hello there, and welcome to "newsline." it's monday, june 10th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. north and south korean governments have agreed to hold talks in seoul this week. they held talks on sunday in pang among jaum. the talks were expected to end on sunday, but continued

intermitt tently until monday. he agreed to hold talks from wednesday. five delegation members from each side will attend the meeting. they'll discuss reopening the kaesong complex and a joint tourism project as well as reunification of families separated since the korean war. delegates sought an agreement to hold a ministerial meeting, but they couldn't agree for the makeup for wednesday's meeting. this could be an indication of the tough road they face. turkey's prime minister says his patience has its limits. he stood up in front of his supporters in the capital ankara after a week of protests.

they gathered again to call for his resignation. tens of thousands of people returned to istanbul's square. they've been on the streets for ten days. the protest mom started as a demonstration against a plan to redevelop a park. police moved in with what some have called heavy-handed tactics. protesters across the country joined in, angry about what they call the prime minister's authoritarian style. they say he is trying to push islamic policies on their secular state. >> translator: we will continue protesting until he listens to our demands. >> he has shown little sign of compromise. he called them randalls. >> translator: we cannot accept the --

>> members of the ruling party say they're planning moralies for next weekend. western leaders say they're deeply troubled by the progress iranians are making with their nuclear program. the head of iran's atomic energy say they have finished building a heavy water reactor. work where hes have spent years building the reactor in the western city. they said during the visit they installed a key container. he said scientists still have to conduct tests, but they hope to start up the reactor next year. heavy water reactors make it easier to produce plutonium which can be used in nuclear weapons. the u.n. security council has demanded that they refrain from such activities. but they say they'll move ahead. they'll use it for peaceful

purposes. members of the atomic energy agency expressed their concerns. they said they had failed to provide them with sufficient information about their plans chinese authorities say they've condition taped the expansion of the bird flu outbreak. no new infections have been confirmed recently. health officials sade on sunday that in march the h7n9 virus had infected three people. by april, 126 people had become infected. but in may, the number had decreased to 4. government measures to stop the spread of the infection have been working well. officials say the ban on the trading of live birds has produced the desired results. but experts are concerned about the possible increase of infections now that the

resumption of live bird trading has already begun in some arias. a chinese court has sentenced the brother-in-law of a nobel peace prize to prison for fraud. he was arrested and charged with fraud earlier this year. his sister is the wife of the nobel laureate. she was allowed to observe the court proceedings for her brother and protested the convicti conviction. she also criticized the chinese authorities for oppressing her husband's family. she was put under house arrest in beijing shortly after her husband one the nobel peace prize in 2010. he was jailed for 11 years in 2009. he had posted a document

criticizing one party rule by the communist party. supporters say the authorities decided to give him a harsh sentence after they discovered that his sister had a secret meeting with her friends last december while under house arrest. the trial of china's former railways men ter has started in beijing. he is charged with abuse of power and accepting bribes worth $10 million. prosecutors say the former rail chief was breebed by 11 people over a 25 year period. he's also accused of promoting subordinates in exchange for money. he is he offed as railways minister from 2003 through 2011. he was dismissed for allegedly accepting bribes from construction firms. many people viewed the railways men industry as a hotbed of corruption. in march, the national people's congress dissolved the ministry.

china has been stressing its efforts to root out corruption since president xi jinping's government came to power. china's consumer prices remain stable in may. prices of fresh foods were relatively unchanged. the national bureau of statistics says the consumer price index rode in may by 2.1%. that's down from an increase of 2.4% in april. the pace of theier on year growth was slow. prices of vegetables and other fresh foods were up 3.2% in may. they rose nearly 6% the previous month. the producer price indetective for manufactured goods declined by 2.9% from a year earlier. the figure has fallen for three months in a row since march. this indicates the chinese economy is slowing down.

