this is the. tensions with. the u.s. president. welcome

to the program north korea has. an office the post set up to improve relations with south korea the explosion was captured in surveillance video released by the defense ministry in the joint. just north of the border. to stop. the border. frank frank what's this incident. well you mentioned it earlier the the leafletting campaign from south korea a couple of n.g.o.s here one called the fighters for free north korea led by box

hock a north korean defector routinely floats large balloons carrying leaflets over the border and into north korea they are released dropping thousands of leaflets just along the border regions inside the north for north koreans to pick up and look at and consume some information denouncing the north korean regime he's done this for on words of a decade but has been ramping up activities this year together with his brother who sends rice in plastic bottles by the sea with currents taking them into north korea and also infuriating the pyongyang regime who spoke out against this earlier cumulate jiang the sister of leader kim jong un saying before long a tragic scene of the useless north south jointly is on office completely collapsed would be seen inevitable evidently that's what happened earlier today at

249 in the afternoon the issue of these leaflets and them being dropped in north korea has been brought up by north korea and the boss and it's something that has been discussed with something here as well has something not taken any action on this well you know it's quite a controversial issue here in the south with 50 percent saying that you know these n.g.o.s should be able to continue it and half of the south korean populace on the side saying it needs to be reined in. defectors have said both of which i've interviewed. couldn't. couldn't. you know. how consider the question did you. actually.

make the kitchen. because if. you've ever. been. to funny to which. condemn. say they're going to keep keep on with their leafletting can't campaign frank you took the name of accumulated jong this is sort of north korea's the that kim jong what can you tell us about and what involvement with this latest escalation well this gets back to a story that we covered earlier about the you know grave illness of kim jong il and it proved to be false but when we thought that he was on death's door we were considering and all experts were considering who is the potential heir to the

north korean government who's going to replace kim jong un and the answer was collectively perhaps came you know junk i spoke to an expert here in south korea who said if we hear of cumulus jones activities in her policies being pronounced in north korea propaganda then we'll know she is the heir to the throne she will likely be the next leader of north korea and that's what we're seeing here with some of her pronouncements being you know propagandized by the north korean government now right we leave it there for the time being frank smyth unsold thank you so much for. the indian army says that these 3 different soldiers including a senior officer have been killed in a clash with chinese forces along the disputed border as accuse india. and. said china also suffered casualties the confrontation took place in the government

valley of le duc in the kashmir region although tensions between the 2 sides have been building over the last month this is the 1st incident in which soldiers have been killed in more than 4 decades. some of the other stories making news at this germany has launched its official up to fight the spread of covert 19 the 2 contract close contact between people and send a warning should one of them test positive the government hopes it will help shorten infection chains using the app is voluntary. also in germany 2 suspected right thing extremists are standing trial accused of killing a regional politician well to look at his house a year. and get a medical decision to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants into germany in 2015 . has opened an investigation into alleged links between a former police chief and people implicated in the murder of prominent journalist daphne. 3 years ago. stepped down in january yes but he's commissioner i

made accusations that he bungled the prove into the journalists. us president donald trump says he's going to cut the number of american troops in germany by nearly 10000 from current levels of about 35000 he said he was taking the action because berlin had failed to meet its defense spending commitments nato secretary general stoltenberg says alliance members we need to hold a discussion about how and when withdrawal would take place. present trump and i discussed this issue during a phone call last week and my message will start today u.s. presence in europe it's good for europe but it's also good for north america and united states because the transatlantic bomb is essential to the strength and the success of the alliance the united states and the president has announced what they

have announced. but it remains but it's not yet decided how and when and. this decision will be implemented and i expect this to be an issue that will be discussed at the upcoming defensemen sterile meeting. and i was spoken with the president of the spoke you know there are presented civil to us on this ration and i also spoke with the german defense minister it on the 5th ago called our. own going to d.c. to. our move house stricken nato and especially germany which serves as a boost for many u.s. troops deployed in 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 a guarantor of peace for the u.s. an expression of its military might. on monday donald trump confirmed he would be

withdrawing almost $10000.00 of them blaming bare legs failure to meet its 2 percent defense spending but you're wrong he said it was indebted to the military are and. they've been delinquent for years and billions of dollars and they have to pay it so we're protecting germany and their delinquent that doesn't make sense for the u.s. military presence in germany was a reginald a bulwark 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 1908 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's refusal to attend the g. 7 summit that was to be hosted by the u.s. president later this month dog trump seems to see uncle americal not anybody else as his systemic rival. for. him personality does matter is this is also part of our solution as policy so it's less about the individuals or. individuals to matter it is a new self definition of what the american interest seems to be and it's not clear if trump will be able to push through the troop withdrawal which faces stiff opposition in congress even members of his own party opposed the plan.

the double digit correspondent is following this closely and joins us now from brussels terry mitchell secretary general yen stoltenberg said the troop withdrawals do you need to be discussed is this not a done deal well actually the u.s. has the right to do what it wants with its military it doesn't have to discuss these things with nato it doesn't have to negotiate pulling its own troops out of any country but as as we heard in the in the package before it's just not the nice way to do things in an alliance where you want your partners to support your decisions and your partners want to be consulted and this apparently didn't happen before this decision was made in washington. secretary general stoltenberg appeared to be taken by surprise because you nationally called these reports leaks or just media reports so it simply doesn't add to the cohesion of the alliance when any member takes takes unilateral decisions like this and i think many are hoping that this just doesn't happen stoltenberg kept saying it's not known how and when it

would happen everyone knows it's difficult to move large numbers of troops it's expensive the u.s. has to figure out what to do with the troops next and how it would replace those capabilities in its own ranks so yeah there remain to be a lot of a lot of discussions about how and when this would happen and it's unclear whether it's finalized the u.s. military is certainly arguing for this not to happen to be installed the u.s. troops good for your good for the u.s. how does the. pronouncements affect the alliances a broader defense posture. yeah i think it surprises a lot of people to find out that for example the us african command afrikaans is located in stuttgart germany not in the u.s. and not in africa but in germany the u.s. does a lot of activities a lot of military activities a lot of operations out of germany instead of the united states it's much closer to the middle east for example where there are a lot of

a troop movements going on so i think that what nato hopes and what secretary general stolzenberg hopes is that they can convince president trump that it's in his own interest not to take this move and of course it's in nato as interest that that there are not fewer american troops on the ground here it is a constant refrain that we hear out of nato headquarters that no matter what trump says on the ground he has actually increased u.s. support for europe if troops leave that that refrain doesn't sound quite as believable so everyone feels more safer with more u.s. troops on the ground in germany and i think that's very much what what the allies are hoping will be the end result no matter what president trump said yesterday. redeploying some of these troops from germany east to poland and tools that russia would just do pressure on russia affect need to his relationship with moscow. poland is always very friendly to the united states and has offered to build a new base for example there will be some heavy equipment stored there remember

there was this this idea about for trump being established there which of course makes president trump very happy so it's it's not surprising that he would say well maybe we'll just move those troops from the low defense spending germany over to the high defense spending poland it does spend 2 percent of its g.d.p. on defense but there is this agreements between nato and russia that there will not be a permanent positioning of troops very near the russian border and poland is of course a lot closer than germany so that could cause new problems for the nato russia relationship and it said time and time again that the only person who is happy about this announcement from president obama is let amir putin the president of russia so that may cause new tension but president putin may also be secretly savoring you know having another complaint against nato officials believe there for the time being and so much. this is news from berlin there's more on our website at www dot com and you can follow us on

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