live from tokyo, this is nhk "newsline," i'm james tengan, japan's prime minister says that his administration will end its main u.n. peace-keeping mission in south sudan. the government will not send another team to replace the current unit. they're expected to pull out by the end of may. >> translator: a short while ago

a national security council meeting has been convened an it's been decided to end the mission of self-defense forces unit currently being deployed in south sudan, by the end of may. when the unit completes the ongoing road construction work there. in january this year, the deployment period of the sdf to south sudan exceeded five years, the longest ever. the sdf has been making a great contribution to nation-building in this newly established nation. including the construction of main roads from capital juba to other locations in the country. as south sudan's nation-building enters a new phase, we have made

judgment that the sdf has achieved a certain level of success in the construction of infrastructure. over the past five years, the sdf has accumulated great achievements. this policy of japanese government was already conveyed in advance to south sudan and the u.n. and the country's president responded with his praise, saying that he highly appreciates the duties of the sdf so far. in future, japan will continue sending the sdf members to the pko headquarters in south sudan,

and enforce our humanitarian assistance. under the cause of proactive contribution to peace, our nation will join hands with the international community and contribute to south sudan's peace and development to the best of our ability. counting from the first and to the 11th units, the sdf dispatched in total 3,854 troops for road construction and infrastructure works. as the commander-in-chief, i would like to state my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of them who have completed their missions admirably, under scorching suns in far away lands

and to their loved ones who agreed to send their loved ones on the mission. >> japan sent the sdf in 2012 to help restore the newly established nation. which has grappled with violence. the sdf's main mission has been constructing roads, bridges and other infrastructure. the scope did not include combat or other security enforcement work, because of strict limitations in japan's war-renouncing constitution. but the current unit was given an expanded role, coming to the defense of u.s. staff in the event they come under attack. the deployment has been heavily debated in the diet. japan's self impoesd criteria limit it to areas where cease-e-fires are in place. the opposition lawmakersrs grild the government on the security situation there. a u.n. adviser has warned the

conflict between the government and rebels risks escalating into genocide. hundreds have been killed. millions have fled the country and there are severe food shortages. malaysia's police chief says they confirmed that a man killed at an airport last month is in fact kim jong nam, the half-brother of north korea's leader. >> we have now established that kim jol is kim jong nam. we have fulfilled the requirement of the laws on his identification. >> kim chol was the name on the passport carried by the man who was attacked at kuala lumpur international airport. once believed to be a nerve agent. the case has created headlines around the world. pyongyang has refused to acknowledge the body is kim's. it demands it be handed over.

malaysian police had said dna samples from the family of the dead man were necessary for identification. the police chief said he will not elaborate on how they confirmed the identity. he said that's to protect the safety of witnesses. it's not clear who they are. and it has been a tumultuous day in south korea south korea where the president has been officially removed from office. the constitutional court has upheld her impeachment by the national assembly. >> the court judges unanimously agreed on the decision. we will dismiss president park. >> the ruling makes park the first democratically elected president in the country to be dismissed in this way. as president, park was immune from criminal prosecution in connection to the scandal, but it's likely she'll now face an investigation. the assembly's impeachment

motion was a part of the fallout of an influence-peddling scandal of park and a long-time friend choi soon-sil who has already been indikted for charges of abuse of power. south koreans will vote on the new president within 60 days. the news has only widened the divide between park supporters and opponents. >> reporter: i'm at kuala lumpur square where people are happy with the court's decision are going to celebrate the impeachment. we're expecting large numbers to show up. most of whom are waiting and hoping for today's results. soon after the ruling was released. lawmakers of the indictment committee said the judgment confirmed all people are equal in front of the law. meanwhile, park supporters, including her lawyers expressed deep regret. one of them lashed out saying he doesn't think the proceedings were conducted under the law and

calling it a kangaroo court. he went on to accuse all media of having assassinated park's character and a core representing. the supporters seem to have settled down now, earlier, they had turned violent. supporters, mostly older people yelled and clashed with police. the police say two of the protesters have died. the presidential official told reporters this afternoon that park cannot move out of her office and home on friday. she'll remain at the presidential residence for now. many were expected park to make remarks after the ruling. but an official says there will be no public message, either. so it looks like we won't get to hear what the first ever impeached leader is thinking, at least not for the moment.