frpt a team of experts led by u necessary coe says the damage to a world heritage site in mali is more severe than they had expected. they surveyed the site in timbuktu. they say more than ten moss lee ums for religious leaders were completely ruined. more than 4,200 ancient islamic manuscripts went up in flames. government forces took back the city from the rebels with help from the french military. they say timbuktu is in a more alarming condition than they originally thought. the u.n. organization plans to raise about $11 million to train local experts and rae store the

cultural site. the foreign ministers of japan and new zealand have confirmed the importance of solving disputes peacefully. they issued a joint statement on sunday in auckland after their meeting. >> translator: we confirmed that we share strategic views in the asia pacific region. we also agreed to step up coordination in the asia pacific islands. >> he hopes the two country also promote bilateral dialog at various levels to fortify ties. as maritime nations, the two countries stressed the importance of issues being resolved peacefully without force or provocation in a manner that is clearly consistent with international law. the statement was made with nations such as china in mind. japan and china have been locked in a dispute over a group

of islands in the east china sea. taiwan and china claim them. the united states view has been consistent for decades. it says japan has add men traytive control of the islands but has not taken a public stance on what country actually has sovereignty over them. the u.s. position has its origins in 1971. documents to led to this exist, but a recently discovered audio file sheds further light on the issue. nhk world has the story. >> reporter: the okinawa reversion agreement was signed on june 17, 1971.

the senkaku islands were returned to japan by the united states along with okinawa. the area had been administered by the u.s. after japan's defeat in world war ii. the audio file shows that a heated debate took place until the 11th hour on whether the senkaku islands should be returned to japan. this is a visiting professor. he says he found the tape at the richard nixonsidential library in california in march. the voices on the recording belong to then president richard nixon, national security adviser henry kissinger and peter peterson. the discussion took place ten days before the signing of the okinawa reversion agreement.

peterson raised an objection to returning the skew islands. records reveal peterson's concern was over taiwan. at the time, the u.s. had diplomatic relations with taipei which it regarded as the legitimate government of china. cheap textiles pouring in from taiwan were putting the u.s. industry under strain. they were demanding that the u.s. not return the senkaku islands to japan. >> translator: nixon's reelection campaign was coming up the following year. he needed to wen support from

voters in the southern states. the center of the u.s. textile industry. >> reporter: henry kissinger argued that the senkaku islands should be returned to japan. kissinger noted that the 1951 san francisco peace treaty placed okinawa, including the senkaku islands, under u.s. rule. the professor says kissinger was

concerned about the impact a collapse of the falks would have. they agreed to return the islands to japan. the u.s. also adopted a stance that could be interpreted as being considerate of japan. the professor found this? the u.s. national archives. it says the powers of administration over the senkaku islands will be returned to japan. it also says the united states takes no position on which country should have sovereignty over the islands. the united states has maintained its position of separating the power of administration and sovereignty. >> the united states does not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands, but

we do recognize they are under the administration of japan. >> reporter: the professor says the records highlight the reality of u.s. policymakers. that diplomatic policies are often influenced by domestic affairs. nhk world. a government survey says the marriage rate in japan increased last year. but it was still the second lowest figure since world war ii. officials of the welfare mentry say the number of newly wed couples in 2012 stood at more than 668,000. this is up 6,900 from the post war low recorded the previous year. men married for the first time at the age of 30.8 on average and well at 29.2. both men and women were marrying later than in previous surveys. an expert on demographics says low incomes and job insecurity

are discouraging young people from getting married. >> translator: we should view the situation as a social problem. and improve the working conditions of young people. >> the aging and shrinking population is one of the biggest challenges facing japanese society. a series of exhibitions is being held this year in japan and abroad to mark the 100th birthday of one of japan's artists. he merges traditional ink painting with abstract impressionism. nhk spoke with her about her life and her work.

>> reporter: at the opening of the show, the artist was the center of attention. her works are in the collections of major museums around the world, and she remains one of japan's most productive artists. her medium is sumi, tra deckal japanese ink. her works are kmoesed of leans and brush strokes in mono crow mattic strokes of black and gray. she prefers not to give her artworks titles. instead, she wants the people who view them to give free rein to their imagine nation. you've within working with sumi for nearly 100 years. what is the source of your energy? >> translator: well, i guess the creative process is something i've never gotten tired of.

that's because every single day is different. i've been doing this for all these years. but it's never the same. in abstract art, there's no physical subject. if you give form to something that cannot be seen with the eyes, then your subject is endless. >> reporter: she was born in 1913. she began studying ca lig ref when she was five and held her first exhibition in her 20s, but she started to feel con strained bethe rules of ca lig ref. she wanted to go beyond the prescribed forms for each. the turning point in her career came in 1956 when she was 43. she spent two years in new york city, the center of the art world, especially for abstract expressionism. she met many ar tys there and began to car of out her own

unique style. the first step of the creative process for her is always to prepare the sumi ink. then, using one of her own custom made brushes, she makes the first stroke, letting the brush travel in whatever direction her spirit leads her. almost all of your pieces are painted with sumi, which means you work within a very limbed color spectrum. >> if the sky is blue, then the simplest, most straightforward way of understanding it is with blue paint, but even if you depict the blue of the sky with blue paint, you still can't capture its blueness. not with paint, but you not be able to do it with sumi, just because it isn't blue.

