this is deja vu news live from berlin north korea violently escalating the tensions with its southern neighbor john yang has blown up a liaison office near the 2 countries heavily militarized tris border tensions between the 2 countries have been rising for weeks we'll go live to seoul for the very latest. also coming up germany rolls out its corona virus tracking it tracing out the government hopes the new technology will help fight the spread of the virus but it is voluntary so how effective can it be and what about security and privacy

concerns. and president trump confirms washington will be slashing us from in germany he says he's acting because berlin has not been paying its fair share of nader's budget. i'm brian thomas critelli with us today north korea has blown up a joint lives own office near the border between the 2 countries the office seen here when it was 1st opened in 20 teen handles inter korean relations situated in the town of case song that's just north of the border the explosion comes as tensions between the 2 sides escalate escalate over a leaflet in campaign pyongyang has sharply condemned souls failure to stop activists from air dropping propaganda over the border into the north.

let's get up to date on this breaking news story with correspondent frank smyth in the souls in seoul south south korea's capital good day to you frank can you phil's on on the latest on what sparked this incident. well this was sparked by north korea again harshly criticizing the south korean government for its failure failure to rein in this leafleting campaign massive balloons sending leaflets into north korea that you mentioned by a couple of n.g.o.s here one led by. who i've interviewed on numerous occasions about his activities north korea views this as a violation of the $28000.00 deal that the 2 governments had to end this care and of activity which included like broadcasting messages from loudspeakers across each of the borders had at each other and north korea again has come out very harshly

criticizing the this activity and even north korean leader kim jong un's sister many of us that the 2nd in command there issued this statement on on saturday quote before long a tragic scene of the useless north south jointly as an office completely collapsed would be seen and that appears to be what happened earlier today we see these tensions rising over the past few days what's been fueling that for. well as we talked about it's this leafleting campaign in kim jong again north korean leader kim jong un's younger sister has harshly criticized these n.g.o.s and the north korean defectors that run them for these campaigns to send messages into north korea criticizing the north korean regime the kim dynasty they would like to see this stopped and the south korean government has reacted to

these demands and promised and tried to rein in these groups but they contend that they're going to keep doing it that they have a right to free speech and they want to message driven to their compatriots in north korea that they want to see a change in that dictatorial nature of the kim regime there you mentioned junk now many of the threats coming from north korea over the past days have been attributed to her what do you make of that. that's correct if we look back a couple of months 'd to those rumors that surfaced about the grave illness of leader kim jong wound we were talking about who might be the next leader of north korea and of course kim your junks name repeatedly came up i talked to an expert here in the south korean capital and he said if we see her actually pews and her

profile in north korean propaganda increase then that game for the crown to be the next leader of north korea would be over and we could you know then conclude that kim your own jaw cumulus jiang is is the likely heir to the north korean leadership frank smith thanks for that from seoul. well the indian army says at least 3 in the end soldiers including a senior officer have been killed in a standoff with chinese troops along a disputed border in the himalayas looking at the region right now the conversation took place in the gulf one valley of dock in the kashmir region although tensions between the city's eyes have been building over the last month or so this is the 1st incident in which soldiers have actually been killed in 45 years china has so

far given no details about any casualties on its side. or here in germany the government has rolled out its official app to fight the spread of covert 19 that technology can send warnings to users if they've been in close contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus the government hopes that this will shorten infection jayne's the app is voluntary and it has some people though one wondering about the privacy and security concerns related to. the demo version of germany's coronavirus tracing app was unveiled in late may it has a simple design and it's easy to use the app was developed by german software giant s.a.p.t. gether with deutsche telekom the firms were only commission to create it in early may until then the german government had planned to use technology that would have put user data on to central servers critics warn that the system was not secure and

too vulnerable to hackers so berlind switched to a decentralized solution now users remain anonymous and the encrypted data is wiped from their smartphones after 2 weeks. the coded app uses bluetooth to determine which other smart phones are in the vicinity and for how long if an app user tests positive for the coronavirus other users who were in longer contact with that person get a warning message. some experts say that around $50000000.00 people in germany would have to use the app for it to be really useful in the fight against the virus and thus we also have to make it clear to people that we're not going to suddenly get rid of the virus through this app it's just one approach of many that can at least help fin out the chain of infection if not actually interrupt it and the question could this is the logo of the official german coded tracing app starting today it can be installed on i o s an android mobile phones. let's get your brief down some of the other stories

