we have a south korean president who is very much interested and willing to mediate between these two parties in order to to bring also to make this very successful the summit with the united states which is crucial for beginning a long term trees of peace process from both ends graduate school of a station not a status thanks so much thank you. more solitary in washington germany's chancellor prepares to meet america's president in just a few minutes the meeting between i'm going to makeover donald trump is expected to last less than three hours but they will have a full agenda including the iran nuclear deal u.s. steel an alum in tariffs and the war in syria and chancellor merkel's second visit to washington since mr trump took office. it's all could moments during their first meeting at the white house that still sums up the utter lack of political chemistry

between i'm going to machall and donald trump. when trump simply didn't react as merkel asked him to shake hands thank you. german chancellor i'm going to america's reputation as the global leader who keeps the world strong men on the straight and narrow simply doesn't seem to apply to this u.s. president who insists on setting the pace and direction of global politics. observers say trump's erratic decision making challenges merkel's political style to confront even partners with very harsh positions to threaten and then to undo and sort of go back into a more co-operative mood and i would say he has kept european partners pretty much on their toes trump upstaged his nato allies by talking about money rather than values twenty three of the twenty eight member nations are still not paying what

they should be paying and what they're supposed to be paying for their defense. his willingness to challenge the core values that bind together what is known as the west soon led machall to a sobering conclusion. the size. and then there are times in which we could rely fully on others are somewhat over. for by more than a year into the term presidency germany is still struggling to find common ground for cooperation with trumps in a circle merkel second visit is laden with pressing issues. there are three important issues on the transatlantic agenda for this meeting one is definitely trade and the criticism of the transatlantic trade arrangement the second one is germany's contributions in military terms to nato and the third one is the iran nuclear deal. the president of the french republic at the end of his

state visit in monrovia called directly criticize trump steelmaking and called on u.s. congress to live up to europe's expectations the united states is the one who invented this new deal of dualism you are zero one now who has to herb to preserve and reinvent it. merkel wanted to have this kind of stage for two and a half hour visit is set to focus on working down the list of problems mark or have to leave unresolved with berlin already resigned to the fact that a trade war is in the making expectations are low. to washington that where we joined the w.'s bureau chief alexandra norman will welcome alexandra so he doesn't look as though chancellor merkel is likely to receive as warm welcome from donald trump emanuel mccraw god. yes

that's true however we have to say that the president was very friendly today on twitter tweeting that he is looking forward to meeting the german chancellor saying that there is much to talk about and little time still very friendly words but you're right that we are not going to see any of the pomp and circumstance that accompany that state visit of the french president here merkel says it's rather a state and somber affair it is a working visit here she's scheduled to arrive here very shortly she will have fun conversation with president trump in the oval office for about twenty minutes then they will have lunch together and then it's straight to the press conference it's not a secret that there is a lack of chemistry between the two leaders don't they don't click however we have

to say that i assume that president trump knows exactly that he is going to talk to the leader of europe's largest nation and the most prosperous prosperous economy. exemption from the american steel and aluminum tar starts to expire at the start of next month what can the chance of an offer to try and change mr trump's mind in order to look favorably on the use wish for that exemption to be extended. well at the moment negotiations negotiations are going on between the united states and the europeans and it is. commissioner. who is leading these negotiations but of course it is a very important issue for germany for the german chancellor and she is she is definitely going to try to convince president strum that it is not in the u.s.

interest to start a trade war with its allies but you are all. ready to fight back and what we are hearing right now from the german delegation and from european politicians that they do not expect presidents trying to grant the europeans a permanent exemption from the tariffs was wonderful novel in washington thank you so much. now his reminder of our top stories at this hour the leaders of north and south korea have agreed to seek a formal peace treaty more than sixty years after the korean war ended in a truce and also reaffirmed that they will work to move the korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. that's a choice of today's awful few of the top of the hour in the meantime of course there's always the web site that's t w dot com out of the.

middle. of the world over information. opinions they want to read stressed g w on facebook and twitter. and in touch and follow us.