>> reporter: the blueness of a sky that appears blue, could you say its truth or its essence could be expressed with sumi. because it's that kind of a medium. >> reporter: i love that she says she still has not drawn a single line that she's satisfied with. she keeps working, painting, pursuing that perfect line. >> translator: if people get to experience even a little of the unlimited possibility of sumi, and i've played a small role in achieving that, then i'm happy. if people have got some feeling for sumi and its essence, even just a little, isn't that the way it's supposed to be? that's as much as a single

individual can do in a lifetime. nhk world will be broadcasting an extended feature on her on july 6th. elementary school children in western japan enjoyed grappling with professional sumo wrestlers. more than 240 school children took part in the traditional japanese sport on sunday. sumo wrestlers usually practice their art in a round ring, but this was square. a wrestler from bulgaria and others were on hand for the event. they shared demonstration matches with the children. >> translator: the wrestlers are

all so strong, i couldn't push any of them. >> translator: kids were so energetic, that i actually got power from them. time now for a check on world weather with our meteorologist. people in hungary are dealing with severe flooding. let me take you there to show you the situation there. now this is coming out from hungary. areas experienced peak water levels on sunday. more than a thousand people have been evacuated from flooding areas. several towns and villages have been isolated. and the widespread flood has led to traffic problems. the residents of budapest have

been asked to use public transportation. everybody is helping each other out. rein clouds are covering much of the areas. also germany and the czech republic. it may create further flooding as well as landslides around these areas. thundershowers are also likely due to the cold air aloft and the pressure systems clashing. we do have cold air aloft across the northeast as well and creating showers and gusty event. but clearing out in much of norway and in sweden here in the scandinavian peninsula. the british isles are seeing calm weather today, including london. but you do see this atlantic system moving into your area, making things quite wet starting on monday.

london, four now, you're seeing nice temperatures at 17 degrees, and paris at 22. nice and fine out there. but budapest, again with 27 degrees. kiev seeing digits with rainy event. all right moving over to eastern asia, we have this image. now this is a tropical storm that has formed. and it is thousand over water its name yaugy which is goat in japanese. packing winds and gusts of 108 kilometers per hour. so this is approaching western japan, possibly approaching islands about thursday local time, but already feeding the stationary boundary that is just below this area. and dumping heavy rain across the southwestern islands of japan. southern okinawa, we see these waives due to this picking up, about 6 meters high, starting tomorrow.

the pacific side will be looking quite wet. but high pressure dominates much of the northern half of japan and things are hot and dry. we'll take a look at the temperatures in hokkaido. very different story with the very torrential rain. it is an ongoing event and flooding has not been alleviated yet. gun area has seen 250 millimeters of rein in the past 24 hours. in the next 24 hours, it's going to be moving and dumping quite heavy amounts of rain which could trigger flooding. take a look at these temperatures. even up here, hokkaido's the hottest today at 30 degrees. around this time of the year and in the hottest time of summer, average is about 26 degrees. so that's really hot. and some people may not even own acs out there.

so do watch out for heatstroke. here's our extended forecast. taking a look at our lead

story once again. north and south korean delegates have agreed to hold talks in seoul this week. three delegates from each side held talks on sunday. the talks were expected to end on sunday but continued until 3:00 in the morning on monday. both sides agreed to hold two day governmental talks from wednesday. five delegation members from each side will attend the meeting. they'll discuss reopening the kaesong complex and a joint tourism project as well as reunification of families separated since the korean war. delegates sought an agreement to hold a ministerial meeting, but they couldn't make up an agreement for the north's makeup of the delegation. this could be an indication of

the tough road they face in trying to produce fruitful results. and that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.