leaders of north and south korea agree to that war president said summit shields pledges to bring the korean to a formal and the potential of nuclear weapons but actions following words from bring you complete coverage also on the program. more summitry in washington german chancellor angela merkel arrives to meet us president donald trump talks promised to be brief and far from straightforward. o'clock because two new songs for the virtual two off on the t.v. special.

welcome to the program so 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 stopped as i started summit to kim jong un and move jay inside they would sign a formal peace treaty by the end of this year and work towards a nuclear free korean peninsula and they insisted i 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 a historic declaration which aims to end the longstanding conflict key points

include 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. there you saw me declare together but there will be no more war on the korean peninsula and the new age of peace has begun for years. with his sister in attendance north korean leader kim jong un addressed the audience. warning him face to face home 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 boy are not enemies who must fight against each

other but all the farmers who share the same blood line who must unite. even though. it was a day rich with symbolism and surprises this was the moment ken stepped over the border to the side in the demilitarized zone he's the first north korean leader to set foot in the site since 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 failed peace attempts has some critics wary of the north's commitment the next step meeting between kim jong il and us 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 and 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 they 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 un believes that there is no other way and yet for the last year he has done nothing but

a build up these arms tests 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 self assured 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. this nuclear program he's not going to give it up just like that 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 so 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 yes of course quite interesting because if you look at it in terms of mr costa south korea says ok we don't spend all this money on weapons. looking out for our neighbors they stop doing that the united states looks is going to look at that somewhat askance regardless of what will or will not happen in this meeting but also will or will not happen between donald trump and kim jong un 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 peace process peace process from both ends graduate school of a station not a status thank you so much thank you. little trump meanwhile house welcomes the announcements from the into korean summits he made his comments as he hosted the u.s. the winter olympics team at the white house on the occasion of this week's meeting between president moon and kim jong un i want to express my hope that all of the people of korea north korea and south can someday live in harmony prosperity and peace and it looks like it could happen when i began people were saying that was in

a possibility he said there were two alternatives let him have what they have or go to war and now we have a much better alternative than anybody thought even possible now to some of the other stories making news around the world at least seven students have been killed and nineteen others injured in a stabbing attack in northern china officials say a man wielding a knife attack the students outside a second to school in mitzi county in shanxi province a police have taken a suspect into custody. in south africa seven people were killed when a train struck a vehicle as a railway crossing in a town well thought says are investigating the cause of the collision which happened in the same place as a similar accident eighteen years ago in which ten children or killed. french president fifth in line to the british. and german chancellor angela merkel has arrived at the white house for talks with president donald trump two leaders are

expected to discuss the iran nuclear deal u.s. trade tariffs and berlin's military spending this is the chancellor's second visit to washington since mr trump took office so far she has been unable to establish a good personal the poor though in contrast to french president emanuel mccraw who just completed a lavish three day visit in the u.s. capital and read. more on this that former boris foreman who is a professor of political science at the bard college in lynn and d.-w. correspondent accustomed phenomena joins us from washington welcome both let's start with you boris foreman what does chancellor merkel hope to achieve in this three hour meeting that emanuel mccraw couldn't in history days that's the big question i mean mccraw is known to have a good relationship as you just said to donald trump but he was invited and was a long sort of moral ritual also him speaking in front of congress something that

hasn't happened to french leaders speaking in front of congress for fifty eight years so there was a lot of pomp and circumstance perhaps that's the advantage of a glimmer a call that she can act in the shadow of what just happened also the korean headlines which are much more visible right now so maybe she's going to go she did without the spotlight being on the negotiations because of our nominee what does donald trump want from germany. a number of things first of all he wants germany to spend more on the military if possible on the u.s. made military equipment he wants germany to follow america's lead in confronting iran and the middle east he also wants america to stop the construction of a second natural gas pipeline from russia to germany both for strategic and for economic reasons because the us also wants to sell natural gas leak we fight

natural gas to europe and of course she wants germany to reduce the current trade surplus with the united states all the mons that until america is neither willing or able even to fulfill at least not in the short run so interesting news and i'm sort of related issue that the us senate left it until just hours before the chancellor arrived today to confirm the u.s. ambassador to germany why was there such a delay. well for once that was not on the trumps fault he nominated the new ambassador richard grinnell in september of last year but has met a lot of opposition from the democrats in the senate because as mr trump mr going out as very outspoken on twitter has made a number of very controversial statements among other things targeting a number of women and so the democrats the opposition in the senate has tried to

drag out the confirmation process as much as possible but now he has been confirmed and he's a diplomat a former diplomat at least and now will be a diplomat again he already has some contacts to some members of the german government the new health minister again spawn for instance who has congratulated mr via twitter on so so this might be a useful channel of communication for the future what is form one of the specifically german issues that dr merkel wants to take up with mr trump well i think she's very much in line with mccall and to two items were on the top of the agenda one of them being the iran nuclear deal the other thing being the steel and aluminum turf so merkel will try to hammer these agenda points whole making clear to donald trump that iran cannot be left without without this kind of a treaty or they should move on without having anything else in place and of course

for germany dhea still an aluminum turf sort of particular importance because we have a lot of exporting manufacturers that depend on the one hand on the exports but that depend also on the stoop prices and on the steel that might be flooding flood flood in europe so there are a couple of points that are important for germany i think one of the interesting points would be to see the lesson she went there she was trying to sell germany as sort of a win win partner where the apprenticeship model and the educational model could be sold to the u.s. . let's see if there might be some kind of similar strategy on the side of merkel in order to get some of the points across most of it didn't seem to work very well though because of our nominee in washington just on the point of trade germany could be lose lose here in any sort of trade war with the united states because of course germany's car industry as an imported into the us but also as an exporter of b.m.w.'s and mercedes out of u.s. plants absolutely. would be would be bad

consequences for german industry either way the other point is of course that donald trump generally looks at the relationship with germany and looks at germany's trade surplus with the united states and is not happy about it he blames unfair trade activities by the e.u. he has by now understood that.