on this sunday night, the homecoming for two americans suddenly released by north korea this weekend. and new details of the secret u.s. government mission that led to their freedom. when the wall fell. as the world marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall, tom brokaw remembers that night and witnessing history. help wanted? it is shaping up as a banner year for holiday hiring with hundreds of thousands of jobs that need to be filled. tonight we'll tell you where they are. and big dreams for some of the most fragile little lives as those who care for them see all of the possibilities.

good evening. two american men until this weekend faced the likelihood of years imprisoned in north korea are spending their first night on american soil after their sudden release yesterday, led by the head of intelligence, the mission to secure the freedom of kenneth bae and matthew miller was shrouded in secrecy. they traveled to a place few americans dare to go and were accused of breaking north korea laws. they landed near seattle last night where one of them spoke about the dramatic release. miguel almaguer reports. >> reporter: this is how the secret mission came to an end. the late night flight, a homecoming many thought they would never see. 25-year-old matthew miller and 26-year-old kenneth bae back on american soil and back in the

arms ever fami-- of family. >> i want to say thank you all for supporting me and standing by me during this time. >> reporter: their release secured by america's top spy, james clapper, the director of national intelligence, who went to pyongyang caring a letter by president obama, a mission approved last week. >> i don't think this is a case of charm offensive by north korea, i think it is an attempt to resolve an issue they didn't want around. >> reporter: the mission so top secret only a few members of congress were briefed before the trip. clapper did not meet with kim jong-un, only north korean security officials. miller, 25, who did not speak with the media, was charged with unrulely behavior and spent seven months locked up after he ripped up his visa and sought asylum.

>> they were preaching against the secretive government. >> he still has a tremendous heart for the people of north korea. he only has the best intentions for that country still. >> while the president saying he was grateful for their return, it is unknown how it will affect relations with north korea and the young unpredictable leader. >> for the united states, it allows them to stop worrying about the treatment of american citizens and can focus on the large nuclear issues we have with north korea. >> despite strong travel warnings from the u.s. state department, it is estimated 6,000 westerners go to north korea a year. nine americans have been detained in the last five years alone. u.s. journalist laura ling imprisoned before her release said i hope their release is a signal of a potential opening between our two countries. >> it has been an amazing two years. i've learned a lot. i grew a lot. i'm standing strong because of

you. >> reporter: tonight they are both back with familiay, enjoyi the comforts of home. miguelal mig air. >> the relationship with north korean could be what he discusses as he arrives in china tonight to strengthen u.s. ties to the region. kristin welker is traveling with the president and is now in beijing where it is now monday morning. >> reporter: lester, fostering strong relations is a key for president obama. this is his sixth trip to the eth ethan. many feel other things have taken his attention away from asia. there is much to start his so-called asia pivot and moni r monitoring the on going battles back at home. the president left overnight heading to china. 7,000 miles from washington. and last week's election day

drubbing. on the agenda, economy, trade and his place in history. >> i think the president believes that a trade deal with help define his legacy. >> it issa four-stop three nation tour to beijing, south to myanmar and stops in rang on and down under to brisbane australia where he will deliver the cap stone speech of his trip. >> the main goal is -- is to advance economic and big trade relationships have come in emerging economy. >> and rival with ever -- and reif with pitfalls. >> we'll be direct with china on our concerns about the human rights situation just as we're concerned about some of the business practices that we feel deny the level of the playing field for american businesses. >> but president obama's ability to pressure the chinese is limited by his dependence on them for ongoing efforts to deny

nuclear weapons and the behavior of north korea and contribute to the fight of the spread of ebola in west africa. all of this as republicans prepare to take over both houses of republicans. vowing to overdue his accomplishment, the affordable care act. >> the majority of americans show that we can actually govern and put together an agenda and execute on it. that means getting results. that means you take away obama care. >> reporter: but the political trouble will still be there when he returns to office. >> second term presidents frequently engage on foreign policy and leave the country. obama is doing this. other presidents have done it. and sometimes it gets them in trouble. sometimes issues are forced on them. >> reporter: and in an interview earlier sunday president obama for the first time accepted responsibility for the democrats huge love in the mid terms and he did it by quoting a famous phrase from the nation's 33rd

