one year after north korea's artillery attack on a south korean island, residents are rebuilding their lives among lingering anxiety. welcome to "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi.

people are head to go class and moving on with their lives, quite a difference from last year. north korea attacked the island a year ago. residents fled the island and left everything behind. now they're busy trying to get back what they lost. ana, you spent several days there. what's life like a year later? >> reporter: people are busy rebuilding what was damaged. there's a lot to do. it is only a few square kill meters in size, but it is a point of tension between the north and south for years. south korean soldiers watched their enemies from this observation post. behind them 12 kill meters away, north korean soldiers stare right back. the island lies in the northern limit line. the seaboarder between the two koreas. the north korean military launched an attack last november 23rd across those waters.

they fired 170 shells, about half landed on the island. they killed four people, including two civilians. they hurt 18 others. the shells damaged dozens of buildings, homes, businesses, military facilities. about 1700 residents had little choice but to flee. they stayed away for three months. then little by little, they started to return. but many of them needed a new place to live. workers began rebuilding, last month residents began to move into 15 new houses. we have seen lots of examples how people are trying to get back to the lives they had, and how they're dealing day to day. the elementary school is the only primary school here. student body totals a mere 76. at 2:30 on an ordinary afternoon, a blast rest natd through the hauls.

this man in charge of the fifth grade was preparing for a lesson. >> translator: i didn't think it was an artillery attack, but perhaps an earthquake. we will scramble under desks as a precaution. the second blast was horrible. the town and houses were in flames. but strangely more than being shocked i just thought that i was going to die. >> reporter: students quickly evacuated to a shelter within school grounds. on the way there, students called their parents on cell phones, but many were unable to make contact. many become anxious while waiting in the shelter. one of them was a fifth grader at the time. the next day was his birthday, and he was looking forward to

receiving a birthday present from his father. >> translator: my dad is a south korean soldier. i was very worried that he might die in the attack. i called him, the phone lines were busy, so i couldn't get through. i was anxious and scared. >> reporter: the next day he was forced to flee to main land korea. he started living in a temporary shelter with his family, all except his father. his mother said he was worried about his father who stayed behind for work. >> translator: he was very anxious about his father as he remained on the island alone. children were on edge when they left their homes. >> reporter: 1700 residents returned to their hometown after living in temporary shelters for several months. from september, members of a professional orchestra in seoul

made their way to the school in an effort to help alleviate stress. once a week, they offer their talent and instruments to try to soothe the hearts and minds of children through music. >> translator: music therapy uses musical instruments to get through to young people mentally effected by the shelling. it helps them think positively. >> reporter: music lessons are provided to over 70 students on the island. children are learning to play violin, flute, clar net, and which he oh. many had no experience with instruments in the past, and now are enjoying music lessons by professionals. >> translator: we didn't even have music lessons a year ago, but now instructors come from

seoul to teach us. it's really fun. >> reporter: he has now recovered from the shock of the attack. last week, he introduced a composition for an he is acontest titled "my dream" to the public. he was the sole representative from his school. >> translator: my father is a noncommissioned officer man agoing other officers and crew within his military unit. i'm always proud of him. i would like to be an officer like my father, who loves his junior staff and accomplishes his work. >> reporter: as you can see, people here are getting back on their feet. still, the threat of attack hasn't gone away. construction workers are building seven emergency shelters to replace ones residents fled to during the shelling.

