here in japan, it's 7:00 p.m. on a friday. i'm james tengan in tokyo. welcome to nhk u"newsline." u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson is in south korea for talks. and he had a strongly worded message for north korea. tillerson said the policy of strategic patience has ended. he said north korea must understand that the only path to secure economically prosperous future is to abandon its development of nuclear weapons. and he warned that if they don't, all options are on the

table. >> certainly we do not want for things to get to a military conflict. we're quite clear on that in our communications. but obviously if north korea takes actions that threaten the south korean forces or our own forces, then that will be met with an appropriate response. if they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe requires action, that option is on the table. >> tillerson also took aim at china, which is opposing the deployment of the u.s. missile defense system thaad in south korea. >> while we acknowledge china's opposition, its economic retaliation against south korea is inappropriate and troubling. we ask china to refrain from such action. instead, we urge china to address the threat that makes thaad necessary. that being the escalating threat

from north korea. >> south korea's foreign minister said they want to deploy the system for one reason and rone reason only. >> translator: the government of south korea and the united states have been pursuing the deployment of thaad to deal with north korea's threat, which is more serious than before. we'd like to make it clear that this is only a defense against the north's missile threats and not an action against any specific third country. >> earlier on friday, tillerson visited the demilitarized zone and greeted u.s. soldiers. he will visit china on saturday for his last stop of his asian tour, where he'll hold talks with the president and foreign minister. a lower court in japan has ordered the government and tokyo electric power company to pay damages to some evacuees of the 2011 nuclear accident. the ruling is the first to order compensation in several suits that are ongoing across the country. 137 evacuees who mainly live in

the prefecture northwest of tokyo filed the suit. they were seeking damages for emotional distress suffered after losing their livelihoods. tens of thousands of people have been unable to return home. at issue was whether the government and plant operator, tepco, could have foreseen the massive tsunami that struck and if they could have prevented damage. another point of contention was whether the compensation they are paying evacuees is enough. it's not clear yet whether tepco or the government will appeal the ruling. the lives of the people who left their homes have changed forever. nhk world tells us about two of them. >> translator: i desperately want to go back home. i wish everything would return to how it used to be before the accident. i really want to go back and live in fukushima. >> reporter: when the disaster strung, this woman and her

family were forced to evacuate. she doesn't want to be identified because she fears discrimination over being an evacuee. at first, she wanted to return home, but since, her concerns about radiation, a lack of infrastructure, and medical services have mounted. >> translator: i'm really worried about my little kids, and now i'm reluctant to return. >> reporter: so she decided to stay in their new town, and the family gave up on their house in fukushima. it had been built before the accident. even though she receives money from tepco, she says it doesn't make up for the distress she's suffered by effectively losing her hometown. she joined over 100 other evacuees to demand roughly $13 million more from both tepco and the government. they all claim they were forced to make the difficult decision

to leave and move to a neighboring prefecture. some of the plaintiffs decided to leave, even though their homes weren't in evacuation zones. sukia tanji is one of them. she's been volunteering as a guide in the evacuation zones, hoping that as many people as possible can understand the current situation. >> translator: this street of cherry blossoms, it's so beautiful in spring. >> reporter: she used to enjoy the blossoms with her family. she says she cannot forget the memories. people who left of their own accord received much less compensation than those who were forced to flee. but she says just like the others, her hometown was completely taken away.

>> translator: the nuclear disaster has caused all of our hardships. >> reporter: tanji said she wanted to win to give hope to other evacuees who filed lawsuits. but the court's recognition and the money won't be able to give them back the lives they were forced to abandon. ♪ residents in northern japan have taken part in an evacuation drill for a missile launch. the government says it's the first time such an exercise has been held in the country. the drill began under the scenario that a ballistic