earlier, we spoke with the senior correspondent who has extensivee knowledge about sout korean politics. which he has been covering for decades. >> so kango, take us through the judgment a little more closely. we've seen in the report that park's supporters are angry about the decision. >> well admittedly, i can say that the judge decided her violating against the constitution and the law were serious enough to dismiss her. they said she didn't demonstrate she was abiding by the constitution. and they said dismissing park is beneficial for the country. because her actions have had a huge negative impact on the rule of law. and let's go into some details on the aspect of the court ruling. and lawmakers accuse park of various wrongdoings, including

allowing her long-time friend, choi soon-sil to intervene in government staffing. and they also denounced park, saying she depart take appropriate measures to save lives in the ferry disaster, but the judges didn't agree. they said those allegations lack evidence. however, they concluded park did abuse her presidential authority to favor choi. they say park supported choi, who personally profited through managing foundations. and lawmakers accused park of urging major conglomerates to donate fundsds to those organizations. and they said park betrayed public trust through her worord and acactions. park had apopologized threeee t for causing concern. butt at the same time, they sai, she tried to hide choi's involvement in the governmnment. and that park denounced the media, that are raising

questions. she also refused to answer questions at court and didn't allow prosecutors to search the presidential office for evidence. >> so what's the difference this time? did public opinion tip the scale? >> i think it's a good question. and i think the judges were not totally free from public opinion. week after week, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to call for park to step down. and they were some of the largest demonstrations ever seen in the country. and lawmakers in the national assembly overwhelmingly supported the impeachment motion in december. so i think the judges took that into account, as a sign that president park had lost credibility in the country. >> now south korea will have to choose a new president. what does the race look like now? >> the latest poll suggested that the former head of the largest opposition party had the

most support. and he was a right-hand man of the former president. and the former governor of a southern province, and the acting president are distantly trading leads in the polls. fan is from park's party and expected to run for it on the conservative side. >> it's been months of political turmoil and what we've seen from kim jan-chu's report. tensions between the two sides have not gone down at all. >> that's a serious matter in terms of society. it seems like it might be difficult to restore stability in south korea now. today and in recent weeks, older conservatives have been taking to the street in support of park. and division in the country has deepened between young and old and left and right.

so i think the situation won't really settle until after the next president takes office. >> a school operator in the center of a controversy over a land deal has given up its plan to open new elementary school in osaka. opposition lawmakers have raised questions about its purchase of state-owned land and indicated the operator's policies on education are supportive of the prime minister. moritomo gakuen bought the land last year at less than 20% o of its appraised value. it's been building a new elementary school there. but osaka officials now say the operator has withdrawn its application for the school. and the president will step down. he and the operator have been under fire for submitting different construction contracts to the central government and osaka's prefectural government. some say thatt they used different figures to make its management plan look good and

it's been reported that the resumé s smitted byy the h head moritomo gakuen included false information. opposition lawmakers have grilled prime minister shinzo abe over his wife being an honorary principal of the planned school. he said neither he nor his wife had anything to do with the land deal and he denied she received any money from the school operator. now turning to business, stock prices in tokyo jumped to multi-month highs, gene otani brings us more on that and other business headlines. >> tokyo's stocks rallied to a 15-month high, investors were encouraged by the weaker yen on growing expectation of a u.s. interest rate hike. our business reporter john la dew has more from the tokyo stock exchange. >> the highlightht here of thee tokyo stock exchange was the weaker yen. and most sectors across the board did considerably well. so let's see how the two major indices ended this friday, march 10. the nikkei jumped 1.5%,

finishing at 19,604, the highest since december 2015. now much of the positive push was thanks to the stronger greenback. the dollar broke through the 1150-yen level for the first time since january. looking at major movers, big exporters lilike autos and electronicics were happy to see the yen so weak. sony and mazda ended more than 3%. the financial sector did well on hopes for a u.s. fed rate hike next week. insusurers like daiichi life holdings posted hefty gains. next week all eyes will be on the fed meeting on the 14th and 15th. market players will be looking for hints from policy makers of more hikes this year than originally thought so we'll be keeping a close eye on that. jo in south korea the court's upholding of the president's

impeachment had little effect on stocks or the country's currency. the kospi ended up .3%. 2, 097 there. property shares rose after the government said it will ease some restrictions on the real estate market. the overall picture in the region was mixed. the shanghai composite fell for a third day, side nye's s&p was up 0.6%. japanese business leaders have reacted to the decision by south korean judges to confirm president park's impeachment. the head of japan association of corporate executives said he is watching the unprecedented impeachment with interest. he said he hopes south korea will return to political stability quickly, so the two countries canan improve their security and e economic ties. the chairman of the japan

business federation said he hopes the bilateral relationship will continue moving forward under whoever is the new president. he said the groroup will contin to promote exchange with south korea to achieve closer economic ties. japanese government officials are closely watching a possible bankruptcy filing by toshiba's u.s. nuclear power plant unit. toshiba expects a loss of more than $6 billion from the nuclear business. so it's busy rebuilding its finances. executives at toshiba subsidiary westinghouse are considering filing for bankruptcy. deputy prime minister taro aso said there's no time to waste. >> unless the decision for chapter 11 filing is made soon, toshiba probably wouldn't be able to determine its losses. and release its earnings report. westinghouse has to make its decision by the end of this

month. >> industry minister wants it take up the toshiba issue with u.s. officials. >> i hope to hold a meetiting wh the energy secretary if i can get the diet's approval to visit the u.s. if u.s. officials bring up the issue, the discussion should take place. >> seiko told reporters he had heard nothing about a possible bankruptcy filing by westinghouse executives. the japan business federation is trying to dispel concerns about the safety of fukushima food. the the eve of the 6th anniversary of the quake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear accident. a fukushima prefectural official said prices are lower than since the accident. some mass marketers avoid

