north korea puts on a show of power for kim jong-un in a show of respect for his late father. kim jong-un has reviewed the country's armed forces for the first time as north korea's supreme commander. he appeared in front of the

nation at a mass military parade. north koreans have been marking what would have been the 70th birthday of his late father, kim john-il. kim reviewed the parade from a balcony decorated with a portrait of his father. he stood with his uncle and others. the north's leadership appears to have intensified efforts to day fie the ruler. they gave him the highest title. analysts say they are using celebrations of his birthday to strengthen the rule of his son. japan's government says 120 pro-young yang residents recently brought a total of 70 million yen, about $890,000 on a visit to north korea. public security officials say the korean residents, including

executive officials of a pro-north korea association traveled to the north via beijing and other routes in late january and earlier this month. north korean residents are required to report to customs authorities when they take over 100,000 yen or $1,270 to the north. customs say at least $890,000 were brought into the country. public officials say the association was asked by north korea to donate money to celebrate kim's anniversary. >> translator: north korea is asking people to show their loyalty to the new leader, kim jong-un, especially people from the pro-north korean association in japan. >> he also predicts similar requests before the sen ten reof the birth of kim il's son, his grandfather and the north's

founder. he says demands have become a heavy burden on some north korean residents in japan. u.s. home builders feel better about putting down roots. ai uchida has the latest economic data. >> the latest data coming in better than expected. new home building in the united states rose 1.5% in january compared to the previous month. that is key indicator of economic trends. the commerce department said thursday housing starts in the month stood at 699,000 units in annual terms. that's a little better than the market forecast of around 675,000. the increase was mainly due to a rebound in apartment construction. by region, housing construction grew about 18% in the south. almost 12% in the west. and just under 8% in the northeast. however, the midwest as you can see saw a sharp decline of over 40%. building permits, a gauge of

future construction, were up 0.7%. analysts are now focusing on whether the housing market will continue to recover as it has recently been showing upward and downward movements. crude oil prices surged thursday in the london commodity markets and reached the highest level in about six and a half months. buy orders on futures contracts increased on speculation that iran may suspend oil exports. that's in retaliation to stop iranian oil by july. the price rose to the $120 level per barrel, the first time since august 1st, last year. futures prices surged beyond $120 per barrel during the conflict in libya last year. let's check the markets now. the dow-jones industrial average ended at almost a four year high

on the back of positive u.s. economic data and optimism for a new deal for greece. to see how stocks are opening this friday, we go to ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. ramin, looks like a positive start for us as well. >> pretty positive stuff. let's go straight to the numbers, ai, look at the nikkei and topix this friday morning. you can see the nikkei almost up 200 points, 180 points for the nikk nikkei. largely because of the austerity plan for greece. go through possibly by start of business monday as greek and eu leaders come close to agreement on finer appointments. also economic data out of the u.s. shows positive signs there. we had weekly jobless claims coming out at 4 year low and also the philadelphia federal reserve bank coming out and saying business activity rose significantly in january.

another aspect that may propell stocks higher today which we've already seen at the open is the slightly weaker yen, and that is against both the dollar and more significantly against the euro. let's look at the currency levels this friday morning as stocks kickoff in japan. you can see the euro yen at the bottom of the screen, 103.52-57. that was trading around 101 levels a couple days ago. dollar yen, 78.85-88. euro gaining against the dollar and yen on hopes of the deal going through for greece. ai? >> all right. olympus back in focus after former executives were arrested yesterday. >> yeah. that was obviously some big news and included in that was former president tsyoshi kikukawa who was involved in hiding losses $1.5 billion in the past 13 years, in what's become one of japan's biggest bookkeeping scandals. so we're going to keep track of

that as well. >> how have the shares been trading? >> that's an interesting point. yesterday it was down 2%. however, the overall effect may be muted because a lot of the officials arrested had already resigned. olympus will have a new management team in place as of april. they're already making a lot of moves there. however, market players are saying you have to look at some of the related sex ters involved with olympus over that period. and that might be the next focus. so we'll keep track of developments in that sector as well. as i said, on monday as we return to markets, the focus should be on how the greek debt deal goes through, and as you mentioned, any impact from oil and the embargo against iran and any energy related stocks, we will keep track of all that. for now, back to you. >> thanks, ramin. the nikkei up 1.9% so far this

friday morning. japan's trade deficit with china grew nearly six fold in 2011 over the previous year. this was due to the natural disasters in eastern japan and the historically high yen which pushed down exports from japan while imports from china soared. the japan trade organization said last year's trade deficit with china stood at $22 billion. that's almost six times larger than in 2010. exports to china rose 8.3% to over $161 billion. however, the pace of growth slowed sharply compared with the increase of 36% in 2010. the march 11th disaster and strong yen caused a fall in exports of vehicles, food and semi conductors. imports increased 20% to over $183 billion. smart phones produced in china

are rapidly growing in popularity in japan. another factor is a surge in the import of dry batteries, electric fans and other energy efficient products. they say it is likely the trade deficit with china will increase further. the organization says japan's exports will remain sluggish because of a slow down in the chinese economy. it adds that imports will continue to grow steeply as japanese firms continue to increase production and ship items to japan. let's look at other asian markets.