they have air conditioning, heating, generators, medical facilities, and first aid, and enough supplies so people could stay up to ten days. tomorrow, south korea will mark the first anniversary of the attack. the government will host a service to remember those who died and honor the work of those who've come back. katherine? >> thanks very much. egyptians protesting against the country's military rulers are calling for a large scale demonstration. they're demanding the dissolution of the military council that provisionally governs the country. since the violence erupted on friday, 23 people have died and more than 1900 have been injured. protesters are using the internet to call for dissolution of the military council and its political powers to be passed on to a new government. clashes have spread from cairo's central tahrir square to outlying districts where

demonstrators are blocking alleyways and hurling rocks. the military council has deployed troops to defend key government buildings. a military commander says he will not forcibly push out protesters are who holding a peaceful demonstration. on november 28th, egypt will hold its first parliamentary elections since the ouster of former president hosni mubarak after 30 years of rule. now the latest in business news. u.s. lawmakers weren't able to come to agreement about the country's deficit? >> the two sides not seeing eye to eye on this again. the super committee failed to reach agreement on how to reduce the federal deficit. they announced the result prior to the deadline set for wednesday. the bipartisan panel was tasked with finding measures to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade. democrats and republicans on the

panel were unable to narrow their differences on spending cuts and taxes. democrats wanted the package to include tax hikes for wealthy americans, while republicans maintain that debt reduction should be achieved through selective spending cuts. under the agreement reached by the two parties, a failure on debt talks would trigger automatic across the board spending cuts over the next ten years, starting in 2013. however, reaching a consensus could be difficult as the republican party is strongly against big reductions in defense spending. new york stocks dropped over 240 points overnight. investors sold a wide range of issues due to concerns over the u.s. budget deficit and growing credit uncertainty in europe. the dow-jones industrial average finished monday at 11,547 that's down nearly 250 points. a loss of over 2% from friday's close.

share prices plunged on european forces. sharp declines of 2 to 3%. the index in london fell 2.6%, and those in paris and frankfurt dropped 3.4%. taking a look at bonds, yields on italian and spanish sovereign debt remained high. the yield on a ten year government bond stood at 6.6% and spain around 6.5%. now let's check the japanese stocks. to see how markets kickoff in japan, we go to ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. how are things looking this tuesday morning? >> very good morning to you. as you mention, the failure of u.s. congressmen to come up with a deficit reduction plan hampered markets there. let's look at the nikkei and the

topix. global markets gripped by the turmoil surrounding eurozone debt issues. aaa rated bonds like france coming under pressure, but as you mention with european, u.s. markets lower, sentiment here is expected to dampen as well. stocks hit this year's closing low yesterday, and focus of the nikkei could fall below this year's march low, 8,227. japanese automakers may be in for a bit of a focus there, with redumgs of production coming back to most major automakers except for honda. that follows the flooding recently in thailand. some of the suppliers and part makers having some troubles there. that may hamper production for automakers. just having a look at currency levels also this tuesday morning, the yen does remain safer asset by choice for many investors. holding strong against the euro

and the dollar. 103.76-83 against the euro. tomorrow is going t a public holiday in japan, so we'll be back thursday and friday. also, going to keep track of steel makers here, bearing a brunt on the stronger yen, where all the steel production is priced in dollars in asia, making it very much tougher for japanese steel makers compared to south korean and chinese competitors. but as i said, markets here in japan will be closed tomorrow, but also data out of the u.s. on tuesday and wednesday, so the market reaction, we'll see that in japan on thursday, with a second reading of third quarter gdp numbers out of the u.s. for now, nikkei and topix trading lower. back to you. >> thanks for that, ramin

mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. let's look at other market figures. >> that's the latest in business. tokyo prosecutors are expected to launch an investigation into a former chairman he's accused of borrowing tens of millions of dollars and then gambling it away. he took personal loans adding up to over $110 million. the company filed a criminal complaint on monday accusing

ikawa of damages after borrowing about $113 million from seven subsidiaries from last year to this year. daio paper said it instructed senior officials of the subsidiaries to transfer the money to a special bank account. he's believed to have lost most of the money from gambling at casinos abroad. the former chairman has reportedly admitted that he borrowed the money for personal reasons. he said he will repay the loans by selling his stake in the papermaker and taking out new loans. so how did ikawa lose such a huge sum of money? sources say he couldn't control his gambling habit and was a regular at highstakes vip rooms in macau casinos. >> translator: my friend said that japanese man is well known for spending a lot of money. >> the vip whom this man saw in the casinos a few years ago was mototaka ikawa. >> translator: those kind of people are welcomed to vip rooms because they're highrollers.

