a business worth billions but just how murky is the world of sports and reality. starting june sixth. this is the news live from berlin tonight a spectacular turnaround the u.s. president canceled a planned summit with north korea. is a tremendous setback for north korea and indeed a setback for the world was president blaming hostile statements from kim jong un for the decision will ask what the shock move means for hopes of peace on the

korean peninsula also coming up germany's chancellor angela merkel is in china for talks in korea is just the latest issue that's being sprung on berlin and beijing by an unpredictable white house we'll bring you up to speed on day one of the chancellor's visit plus investigators say the missile used to shoot down quite over ukraine four years ago came from a russian military unit all the two hundred nineteen people on board were killed denies any involvement in the attack. it's good to have you with us u.s. president has canceled a highly anticipated summit with north korea's leader kim jong un trump blamed the decision on quote open hostility from pyongyang but the collapse of the talks will

likely also raise questions about the hawkish attitude from within the white house which were seized upon by kim jong un in the meantime trump has conceded that an opportunity for peace may have been missed. based on the recent statement of north korea i have decided to terminate the planned summit in singapore in june twelfth while many things can happen and a great opportunity lies ahead potentially i believe that this is a tremendous setback for north korea and indeed a setback for the world. before this address trump informed the world and north korea's leadership of his decision in a letter quite unusual for a president more accustomed to making major announcements on twitter this time he needed more than one hundred forty characters to convey his disappointment about kim jong il recent display of quote tremendous anger and open hostility it means

there potentially historic meeting is now off asked by a reporter if this would mean war more likely trump responded we'll see what happens i heard. you did you argue it will show you the timing is giving other world leaders a cause for concern earlier in the day a handful of international journalists including some from south korea were invited to witness the suppose the demolition of a north korean nuclear test site seen by many as an act of goodwill independent nuclear weapons inspectors did not attend the international community's hopes for peace between the two koreas dashed. the partners to continue. to fund them. to the peaceful then fired didn't realize ation of the korean peninsula. president trump

wants to continue the dialogue but has set conditions. if it when kim jong un chooses to engage in constructive dialogue and action. i am waiting. the world is waiting to see if these two leaders will ever meet and if the unionize asian will ever be achieved. and for more of this i'm joined here at the big table by korea expert professor has mostly from the free university here in berlin professor it's good to see you again you know we didn't think we were going to be talking about this this soon the it appears the entire world was caught off guard by this decision and what did you think when you heard about it yeah i was surprised by it too i heard from my students during my lecture today and we discussed it but it's not only i think also the. people around triumphal themselves they were surprised by that of course moon

of the south korean president was taken by surprise he visited for president only one day before and they had very good composition but what does this mean i mean we heard that president moon was trying to make sense of what happened today. what does this mean for him moving forward he has invested a lot in the trump plan as we know it has he completely lost face in credibility with the south koreans through this. well i think first of all the efforts by a south korean president were very well received even even in the white house and they were very successful but now we have that what we have been warned about so long that there is an unpredictability was president trump and the only way to to to get over this is now having a smart reaction by the north koreans he said in his comments today that he had spoken with leaders in south korea and japan but obviously according to what we've

heard from president moon in seoul you know that was not the case they this caught them by surprise so we've got the south korea factor now what about china with this yes so in the case that really the summit does not take place and the relations getting worse between. the u.s. and north korea then actually china becomes much more important because they can also give guarantees of security to north korea they can provide also economic benefits to to north korea of course they cannot completely sums substitute the u.s. but it could be the the core could be moved to china to having a better sense and this comes on the day when we had the reports of journalists going into north korea and seeing tunnels to the supposedly to the north korean nuclear facilities being destroyed so you've got a picture of at least what north korea wants us to think of them trying to get rid

of their nuclear weapons research and then you've got the u.s. president canceling a summit with kim jong un so who looks how in this picture i think both sides are to be blamed it's only one side but obviously the north koreans are very much interested in going into the negotiations was an important gesture even though some people say the facilities have been working anyways and that it was an important gesture of good faith by north korea. as they also released the prisoners the u.s. prisoners and all the other things and not so much has been coming back from the u.s. until now and that's what also north korea has been be bothered by what about this talk about the former libyan dictator moammar gadhafi there was this fear there's been a lot of talk john bolton's talked about it by president pence and there was there was this talk about kim jong un being afraid that he too would become a dictator he would be left to die do you think that played a role in the polemics we've seen in the last week or so i would definitely say so