>> that's the latest in business. back to catherine. syrian groups shifted focus. they have bombarded homs the past few days. now they're taking the fight to the free syrian army in other cities. protests against the government started in the southern city of darwa. security forces renewed attacks on rebel strongholds. a human rights activist told nhk tanksed attracted an area near a mosque, then exchanged gunfire. an increasing number of troops deployed in and around the city.

between 15,000 and 25,000 soldiers that fled the forces formed the backbone of the army. the government soldiers number around 300,000. more than 6,000 people are said to have been killed since the uprising began in march of last year. a former syrian official says they are bending under economic sanctions by the west. he was inspector with syrian ministry of defense. he is staying in the egyptian capital, cairo. he said they cut the health and education budget more than 30% since protests began. he said those funds are now being used to finance military operations. >> translator: the economic impact of western sanctions on

the petroleum energy sector prevails across the country, and state finances are essentially collapsing. >> some analysts say the government is intensifying its military offensive in a short term effort to contain opposition forces. china says it will send an envoy and seek a peaceful solution. he dismissed the criticism he visited damascus last week and had talks with president into heart al assad. the chinese spokesman told a news conference on thursday that the vice foreign minister in charge of the middle east will be in syria the next two days. china hopes for a peaceful resolution to the syrian situation, and will play a constructive role in median and promotion of dialogue. russia and china have drawn criticism from the united states as well as european and arab countries for vetoing a draft u.n. resolution earlier this month. it called for an immediate halt for attacks on civilians and human rights abuses.

sergei lavrov dismissed the criticism. he visited damascus last week a former senior syrian the israeli -- israel defense minister uhud barak wants to step up sanctions. he hinted at a military strike on iran's nuclear facilities if the embargo fails. barak serves as deputy prime minister and made the comment in an interview with nhk. >> it is still the moment for sanctions, but sanctions should be ratcheted and accelerated to show any result before the iranians will drift into what we call the zone of immunity. >> barak referred to iran's claim it has developed an

advanced centrifuge to speed up uranium enrichment. barak said they are moving toward the goal of arming itself with nuclear weapons through deception. nhk asked about growing international concerns that israel may decide to launch a preemptive attack on an iranian nuclear facility. >> the nuclear is unacceptable. we are determined to prevent it, no option should be removed off the table. "newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan, post march 11th. we have two segments offering two unique perspectives on the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami. nuclear watch brings insight and information on the fukushima daiichi crisis. and "the road ahead" is about how we rebuild. a large scale evacuation

drill has been held near the nuclear plant in western japan. a record 10,000 people took part. the drill was based on the assumption an earthquake damaged the nuclear plant. residents were evacuated by helicopter from a junior high school, about 20 kilometers from the plant. they were taken to a maritime self defense destroyer anchored 25 kilometers away. they were airlifted because they would have to pass by the nuclear plant if they evacuated by land. officials monitored data from the speedy computer system that projects the spread of radioactive materials. the japanese government was criticized for failing to use the system's data to evacuate people living near the fukushima plant.

elementary school children gathered in the schoolyard soon after the drill started and evacuated to a gymnasium to avoid radioactive materials. >> people are becoming more aware of the possibility of an accident at the plant. we need to hold a drill every year. >> in last year's accident at the fukushima daiichi plant people had to evacuate from a wider area than had been expected. the government has now expanded the area for disaster preparedness from a 10 kilometer radius around nuclear plants to 30 kilometers. municipalities are asked to draw up new emergency management plans by october. some are concerned about the requests. the southern tip of daigo town lies within 30 kilometers of the tokai number two nuclear plant.

daigo officials are having difficulty drawing up new disaster management plans because more than a third of the town residents are over 65 and don't have an emergency broadcast system. >> translator: i think it will be impossible for us to draw up a new plan within six months. >> before the accident at the fukushima daiichi power plant nuclear reactors supplied around 30% of japan's electricity. almost a year later, that share decreased to less than 4%. japan has 54 nuclear reactors. as of this week, 51, more than 90% are offline. most shut down for regular inspections. the government ordered they undergo extra safety tests before restarting. another reactor comes off the grid monday.

