you're watching nhk world "newsline." i'm sherry ahn. a sut korean business man says kim jong-un is planning to resume rationing plans to march the found birthday of the country. pak san wong was invited to attend the funeral of the late leader who died in december. his company has been promoting a joint venture with north korea. he has visited the country over

200 times. in an interview with nhk, he spoke about his experience at the funeral. he met with the new leader in person to offer his condolences. >> translator: kim jong-un looked very approachable. he gave me the impression he was an ordinary person. he was friendly. he shook hands with the mourners. kim jong-un says he aims to ensure sufficient food for the north korean people in april to enable north korea to become strong and prosperous. >> following another visit to pyongyang last week, pak said he saw no major changes in the lives there, with abundance

available at super markets and with extensive use of china's and foreign currencies. the transfer in power after the death of kim jong-il prompted south korea and the united states to reexamine the timing of their annual military exercises, but the two allies have decided to go ahead in february as planned, given the absence of any unusual activity in north korea so far. a spokesperson for u.s. forces stationed in the peninsula said on friday the exercises will involve 200,000 south korean and 11,000 american soldiers. the first phase of the drill is meant to test the chain of command will begin on february 27th. phase 2 will aim at boosting the ability of the army, navy and air force by the end of april. u.s. military officials say the drills are solely for defensive purposes, and that the north has been informed. a car bomb in baghdad has killed at least 31 people and wounded more than 60.

the bomb went off in a shiite neighborhood near the funeral procession for a person who had been killed by a terrorist the day before. police believe the bomber targeted the mourners. terror attacks in iraq have killed more than 200 people since u.s. troops withdrew from the country late last month. egyptians are again protesting against military rule. tens of thousands gathered in cairo to demand the military give up power right away. demonstrations have been taking place across egypt since wednesday. that was the anniversary of the start of the uprising that ousted president hosni mubarak. they want the intermediate council to immediately give up power. >> translator: it's the military's fault that the people are still suffering.

>> the military council has set out a timetable for a transfer to civilian rule. it's already held parliamentary elections and promised to hold a presidential election by the end of june. the military council has also lifted a state of emergency that was put in place more than 30 years ago as a means of cracking down on dissidents, but more and more egyptians are joining demonstrations. to show that they want the military council to give up power right away. u.s. and european leaders are working to strengthen their sanctions against iran. they're trying to force the country to abandon its nuclear program. the united states is calling on china to cooperate in imposing an embargo on iran's crude oil exports. undersecretary of state wendy sherman met with the vice foreign minister. details of the meeting have not been released, but a state department spokesperson explained the talks are part of an ongoing dialogue with china.

the u.s. passed the law last month banning financial institutions from doing business with iran's central bank, essentially targeting the country's oil trade. >> as we seek to implement this new legislation, we're encouraging all countries to do what they can to reduce their dependence on iranian crude oil. >> china imports more iranian oil than any other country in the world. it opposes the proposed embargo. a strike by tens of thousands of workers in indonesia is over. the indonesian government arranged a settlement that got the workers a pay raise. 30,000 workers staged walkouts at industrial parks on friday. it forced more than 2,000 factories to suspend operations. nearly 1,000 of the factoies are japanese.

economic minister mediated the dispute. companies agreed to raise wages by up to 30%. the indonesian government pressed companies to make big concessions. it didn't want the labor dispute to escalate because of the possible impact on the investment from overseas. there's a new reason for governments in the eurozone to worry about credit. the u.s. rating agency fitch downgraded the standing for five kurns. this comes after standard and poors downgraded the bonds of nine eurozone nations. they cut their credit rating by two notches, belgium, cyprus by one notch. it says the countries are vulnerable to monetary and financial shocks in the near term. fitch didn't change ratings for germany and france. the u.s. economy grew by an annualized 2.8% in the fourth quarter of last year.

the growth was the fastest in a year and a half. the u.s. commerce department says real gdp grew thanks to private inventory investment, personal consumption, residential investments and exports. the annualized 2.8% growth is a sharp rise from the 1.8% in the previous quarter, but economists had expecting 3%. the u.s. economy grew by 1.7% over the whole of 2011. it grew by 3% in 2010. for analysis, we spoke with steven wieting, a u.s. economist at citi. >> in the fourth quarter 2011, we think that's slightly exaggerates trend improvements in the u.s. economy, in particular the composition of growth is even less favorable than expected in the fourth quarter.

inventories contributed to that 1.9% points to that growth rate. we don't think they're at a troubles level at all, but even if inventories just don't go up as much in the current quarter, that will be a drag on growth. >> that was steven wieting at citi. the devastating earthquake last march and the strong yen took their toll on japan's auto production last year. eight japanese car makers say they produced nearly 8 million vehicles in 2011. that's down 13% from the previous year. all the companies reported declines in their production. honda by about 28%. toyota 16%. fuji heavy industries and suzuki each more than 10%. their worldwide output fell by 6% to a little more than 21 million units. the march disaster and the floods in thailand are also

blamed for the decline. here's now year extended weather forecast. yeerz .

that's all for now. i'm shery ahn. stay tuned for more news and nhk stay tuned for more news and nhk world.