the libya model so that back then got duffy agreed in a deal with the u.s. to get rid of his weapons of mass destruction and then in the end up being killed by rebels and this is the worst case scenario for north korea and the americans keep talking it's not talking about it yeah there's no big of provocation than that it's a very good point i want to read of part of the letter from president trump today just to give our audience an idea of what exactly was said and he writes sadly based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement i feel it is inappropriate at this time to have this long plane meet meeting you talk about your nuclear capabilities but ours are so massive in powerful that i pray to god that they will never have to be used so what are we hearing there i mean is that we're back to this mine is bigger than your words but are is that a very old threat of a nuclear attack i would say so i think this is the code between those two cowboys

so the call when the rest of the calling these to they used to talk and i think it will understand what trump is saying is trying to say and also if you look at the formulation of the tone of the letter that road it's not really harsh provocations just being very clear he's deliverance the door and quickly before the time do you think what reaction do you think we're going to see from north korea if any in the next twenty four hours very very difficult to predict but i really hope they are smart and don't react in interim occasional that's all right professor one is was there as always we appreciate your insights thank you. and this latest move by washington on north korea is sure to join a lengthy agenda in beijing where germany's angela merkel is meeting with chinese leaders merkel had intended to focus her two day visit on beijing on open access to

chinese markets and human rights but recent u.s. policy moves are revealing cracks in germany's longtime alliance with the u.s. pushing global security issues to the top of merkel's diplomatic checklist. red carpets and a guard of honor in china at least the old rules of diplomacy still apply. good news for anglo american who amid card bill in global headwinds is looking eastward for a friendly face. from the iran nuclear deal to fending off u.s. trade tariffs and beijing find themselves side by side. you know. we are of the view that we should be getting an unlimited exemption from these tariffs we are in discussions with the american government as the chinese government also

is. and we work together well in the area of steel within the framework of the g twenty steel forum and could really solve some of the problems. where we we agreed to maintain multilateralism and rules a free trader who. saw americans we agreed to promote trade liberalization and investment opportunities in the. chinese door is open to you for help and will be open even wider better for. the reception here is a far cry from merkel's report with another ally in. her encounters with president trump marked by all her body language and misunderstandings. perhaps no surprise then that merkel's foreign minister had little to show for his visit to washington yesterday with

a compromise on iran said to be far off. back in china merkel spent the afternoon with president xi jinping pressing the case for strength and trade and a foreign line on the iran nuclear deal as she bolsters new alliances the german chancellor must tread carefully for fear of alienating the ones. well here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world the french president manuel micron has been holding talks in st petersburg with his russian counterpart vladimir putin after the meeting said that moscow and paris had valve to work towards an end to the war in syria conflict in ukraine and the plans were also on the table lebanon's saad hariri is about to embark on a third term as the country's prime minister despite his party losing ground in recent elections a re pledged to set up a national unity government which he said must commit to a policy of staying out of regional conflicts there are fears that lebanon could

become the next battleground for a proxy war between saudi arabia and iran. were dutch investigators say that the missile that brought down malaysia airlines flight image seventeen nearly four years ago came from a russia based military unit the passenger jet was headed from amsterdam to kuala lumpur when it was blown out of the sky over eastern ukraine all two hundred ninety eight passengers and crew were killed russia continues to maintain that it had nothing to do with the disaster. they don't really established want shut down the plane now for the fast time touch that investigators have to tap in the russian made book missile did originate in russia it's still to conclusion goldman delta booked a joint investigation team has concluded that the book missile that shot down and seventeen came from the fifty first missile big eight based in cuz can russia. in the. investigators laid out how they came to that conclusion using photos and

videos taken by the public to discover a crucial details and map out the missiles johnny. that journey tragically ended here in a field in eastern ukraine in territory held by proud russian separatists flight m.h. seventeen had taken off from amsterdam heading to the malaysian capital kuala lumpur it disappeared from radar screens four hours later over the village of. will two hundred ninety eight people on board lost their lives most of them dutch and as many as eighty children since that day in july twenty fourth scene investigators have been gradually piecing together the evidence they now want people to come forward to help identify who fired the missile lot of our work in the in the last years have been all the forensic work and all the work around the why of taps everything we found on the internet and now we are narrowing down

a narrowing down to finding the perpetrators so see this as a confident goal for the next phase but russia has repeatedly dismissed the findings of the investigation and blames ukraine for the incident and with moscow using its veto to block an international tribunal and a meaningful criminal trial looks unlikely your plate would be w. news i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by. the whole d w o one at. four in focus global insights the news out of our local bureaus. b.t.w. made for mine.