they spend much more than ordinary gamblers. >> in the vip rooms minimum bets start at thousands of dollars. the man says he once saw a company executive lose more than $1.3 million in just 20 minutes. ikawa now faces a criminal investigation over aggravated breach of trust. tokyo prosecutors are expected to accelerate their efforts to expose the entire incident. japan's supreme court has upheld the death sentence of a former senior member of the aum shinri kyo cult. the cult members released deadly sarin gas in tokyo's subway system in 1995. the court rejected the appeal by seiichi endo on monday. and finalized his sentence for involvement in the group's sarin attacks. the decision marks the end of a 16-year process to try 189 members of the cult.

13 members have been handed death sentences, including cult founder shoko asahara, whose real name is chizuo matsumoto. with all sentences relating to the sarin attacks now finalized the ministry of justice will consider when the executions should take place. the japanese legal system demands that all accomplices in a crime be sentenced before capital punishment can proceed. a support group for the families of aum followers on monday said it has appealed against the executions, arguing that if asahara had not founded the cult, the defendants would not have committed the crimes. the victims' families are pressing for early executions. >> translator: our feelings will never change even if the executions are carried out. i will carefully watch how the situation develops.

>> 16 years of legal proceedings against aum shinri kyo members didn't help dig up many answers. we still don't know why the cult's leader tried to take over japan. and we also don't know why highly educated young people such as seiichi endo joined the religious group. endo was once a graduate student at kyoto university. he studied aids. he joined aum shinri kyo because he felt drawn to mystifying experience. nhk obtained this confidential tape. it's a recording of a conversation between endo and aum leader chizuo matsumoto. they're discussing how to replicate the dna of matsumoto. >> translator: how many genes are in dna? >> there are about 1500 base pairs of genes in your dna. for example, if we tried replicating them using e. coli we can omit all dna other than e. coli and single out your dna. >> is that possible?

>> it is possible. >> you are working hard. >> you think so? >> we still don't know why scientists and elite doctors who were educated at top universities became obsessed with matsumoto. nhk journalists exchanged letters with jailed aum members for 16 years. former senior cult member kasaki is one of them. he was sentenced to death for the murder of a lawyer and his family. >> translator: disciples were required to write a will for asahara. in other words, you had to be prepared to give up your life for the guru. you could not make trouble for the guru or the cult in any way. >> this man played an active role in the sarin gas attack on tokyo's subway system. >> translator: i only understood the sarin attack as an act of salvation. it's absurd that i didn't think i was committing mass murder. the guru's words, which were

equivalent to god, were absolute. >> this woman lost her husband in tokyo's sarin gas attack. he was a subway worker. she's attended the aum trials over the years. >> translator: i really wanted to find out what the police were doing back then. >> delayed police investigations gave aum members the opportunity to attack tokyo. it was the first time the world witnessed the use of sarin nerve gas in a major city. the former superintendent general of tokyo's metropolitan police department led the aum probe. he says the cult status as a religious organization hindered investigators from assuming it had planned terrorist activities. >> police act when something happens, but prevention is quite difficult. >> translator: i've never known who was telling the truth.

>> we asked nhk world's senior reporter to give us more background on the aum shinri kyo story. >> the founder chizuo matsumoto hasn't explained himself. but we've spoken to someone with whom they consulted, someone who knows about the real situation surrounding the attacks. he asked to remain anonymous. he said aum members were on high alert in the mid-1990s because police were going after them. he said that was a factor behind the tokyo attack. what did they say about the motive for this sarin gas? >> translator: several executives said that prior to the subway attack there was an upheaval inside the cult because the police had stepped up their crackdown on the group. i heard that instructions for the attacks were passed down

through the chain of command, but no one knew how matsumoto was involved. >> we don't know exactly how aum members produced sarin gas, but we do have some clues. here's what i found out in my conversation with the man who cult executives consulted. what do you know about how they produced sarin gas? >> translator: an executive told me they learn how'd to make sarin gas from scientific documents. this person was saying it was not so difficult. the executive said they were producing not only sarin gas but also stimulants. they sold those drugs to gangsters. another executive told me they exchanged the drugs for russian guns.