president, harry truman. >> the buck stops with me. the buck stops right here, at my desk. and so whenever, as head of the party, it doesn't do well, i have to take responsibility for it. >> reporter: a fraught back drop as president prepared to attend the a pack economic summit here on wednesday. >> thank you. with the mid-term elections over and the president in his last two years of office there will be growing speculation about who might run to succeed him. among republicans, the most prominent names is jeb bush, the former governor of florida. in an interview for the today show, savannah guthrie asked his brother george w. bush about that possibility. >> are you actively persuading him to run? >> well in the sense i'm to say something on your tv show that says i hope he runs. but he'll make up his own mind. he sad his dad and obama run for

president. if not, he is not afraid of taking on the challenge. i think in his soul he knows he can do the job. he is a successful two term governor of florida and he is trying to see if it makes sense for his family. watch more tomorrow on today. one of the world's great dividing lines came down, the berlin wall which stood for almost three decades is a symbol of community suppression. today angela merkel led ceremonies leading the fall of the wall reminding us nothing has to stay the way it is, no matter how the problems. and she remembers those trying to cross it to freedom. and among those today were mikael goreib chauf and led to

the fall of communism and the leader of poll land. it ended tonight with 7,000 balloons being released along the route of the wall followed by a display of fireworks now a symbol of the city reunited. as they met, so did an nbc news chief. tom brokaw. the only person who reported live from the scene. tonight tom remembers how it unfolded. >> nbc news, the right time. >> good evening, live from the berlin wall on the most historic night in the wall's history. >> for us, it was a historic exclusive. >> the wall has effectively come down and i mean physically as well. that is a chunk of the berlin wall. men and women atop the wall, hammer and chisel taking it down, symbolically because realistically it has been taken down by the people in the last eight hours or so.

>> earlier that day, it seemed like we had no compelling story. the communist government grip on power held firm until an afternoon press conference where a poland spokesperson suddenly announced east german citizens were free to travel. >> it is like a bomb going off in the room. and he starts to see the commotion and he gradually starts to back pedal but it is too late. >> my producer that day, michelle new bert. >> tom, i think the berlin wall may be coming down. >> he seemed not to know what he had done. >> it is possible for them to go through the border. >> he told me east germans would go and look and return behind the wall. he was wrong. >> many people have a lot to thank him for. tens of hundreds of thousands of people, if not the world. >> as word spread, thousands head to the bridge check point. filmmaker siggy chefki along with this -- had longed for this

day for years. >> the gdr would say they are happy here. they are happier by getting out of here, it looks like. >> everyone is laughing he saysment they all want to run in case a miracle might disappear. former border guard gunter fisher once under orders to shoot anyone cross simply watched them go. >> it was a deep hole, he says. as if someone had pulled away the surface under your feet. now a quarter century on, this nation remembers the lives lost in the struggle against the wall and the gift it gave the world. >> it is a symbol of hope in many ways that peaceful revolutions are possible. >> they are crossing this wall east to west and west to east. they are being joined once again as one, as freedom-loving people and no wall can stand in their way. it is a night to remember. >> the way it was reported 25 years ago. in mexico, more protests and

violence this weekend after the government said that 43 missing college students with now presumed dead. protesters in mexico city set fire to the wooden door of the presidential palace. at parent mass murder of the students took place after police stopped them from staging a protest in a town in southwest mexico. prosecutors say the mayor and his wife ordered the police to stop them. authorities believe corrupt officers handed most of the students over to a drug cartel. the anger over the disappearance of the students has been directed toward the government and its handling of the case. in this country, previously unreleased video has emerged in aerds, shot by firefighters in the moments before and after 19 of their own were killed battling the yarnell hill wildfire almost a year and a half ago. the clips were made public by the arizonastate forest division. the audio reveals commanders and other firefighters becoming more and por worried about the fate of the granite mountain hotshots

as the fire raged around them and then the realization that 19 firefighters had been lost. the northern part of the country is starting to feel the first big blast of winter weather tonight with temperatures below freezing and lots of snow on the way. here is a satellite image showing the dimension of the some system as it makes its way down from canada. mike sidel is in minnesota for the latest. mike. >> hi, lester. good evening from forest lake, minnesota. where the entire landscape will change by tomorrow morning. a lot of snow is on the way and that will seriously impact both commutes on monday. winter storm warnings are up for montana to michigan and following the storm the cold air comes in. temperatures fall way below average for many days. take a look at the swath of snow. a lot as much of a foot in the upper parts of the midwest and the first flakes of the season in the nearby twin cities and in