this one provides electricity to osa osaka, the second largest city. if the situation continues, all units in the country will be out of operation by the end of april. the question of when or even if to restart the history has become a national issue. key players in this process are the local governments that host nuclear facilities. nhk conducted a nationwide survey last week of the host communities. we received replies from 29 municipalities, excluding those in fukushima prefecture. the main question was do you support the restarting of nuclear reactors? in today's "nuclear watch" we asked about the results of the survey. we started asking why local governments play such key roles in restarting reactors. >> translator: in japan, the approval of the local government is needed to resume the operation of the nuclear power plants. right now, the electric power

companies are conducting stress tests, which is the new government safety standard. and the nuclear industrial and safety agency is insisting until the resumption of the operation, and the government will make the final decision of the resumption, and it is the local governments that hold the key to the final decision. we asked about resumption of power plants in their communities. five local governments or 17% of the total responded they want to either approve resumption soon or approve resumption sometime in the future. one of the reasons they cited was the ripple effect on the local economy. on the other hand, 21 local governments or 72% would not approve resumption for the time being or they could not decide

now. asked about the reason, they responded that they were not assured of safety or that it would be difficult to gain understanding of the residents when the government's nuclear policy is yet to be decided. the survey asked about stress tests conducted by the government, and only 38%, less than half the local government, said they attach importance to the test results. you can see the local governments aren't excited about the tests. the government of miyagi which has 7 reactors has this to say. >> i want to know whether the fukushima accident could have been prevented if appropriate steps had been taken. an investigation of the accident is a priority. i cannot decide whether to allow the reactors to be decided based only on hearing results of

stress tests. >> translator: other municipality heads voiced concern and complained about lack of information from the government. there's a rough road to resumption. on monday, their nuclear industrial safety agency gave the first approval to the results of the stress test. the government is expected to consult with the town from now on. but the mayor is one of the municipality heads that responded in the survey that he cannot decide the resumption now. >> first, we have to have new safety standards, based on lessons learned from the accident. then all additional measures

should be taken before i give my approval for restarting the reactors. >> reporter: as shown in results of the survey, many local governments are cautious about resumption of operation, and the focus is how the government willful fill its accountability. well many, many parts of asia are seeing temperatures drop. rachel ferguson joins us with the world weather forecast. so rachel, i can't seem to let go of my warm down coat. why is it so cold? >> yes, stuffs a bit of a struggle to get out of bed this morning. we have strong high pressure across much of the continent, and it's helping to bring those temperatures down. the arctic air floods in towards this trio of systems that's flanking japan right now. we have a winter storm across the northwestern coast. that precipitation will keep coming. last night in shibu there were

snowflakes in the sky. we're also going to be seeing more of that snow reaching across to the pacific edge. so the heavy snow mostly going to be found along the northwestern doe, as is usual, and along with that strong winds, so that will be bringing the waves up, also meaning the potential for low visibility, when all of that snow gets blown around, avalanching will also be possible, too. as we head down toward the south, we'll also be finding some heavy precipitation. it's been ongoing. the ground is saturated. that will mean a high risk of flooding and landslides. indochina after a dry week is now starting to see a bit more moisture for eastern and southern locations, and we'll also be seeing some snow showers intensifying in inland china today. here are your temperatures, cooling down a bit in hong kong, 16 degrees.

taipei is quite a drop in fact over the last couple days of about 10 degrees, down to 14 for the high on friday. seoul down to minus 2, so below zero once again. into saturday probably around minus 3, so getting a bit cooler. tokyo 8 degrees, staying in the single digits for the high for the next couple days. as we head into north americas, many experiencing a clear and calm day. under high pressure today. that will be central canada as well as the united states. pacific system here, this one will be weakening, but still a few mountain snow showers, and you can see another round of moisture on the way in the next 24 hours you'll start to see that coming into the coast. as we head down towards the south, we've got a low sitting here just towards the southwestern corner. this would bring about 30 centimeters of snow, but it redevelops and bring more severe weather for the gulf coast. you just had a round of severe

storms. then saturday you're going to see a run to the storms, some of them potentially a bit nasty. the front line moving over the atlantic, so things will be drying out for the eastern part of the united states, however it would be snow for parts of new england. and up into eastern canada. temperatures now 4 degrees in toronto, double digits in new york city and d.c., 11 and 13 respectively, a warmer day in chicago, but temperatures dropping across parts of central canada down to minus 8 for the high in winnipeg, and 22 degrees in los angeles, 11 in oklahoma city. all right. as we go into europe now temperatures have been moderating here all week, so looking good across much of the west. dry here as well, but there is still plenty of winter weather to be found. we have yet another storm dropping out of scandinavia. coming in towards poland.

this one will be bringing a mixture of snow as well as rain for the lower lying areas, but as it hits the colder air in the east, it certainly will be turning over to snow. that will be the balkans as well as turkey. turkey already has a big storm moving across, and snow elsewhere. temperatures will remain below zero across the east, moderating for central locations, and double digits across the west and also for southern locations. here's your extended forecast. ♪

oufrmgts lead stories this hour. kim jong-un reviewed the country's armed forces for the first time as north korea supreme commander. he appeared in front of the nation at a mass military parade. north koreans are marking what would have been the 70th birthday of his late father, kim john-il. kim reviewed the parade from a balcony decorate wd a portrait of his father. he stood with his uncle and others. the north leadership appears to have intensified efforts to day a fie the ruler. they awarded him the country's highest military title. analysts say leaders are using the celebrations of his birthday to strengthen the rule of his

son. that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us for more do stay with us for more updates. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com