>> police obtained the information showing aum members were involved in a drug trade, but couldn't find evidence to back it up. aum split into two groups. the biggest one is called olive. a former senior aum member set it up. they have about 1,500 members nationwide. they recruit new members without revealing the past. it's believed about 100 people join every year. informed associates tell us young people who don't know much about aum's deadly crimes have been the main target. japan's public security intelligence agency is monitoring olive and the other aum suspect in order to prevent a crime of this nature from happening again, japanese authorities must do everything they can to find out what motivated aum members when they committed their crimes. the sarin gas attacks shattered many lives. some people are bedridden or still suffering from shock. they deserve answers.

that was nhk world's senior reporter. it is a cold tuesday morning in tokyo. let's check in with saki ochi for the global weather forecast. and welcome to your weather update. getting a look at weather in east asia, first off. and we are talking about more wintry weather for northern japan. still looking at a lot of moisture here in this northwestern areas, and we will be continuing to see more snow again, especially in the hokkaido areas. heavy snow amounts already reported since yesterday. it will be continuing today with blowing snow in the mix possible, too. otherwise for japan, the pacific side, as well as down towards the south, we're looking at largely settled skies. behind it we're looking at this low that's going to be moving eastward over the course of today. as it does, it brings more rain

in towards the korean peninsula, so it will start looking a lot wetter for you here in the next 24 hours. behind it dries out nicely across eastern china. then down towards the southeast of asia, we're looking at still more downpours and thundershowers for places like the philippines then on in towards vietnam as well as hainan island. as for temperature on tuesday, 33 in manila, 33 also in bangkok. it is hot with partly cloudy skies. 19 in chongqing, then remaining at 10 in beijing, 9 only in seoul and 14 degrees for toke -- tokyo. it is starting to feel fairly seasonal here. on the cool side. a look at the americas. this tropical storm system here looking well organized. this is now hurricane kenneth, a category 1 hurricane that is still showing signs of strengthening. it is expected to become a major hurricane in the next couple of days. but luckily the forecast path does take it continuously out to open water.

it should remain well away from land. as for the u.s., it's this eastern section that we're going to see more rain again in the next 24 hours. tonight rain will really spread from texas on and up through the mississippi valley looking pretty wet with some heavy rainfall in the mix. possible flash flood threats are going to be getting high here. then we could also be looking at some stormy weather outbreaks as well. for the pacific northwest, two things remain unsettled again. coastal areas picking up rain in the upper elevations will see snow. this isn't going to be moving a lot over the next couple of days. as for highs on tuesday, 12 in seattle, 10 in vancouver getting up into the teens. 9 for chicago, though, and 6 in toronto. so things do remain cool here in the northeast. atlanta gets up to a mild 24 degrees.

and finally a look at europe here. so look at this low pressure area that's going to be moving in to -- continue to move through the mediterranean, still bringing windy weather to the islands here. after that locally heavy rain. it will bring rain into italy, then the coastline of the balkan peninsula. out west looking at a round of showers moving through the british isles right now. and for the southeast corner here in and around london looking at dense fog regenerating again tonight. so you could be seeing more transportation delays here. as we head into tuesday, that fog should slowly start to lift. up towards the scandinavian peninsula, showers will start moving into the coastline of norway. and we are looking at still pretty low temperatures for vienna on tuesday and highs remain at just 3 degrees in kiev. up next, we have your three-day outlook.

that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. tokyo. thanks for joining us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com