making the news at this hour here in germany 2 suspected right wing extremists are going on trial for killing a conservative politician also looked a shot at his home a year ago he was a supporter of chancellor merkel's decision to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants into germany in 2015. malta has opened an investigation into alleged links between a former police chief and people implicated in the murder of prominent journalist wanted to lead 03 years ago lawrence according yar stepped down in january as police commissioner amidst accusations that he bungled the probe into the journalists killing. u.s. president gul trump says he's going to cut the number of american troops in germany by nearly 10000 from current levels of about 35000 he says he's taking the action because berlin has failed to meet its nato spending commitments the move or shaken

the nato military alliance enjoy money which serves as a base for many of the us troops deployed to iraq and afghanistan for 70 years tens of thousands of american troops have been stationed in germany for europe their presence at bases like spangdahlem garron torah peace for the us and expression of its military might. on monday donald trump confirmed he would be withdrawing almost 10000 of them leaving 25000 behind he blamed bare lens failure to meet its need to spending commitments i would say so germany's delinquent they've been delinquent for years and they owe nato billions of dollars and they have to pay it so we're protecting germany and it delinquent that doesn't make sense the u.s. military presence in germany was a regularly a boo work against the soviet threat during the cold war and continues to be a deterrent against potential russian aggression trump decision threatens to

further strain the relationship between the 2 allies. germany since its serenity since 1900 is a very strong partner and we would like to be handled also even and with the united states this is not the way you treat your close part was. u.s. presidents have long called for germany to increase defense spending but some suspect the latest decision is a reaction to german chancellor angela merkel who refused to attend the g. 7 summit that was to be hosted by the u.s. president later this month trump seems to see america not everybody else has systemic rival. therefore. personality does matter is this is also part of a neo isolationist policy so it's less about the individuals or the.

individuals to matter it is a new self definition of what the american interest seems to be. it's not clear if trump will be able to push through the troop withdrawal which species step for position in congress even members of his own party opposed the plan. for more on this we're joined by alexander graff lamb store if he's a german parliamentarian the opposition business free for you democrats and overseas foreign affairs for the party's parliamentary group thanks so much for coming in on this last lap store for your party is committed thank you to a strong u.s. ties what does the withdrawal of about a 3rd of america's 35000 troops here say to you about the state of german american relations. well the state of german american relations is not very good we've heard that just a minute ago and as a matter of fact of course president trump sees under as

a very different kind of leader and the. women back to declined to attend his g 7 meeting later in the year i think the point was has come for the united states to take this decision it's a blow to us by literally grayson's that there's absolutely no doubt about that ok now you've criticized the american administration's push for multilateralism to cope with unilateral american policy decisions like this one with washington not consulting berlin on this move is only machall in the end right that germany needs to look for new mutual defense arrangements. oh it's very good that you should ask that because as a better effect we are very strong proponents of multilateralism that we regret very much when the united states left the paris accord left unesco left the w.h.o. are about to leave it leaving behind the arms control treaties so as

a matter of fact this is a point on which we support chancellor merkel's government we would just like to see more success here and a more determined attitude on the part of the german government when it comes to strengthening international organizations because when america act to kate as a leader inside these organizations china may take over may want to take over and it's something that we as germans and europeans have to counter how do you avoid that how do you avoid china moving into the vacuum that american you know lateral ism could possibly create. by developing a very strong european foreign policy and that is something that's sorely missing as a matter of fact and that's why we criticize the german government as an opposition party we believe that there should be much closer cooperation between germany and france the other large member states of the european union but the european union as a whole as well should develop

a foreign policy worthy of that name and then transfer that inside into international organizations most prominently obviously the united nations ok does that mean that nato is becoming irrelevant for germany. no nature still is always security alliance of last resort and let's not forget 25000 american soldiers are bones to stay my military context tell me that the cooperation on the military professional level. very well to this to this day and the political level as we've just discussed here we see difficulties developing the military still cooperates very closely alexander graff lambs dorf is ever great to see you thanks so much for coming in for us today thank you we have some german football now byron munich are just one win away from capturing their 8th straight but in this league a title players are training in the rain ahead of tuesday's match at better braman

byron of one the last 10 league games are 7 points clear of 2nd place for a c a dork. this is the news live from berlin don't forget there's always more of these and other stories on our website e.w. dot com i'm brian thomas for the entire team thanks for being. language courses. video. any time anyway.