missile was launched from a foreign nation. the central government relayed the news to local officials via a nationwide warning system. about two minutes later, residents were urged to take refuge inside buildings. they were told to evacuate immediately via a local wireless public address system. some sought shelter in a nearby community hall. >> translator: i i'm goingng toe this opportunity to think again about how to evacuate to ensure safety. >> local school children also took part in the exercise, which comes amid rising concerns over north korea's missile program. japanese lawmakers have decided to summon the head of a school operator to testify at the diet next week. the man has made headlines for his connection to a state land

deal in a failed plalan to o op new elementary school. he will appear at the budget committee of both houses next thursday. last year his organization purchased state-owned land in osaka for less than 20% of its appraised value, and there are suspicioions it also received a state subsidy based on false documents. opposition parties earlier demanded his testimony, but the ruling coalition rejected the call, saying the sale was conducted properly. now they say the situation has changed. he said this week he received a donation from the prime minister, and his claim dominated a diet session. >> translator: there are many questions to be asked, includidg what the truth is. we havee to closely examine the issues in doubt. >> the head of the opposition

party took it a a step further. >> translator: we continue to demand summoning also the finance minister official in charge of the sale. >> chief cabinet secretary sue -- suga says the government should explain the matter. we have more on the japan self-defense force logs. the gsdf unit working as part of a u.n. peacekeeping mission keeps a daily record of its activities and the situation in south sudan. in december, the ministry announced that the ground self-defense force had destroyed reports filed in july of last year when there were major armed clashes. the ministry later said the records were found at the joint staff office.

however, it has been revealed that the gsdf had possessed the logs in digital form the whole time. the senior officials say top ministry bureaucrats decided in late january it was too late to disclose the fact the gsdf had the data. such an admission would have contradicted earlier official statements. in february, a lawmaker asked for computer records of the daily reports. the senior defense ministry officials say that immediately after requests, computer terminals were taken out of the gsdf command and their data was scrubbed. one of the senior officials says this was to hide the existence of the daily reports. the defense minister says she has ordered an immediate review. >> translator: t the probe will cover not just the ground self-defense force but any other entity, if that's considered necessary, to get to the bottom of the matter.

>> in july of last year, the south sudanese governmentt andn oppositionon forces clashed fiercely, leavingng n nearly 3 dead. the daily logs of the gsdf unit included the word fightining. oppositionon lawmakers asked whether t the situation met japan's strict criteria for the self-defense force taking part in peace keeping operations. now turning to business. unions and business leaders in japan have agreed to limit overtime at work. gene otani has the details on that and other business headlines. >> government officials agreed to limit overtime with the japan business federation and the country's largest labor organization on friday. that means monthly overtime will be capped at less than 100 hours. the chairman said he had agreed to the limit following a request of prime minister shinzo abe. the agreement will also ask businesses to give their workers

designated breaks between shifts to curtail excessive overtime. >> translator: the standard for overtime work is 45 hours per month, 360 hours per year. labor and management have agreed to try to reduce overtime hours. >> abe said he eventually plans to introduce similar measures to sectors that currently have no overtime limits, such as construction and transportation. over 90% of japanese university students graduating this spring have already received promises of work. that's the highest ratio since 2000 when comparative data became available. the education and labor ministries jointly surveyed more than 4700 university students. 90.6% had received offers of employment by february 1st, up 2.8 points from last year. it's the sixth straight year of

improvement. japan's tight labor market is the reason. the labor ministry says 94% of about 175,000 high school seniors have been given promises of employment at the end of january. that's the highest level in 24 years. labor ministry officials say some companies are struggling to hire and are increasingly targeting high school graduates. japanese people are wealthier than ever. the central bank says financial assets held by individuals in japan hit a record at the end of 2016. rising u.s. stock prices and japan's recovering economy are the reason. the boj report says personal assets rose nearly a percent to over 1800 trillion yen. that's almost $16 trillion. cash and deposits grew nearly 2% to top 930 trillion yen. the figure accounts for more than half of all personal assets.

