reports kim saying that he's open to giving up his nuclear program his all china correspondent adrian brown with the latest from beijing. and so he was here after a. chinese state controlled media waited until kim jong un was back home before confirming what officials had tried so hard to deny just a day earlier in the great hall of the people kim jong un and his wife were welcomed like old friends by president xi jinping. a brief greeting in korean was the only time kim's voice was heard. appearance is important at times like this kim looked like an old style communist leader where is she opted for a business suit. the wives of both men were present during most of the photo opportunities. this visit was powerful symbolism for both men but especially for president xi now the first world leader to meet kim and a reminder that china still holds sway over its neighbor and ally. it's not clear what motivated kim jong un to come to beijing now and whether he was offered any incentive to do so but china remains north korea's only ally so it's fair to assume the president she might have wanted to

of the visit we've got our correspondent kathy novak standing by in seoul but first let's go to adrian brown in beijing so adrian what are they saying at the moment there as there been any light shed a toll on this visit. you know this is had an almost sort of comic feel to it today especially at the ministry of foreign affairs on tuesday afternoon she arrived in the room with a sort of expression on her face that said i know exactly what you want to ask me but any questions about whether the mystery guest really was kim jong un were batted away she was asked the question four times and again she simply refused to say she said i have absolutely no information about your question well when the press conference came to an end i remember this news conference was happening just as the train carrying this mystery v.i.p. guest was leaving beijing railway station just down the road i managed to ask the foreign ministry spokeswoman how ching yen one more time about why she the spokeswoman for the foreign ministry was unable to say who this guest was. is it possible that you wouldn't know that you ca

into the ocean in other words china is going to continue doing what it's doing played a quote adrian brown i think they're saying adrian thank you. british prime minister theresa may has defended the red carpet welcome given to saudi arabia's crown prince it's the first month's three day trip to the u.k. aimed at developing economic ties between the two countries but critics say the british government is turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in saudi arabia. reports of london. been some man started off as you can trip with a visit to the queen who hosted the young prince of buckingham palace a sign of just how eager the u.k. used to bolster its ties with the saudi kingdom children from the saudi king crab academy work busking to cheer on the palm prince a continuation of the massive p.r. campaign that included huge adverts across london announcing been ten months visits human rights groups however chose to focus on children by highlighting the killing of thousands in yemen by the saudi military an army under the direct command of m.p.'s as he's known but eleven million children in yem

hours ago we have two correspondents on this story we've got kathy novak in seoul and we've got adrian brown in beijing adrian me start with you and very much similar this first encounter between kim and president xi very similar to the kinds of encounters between north korea and china of the past. that's right in this era of political and diplomatic surprises martine here was another as you say in the past north korean leaders have always been given lavis receptions and that was certainly the case this time president xi jinping was you know wearing a sort of western style business suit whereas kim jong un was dressed like a conventional or thorough tarion communist leader and of course on occasions like this appearances all important it was also notable that the wives of both men also enjoyed a very high profile they appeared at most of the picture opportunities that have been released by state television during the past few hours of course this is a visit martine that china's foreign ministry was basically denying it was happening twenty four hours ago they were giving the lie that they ha

and a banquet in the capitals the great hall of the people from beijing are china correspondent adrian brown reports for xi jinping this was a diplomatic triumph and he not u.s. president donald trump now the first world leader to meet kim jong il. chinese state controlled media waited until kim was back home before confirming what officials had tried so hard to deny just a day earlier. in the great hall of the people kim and his wife were welcomed like old friends appearance is important at times like this she opted for a business suit whereas kim stuck to the look favored by his father and grandfather the wives of both men were present during most of the photo opportunities. visits like this are all about symbolism for she it served as a reminder that china still holds sway over its neighbor and intends to be at the center of diplomatic efforts to achieve a nuclear free korean peninsula it's not clear what made him come to beijing or indeed what incentives he may have been offered to do so but china remains north korea's only real friend and ally so it's fair to assume the president xi jin

ensure there was no repeat of the mao zedong era we will get to our guests in a moment but first adrian brown reports from beijing tiananmen square has been the setting for some of the most defining moments in recent chinese history not all of them peaceful now a new political drama is unfolding this carefully choreographed gathering involves almost three thousand delegates and almost as many journalists like parliament the media in china is controlled by the party offering uniform coverage. the national people's congress normally last for ten days but this year it's being extended by five days possibly to give delegates more time to discuss proposed changes to china's constitution which could mean she. being president for life the issue is overshadowing this congress but most delegates we spoke to didn't want to talk about it i don't want to discuss it i asked them he said. and no comment from him either. party discipline though would ensure the amendment is passed that low until either those capable people should stay in their posts as long as possible. the decision is made by the party as