selling rice, beef and other products from the prefecture to avoid inquiries from the consumers. he said he'll keep explaining to the public why the food is safe. the symposium adopted a joint call for concerted by the efforts by the public and private sector to eradicate unfounded rumors and attract tourists and businesses to the northeast. a finance ministry survey shows business sentiment at large japanese companies has remained upbeat for the january-to-march quarter. marking the third positive reading in a row. officials ask managers at around 16,000 companies how they feel about the economy. the indexex for large firms in l industries was plus 1.3, a positive figure indicates more people expectt business too improvee than those who see it worsening. ministry officials say exporters such as machine makers are expecting better profits due to recent weakening of the yen. construction of condominiums continues to show strength.

meanwhile, the index for how business managers feel about the labor market was plus 16.9 for large firms in all industries. a positive figure indicates people who say they sense a shortage of workers outnumber those who say they've hired excessively. the figure was the highest in nine years. you can catch our report again online together with a full transcript. just look for nhk world and business wrap. i'm going to leave you with the markets.

people all over japan are getting ready to mark an important anniversary on saturday. a powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the country's northeast six years ago. people in 11 municipalities were evacuated after the accident at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the orders havee been gradually lifted. officials plan to end the evacuation order in part of the town of namea on march 31 and part of the town of tomioka on april 1st. set to confirm those decisions on friday, evacuation orders will then apply to the no-entry zone where there are high radiation levels. the laws will be in effect in some parts of the two towns that co-host the nuclear plant. the total area evacuated was about 1,150 square kilometers.

that will now shrink by two-thirds. officials hope to continue decontamination work and infrastructure projects in some parts of the no-entry zone. they plan to create a base for reconstruction by the end of fiscal 2021. however, an increasing number of people say they don't want to return to their home towns, even if evacuation orders are lifted. that's especially true of young residents. >> march 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake and massive tsunami devastate northeast japan. six years later, workers at the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear plant are still struggling to contain the radiation. but in the wake of this unprecedented tragedy, new ideas and initiatives for disaster prevention and recovery are shedding light and hope. don't miss "confronting challenges." you can check out those

stories on our website as well. jonathan oh joins us with the world weather report. starting with how almost a million people are without power in america's heartland. >> as we went through the week, we had v very powerful s stormst rolled throrough. one of the biggest factors that was part of the strong storms included very powerful winds. anand those winds movoved over great lakes on wednesday and thursday, and really caused some serious damage. take a look at this video. give you ann idea of howow it looked like on the ground level. that's a buildining with its ro half gone. it was that serious. powerful winds swiping through michigan this week, left a trail of fallen trees and also damaged cars. at least two people have died because of this. and the storm also took out some one m million custstomers. look at that car, jusust demolished from a tree falling

on top of it. more than 4,000 power lines were toppled in the process. and there's a look at the building, just not looking so good. now as we go forward in time, guess what, the story doesn't quite end. we have another set-up to where we are seeing very unstable weather. a low pressure area developed, is moving over the eastern portions of the united states. prompting tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, from places like arkansas to tennessee to kentucky. now behind it, we have high pressure, a powerful one that's driving in very cold air from the north. and it is also bringing strong winds with it. so guess what, the great lakes, your story when it comes to strorong winds, not over. those of you north into ontario, you're also looking at strong winds and chilly conditions as we go throughout the day on friday. another low pressure system will be moving over the pacific northwest. that's going to bring some rain as we go throughout the day on friday and becoming more like snow as we go into the rockies. much warmer down to the south,

still seeing wet weather from the cold front moving through. 26 in houston, 21 in atlanta and snow into toronto, new york, and a big drop of temperatures, colding into the weekekend. toward the south in europe, the southern portions of europe, keeping an eye on the cut-off low that's located near turkey. this storm has had a history of creating waterspouts, tornadoes hitting the water. that will continue to be the case throughout the day on friday. this low is cut off, meaning it's not goinger in. it continues to spin in the same general area nrkts easastern poportions of the mediterranean those of you in athens may be dealaling with thunderstorms throughout friday. snow as we see some of the moisture coming out of the low into portions of moscow. and then back toward the west we have high pressure that's going to push up temperatures into the mid 20s for madrid and lisbon through the last day of the work week.

wrapping things up with a look at east asia, starting in japan we saw some sea-effect snow, we see a northerly air flow due to highgh pressure in the west. that's going to help bring in a little bit more snowfall. i think the volume and the amount of snow may be decreasing as we go forward in time. that's going to be part of the story for saturday morning. for those located in the pacific side of the tohoku region, remembrance ceremonying place all over the place, looking at temperatures 8 or 9 degrees, partly cloudy skies relatively dry forecast for saturday. to the west, high pressure is ushering in a little bit of wet weather. warm into seoul with a high of 14. here's your extended outlook.

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