investment trust rose 0.2% as share prices rallied after donald trump's victory. stocks and other investments fell 0.4%, but the pace of their decline slowed. the report says japanese government bonds held by the boj jumped 27% to 420 trillion yen. the bank has been buying the fixed income assets as part of its massive monetary easing program. checking the markets, tokyo stocks ended the day slightly lower. investors were cautious ahead of the group of 20 meeting of finance chiefs. john ladue has more from the tokyo stock exchange. >> with the central bank policy meetings out of the way in the u.s., uk, and japan, investors seem to be taking a breather to take in the g-20 meeting in germany. let's see how things finished up this friday, march 17th. the nikkei ended down 0.35%, closing at 19,521. the broader topix fell 0.4%. a lot of that bearish sentiment

came from the relatively strong yen. the dollar hovered in the lower 113-yen range. during tokyo trading hours, that's after the federal reserve indicated future rate hikes will come at a gradual pace. now looking at individual stocks, pharmaceuticals were among the hardest hit. they followed the drop in drug companies on wall street on uncertainty about changes in the u.s. health care covererage. but strugglgling electronics mar toshiba saw a rebound after a media report that a government-backed bank might step in to help the company. investors are watchingg the g-2 meetings for clues about u.s. currency and trade policies under the trump administration. i'm john ladue reporting from the tokyo stock exchange. all right. most other benchmarks in the asia pacific closed higher. investors are less worried about capital outflows after the fed

guidance. seoul's cospi gained 0.7%. indonesia rose 0.4%. taiwan's taiex climbed by 0.7%. that's the highest level in nearly two years. semiconductors like apple parts suppliers led gains. over in china, the shanghai composite ended this way, down by almost a percent, closing a the 3,237. many investors sold to book profits from four days of gains. energy related shares were lower on volatile crude oil prices. donald trump's first budget proposal faces a rough ride in the u.s. congress. opposition democrats have slammed the president's plan to splurge on defense and slash spending on foreign aid and the environment. some republicans have joined in the criticism. the budget is for fiscal 2018 and would start in october of this year. the pentagon could get a 10% spending boost. the department of homeland security is also slated for more

money, including millions to pay for that wall along the border with mexico. the state department's budget is among those facing cuts, meaeang less spending on foreign aid. the environmental protection agency will also be poorer off. house minority leader nancy pelosi criticized the proposal. >> i canan't seeee how this bud can survive the light of day. ththis budget is really a slap the face of the future. >> a top democrat on the senate, forereign relations cocommittee said he's deeply disappointed and dismayed. he said president trump appears determined to gut national security. republican chairman of the house foreign affairs committee noted he's's very concerned that the cuts will hurt efforts to combat terrorism and provide humanitarian aid. chinese leaders wrapped up their once a year national people's congress on wednesday. they set an annual economic growth target of around 6.5%. the number is less ambitious

than their target for 2016. china's economy has been on fairly solid footing this year, and leaders want to keep it that way by focusing on stability. but many economists are maintaining a cautious outlook. my colleague talked to daniel so, strategist at cmb international securities in hong kong. she started by asking if he thinks a sharp slowdown is unlikely as the premier has said, and what he sees as the biggest challenges. >> the premier is right. they should not be too complacent. dmes domestically, china has very high debt levels. china is facing capital outflows as the chinese yuan is having

depreciation pressure. there are political risks too. in europe, the european union may break up if elections turn out to be unfavorable. >> so the latest rate hike has added to one risk you mentioned, capital outflow. in fact, the people's bank of china raised short-term interest rates just hours after the fed, which is a move seen as an attempt to keep money from leaving the country. what other measures do you think we can expect? >> we can expect a number of measures. first, the more favorable is the opening up capital markets to attract capital inflows. china may open its bond market and also strive to get asia to be included in the index.

in terms of monetary policy, the central bank may keep relatively neutral policy. that is, no cuts to interest rates, rates, so that the yuan can be kept at a relatively strong level. the last one, which may be the last resort, is by administrative measures to ban individuals and companies from investing overseas. >> daniel, how will authorities achieve stable growth? what should be their priorities? >> their top priority should be structural reform to get domestic consumption to become the main growth driver instead of investment currently. obviously fixed asset investment cannot be the growth driver for

many years. how they can achieve this reform, some cuts in income tax and improvement in social welfare may be useful so that the people may have more money to spend. then they may keep doing the reform to better allocate their resources. >> you can catch our report again online together with a full transcript. just look for nhk world and business wrap. that's a look at business news. i'm going to leave you with the markets.