minneapolis, st. paul. tomorrow they will get eightiths. frigid air on tuesday, temperatures fall below freezing and staying there for a long time. in rapid city where it was in the 50s this afternoon it will drop 30 degree. and then 75 again tomorrow in oklahoma city and again tuesday. then crashing into the 40s into tuesday night and wednesday. and look at how much of the country will be sliver sh -- shivering in the next week. the past november combined have been warmer than average and only 6 inches of snow. but not this month. next week we are forecasting sub zero cold and that will be the first time in november in 17 years. lester. >> mike sidel, thank you. when "nbc nightly news" continues on this sunday. help wanted. the huge round of hiring going on right now for the holidays. and later tiny babies and she's still the one for you.

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holiday. >> we are going to be ready and be staffed, we're hire iing a ton of -- hiring a ton of people for this operation. >> thousands more than last year, when shipping companies were overwhelmed and unable to complete holiday deliveries on time. but ups isn't the only companies adding staff. akouting to -- according to challenging gray in christmas, a new poll shows that retailers could add 800,000 jobs this year. not seen since the 1990s. >> it is very optimistic from almost everyone's vieh point. it looks like retailers are hiring because we are all spending more. >> toys "r" us plans to hire more workers. >> i've done some online shopping but this is official start, today, right now. >> reporter: almost half of the nation's retailers plan to hire extra help. for macy's that's an additional

86,000 job and amazon 80,000 and walmart, 60,000 new workers. some companies are adding clerical staff, shipping or i.t. >> reporter: and one job placement firm estimates that 40% of the companies that hire during this holiday rush plan to make some of those positions permanent. something mark alrich is hoping for. >> if i can stick with this job and able to stay after the season, that would mean a lot for us. >> in a holiday season that may leave many with reason to celebrate. kristin dahlgren, nbc news new york. kristin dahlgren, nbc news new york. when we woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you

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the fire ball was spotted. a russian spacecraft is on the way home tonight carrying american astronaut reid wiseman and a russian and german astronaut after five months on the international space station. before leaving, wiseman who has been known for his photographer and media skills, posted time lapse video of earth as he saw it. in a tweet, he said what a ride it has been. 166 days in space. time for me to head home and we say welcome back. in salt lake, utah, a big lead with a spectacular 79 yard touchdown pass to clay. everybody thought he ran it into the end zone. giving utah a 14-0 lead. but watch closely. for some reason he dropped the ball a yard before the end zone. amid the hoopla, oregon picked it up and ran it 100 yards for a reel -- real touchdown.

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finally tonight, they came into this world a little sooner than expected. tiny and fragile, spending the first days in the neonatal intensive care unit at children's health care. nurses and hospital communication staff and the lens of a camera, the families of the little ones have reason to dream big. >> all of us as nurses in the nicu, we have big dreams for our babies. they are very sick when they first come to us, and we just want them to be able to grow up and just be a healthy kid. >> i can't put you down if you are making all of those cute noises. >> i work on the communication team here at children's health care of atlanta and also i'm a photographer. so i was blessed enough to take the photos of the five sleeping babies in our nicu series. we took the photos and collaborated with the designer to create these beautiful images

where the little ones are dreaming about what they might be some day. >> carolina has been with us for about three months. she became the olympian because of her personality where she is always stretching and moving her legs. she's overcome two surgeries so far and nothing is holding her back. >> it is fun to see them not only dressed but in the cute poses and with their dreams around them. >> miss madeline is just an amazing little girl. she came to us back in june and we pretty quickly realized that madelyn had a lot going on. >> we are hoping that miss madelyn will be a doctor or a nurse and just to give back what they have given to her. because without them, she

wouldn't be here. >> in this setting, hope is incredibly important. they have to hope to get out of here. >> we are fred and donny hill and we are the parents of the little ballerina, sofia alise. >> sofia spent 157 days, 20 hours and 6 minutes in nicus. >> she will grow up and be a ballerina and this is just a part -- a part of the journey. >> just because they were born early doesn't mean that they can't be the next president or the next ball earina -- ballerina or nurse or doctor. they can do anything they want to.

it is unmistakably lambeau field on a 37-degree night in green bay, wisconsin. and it's an nfc north matchup between the bears and the packers on sunday night football. the bears are 3-5. with all three of their wins taking place on the road. nelson and the pawon in week fo