japan's space center says it has successfully launched a rocket and put a new information gathering satellite into orbit. the h2a rocket lifted off from the space center in southwestern japan. it shed the spent booster rockets and the first-stage engine before releasing the satellite. information gathering satellites are designed to capture images of the ground and sea from several hundred kilometers away. the government uses such de facto spypy satellites too moni north h korea's missilele launc facilities, japanese waters, and disaster areas.

nhk "newsline" comes to you live from tokyo, where it's partly fair with a current temperature reading of 12 degrees celsius or 53 degrees fahrenheit. let's see what conditions are like across the globe with jonathan oh, who starts off with peru. >> hello, unfortunately, i do not think we will be seeing relief, at least anyny prolonge period of relief for those living in the country as we go forward in time. it's been unusually warm in the pacific ocean. that's created that uplift, and that's leded to the instability that's continued to hit the country all along the coastal areas and even into the interior portions of peru. look at this video, i mean, i don't have to say anything about the video. if you just watch it, look at the massive amount of water and mud that are pouring throughout entire acres, hectares of land, the peruvian army had to get involved from rescuing children

in here. according to operaration center the number of deaths have now increased from 50 to 62 in recent days. 57,000 people have been impacted by this flooding situation. and the question was, are we going to be getting a break from this? i don't thinsoso. unfortunelely, it lolooks like theyey will get worse as we go forward in time. we go into april, and it looks like this rains goingng to contininue. going into higher ground does not necessarily guarantee any safe b because o of the fact tha so much rain has poured through the area that landsdslides have alsoso taken place becauause of this. here's a look at the forecast for the next4 4 hour the e rain continues to bebe a significant part of the problem as we go forward in time. we go through the next few days, some areas could see around 200 millimeters of rainfall as we go through the weekend. so it's a difficult situation going forward. we go to north ameririca, the opposite story. it's a lot dryer and calmer at this point. we have been dealing with serious snowstorms, including the northeastern united states into canada. even that's starting to wrap up.

we have a a low crossing up er the upper midwest. that's going to bring a chance of some snow and rain as we go forward in time. depending where you are, you are dealing with a mix of rain and snow. over into the northwest, we are looking at the possibility of dealing with rain, vancouver and seattle, very warm into los angeles with a high of 28. the eastern seaboard, getting a bit warmer after a really cold blast moves through the area, we will see temperatures starting to warm up. meanwhile, we go to europe, the northern areas of the continent have been dealing with heavy snowfall, strong winds, even some avalanches that resulted from that. we will see that pattern continue as low pattern continues to push to the east. down to the south the northern areas of europe and this continental portion will be dealing with winds, strorong wis that entire time. spreading toward the east as we go forward throughout the day on friday. berlin into moscow and dow to kiev looking at precipitation.

drier toward the west and south. madrid and lisbon looking at a high of 20 on friday. wrapping things up with a look at japan. fantastic weather. nice throughout the day on friday. a few w clouds from a little bi of instanlbility, b but that's t it. we're expecting a warming trend as the high-pressure system responsible pushes that weather toward the east. so hopefully you will have nice outdoor plans, look out for the pollen. 18 for the high on sunday if tokyo under sunny skies, looking great. fukuoka looking at rain with a high of 16 on monday. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

we invite you to download the nhk world app and follow us

wherever you go. for all of us here on the show, thanks for watching.

>> welcome to the france 24 newsroom. a showdown and washington. president trump made angela merkel for their first face-to-face. the talks will be a crucial part in the transatlantic relations. u.s. military action against north korea is an option on the table if the threat escalates. that is the warning from rex tillerson, currently in s