a charles to assert their influence in any diplomatic solution here much holocaust spondon to adrian brown in beijing for xi jinping this was a diplomatic triumph he did not u.s. president donald trump now the first world leader to meet kim jong il a. chinese state controlled media waited until kim was back home before confirming what officials had tried so hard to deny just a day earlier. in the great hall of the people kim and his wife well welcome bleich old friends appearance is important at times like this. she opted for a business suit where is kim stuck to the look favored by his father and grandfather the wives of both men were present during most of the photo opportunities. visits like this are all about symbolism for she it served as a reminder that china still holds sway over its neighbor and intends to be at the center of diplomatic efforts to achieve a nuclear free korean peninsula. it's not clear what made him come to beijing or indeed what incentives he may have been offered to do so but china remains north korea's only real friend and ally so it's fair to assume the preside

guys for getting rid of potential rivals for now at least though she would appear to have none adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. earlier i spoke to carrie brown director of the lao china as you choose it king's college london it told me she could be setting himself up for a full. well he's in control of a much bigger country in a more important country and also a country which is quite soon going to be the world's largest economy probably so it's the stakes are much much higher but i don't really think we should see this is being a return to a kind of maoist sort of power. don't have an independent kind of basis and charisma that was sort of more than the party that was the problem really whereas i mean she's in pain works within the party and the country that he leads is so much more complicated it's not possible for one person even a complete megalomaniac to make decisions about china on their own because it's got so many different kinds of constituent elements so i think we're a long long way from that in a sense the problem is that we have a you know leader promising so much who might no

well let's talk a little bit more about this there with our china correspondent adrian brown he's joining us live now from beijing and adrian china is one of the biggest producers of steel in the world how might this announcement how might these terrorists affect the chinese economy well as you rightly point out china in fact produces more than half the world's steel so it's very significant but the response we're getting here in beijing on friday has actually been quite muted the commerce ministry has said that they regret president trump's announcement they're concerned by his announcement but i think it's fair to assume martine that the chinese had been anticipating this because president trump after all had been warning repeatedly that he was going to impose tariffs on steel and other million so i think this is something that china anticipated expected but the timing is interesting because right now a senior chinese economic advisor is in washington for talks with the trump administration and these talks we're told have been very frank very direct the language has been very blunt inde

there was one overriding message china will be great again so long as she jing pings at the helm adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. the u.s. aircraft carrier has arrived in vietnam for the first time since the end of the vietnam war the visit by the u.s.s. carl vinson to the port of dan ang marks the biggest u.s. military presence in the country since one thousand nine hundred five when hey ripples now from. this visit by the u.s. military to vietnam is very symbolic the aircraft carrier the carl vinson anchoring off the city of done there which is where u.s. ground troops first came ashore in one thousand nine hundred sixty five to begin their campaign in the vietnam war ever since that war came to an end particularly in the last couple of decades relations between the united states and vietnam have been steadily improving in this visit will be seen as another important step in that process but it's also about the south china sea where the carl vinson is anchoring is the south china sea or the e.c. as it's known in vietnam china claims pretty much all of the south china sea and over the last c

last frontier for the catholic church it's been that way for centuries never more so than now adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. asia pacific is the most vulnerable region in the world when it comes to water insecurity population growth and urbanization have drastically increased demand the region is home to sixty percent of the global population and fifty percent of the poorest people in the world live that agriculture takes up some eighty percent of all water resources and by twenty thirty the regions expected to have twenty two cities of ten million people or more by twenty fifty three point four billion people could be living in water scarce areas now to study there are concerns over the expansion of a coal mine which could pollute the rivers which supply water to sydney environmentalists are outraged that the government has approved plans allowing the mine to expand as andrew thomas reports from lythgoe. these ponds of the source water for the coxes river ultimately it grows and flows into a reservoir which holds drinking water for the five million people of sydney here the water is cle

china correspondent adrian brown reports from beijing. in the ceremonial heart of beijing china's political season is about to start but it will be different this year delegates to the national people's congress are being asked to do something they've never had to before approve a change to the constitution that restricts presidents to two terms dissenting voices are rare in today's china yet in the run up to this n.p.c. there's been token criticism over the proposed amendment. most of the modern countries in the world adopt this two term presidency that's why people find it unbelievable that if she is going to stay in power more than two terms president she is likely to get his way the n.p.c. is viewed as a largely rubber stamp body controlled by the ruling communist party and has never voted down a proposal from party leaders. the change will further consolidate she's power as he is also party chief and head of the military and in october his name was in shrines in the constitution elevating him to the status of chairman mao like presid

is it guys for getting rid of potential rivals for now at least she would appear to have known adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. people in hong kong have been voting a by election in which pro-democracy activists i hoping to win back veto power in the legislature police detained a number of protesters who gathered outside the polling station where the city's leader cost her ballot the vote is to fill four sixteenth's formerly held by pro-democracy politicians who were ousted for including protests in their oath of office. u.s. president donald trump says his plan talks with north korea could either fail or bring about the greatest deal for the world to ease nuclear tensions between the two countries speaking as a rally in pennsylvania he said he believes north korea wants to make peace but president trump wants he could leave the talks quickly if it didn't look like progress for nuclear disarmament could be made well to south korean officials who met the north korean leader kim jong un last week are to proof the leaders of china and japan one of the officials will meet china's president xi j

china today is a one party state dominated now by one man adrian brown al jazeera beijing germans are awaiting the final result of a referendum that could end months of political deadlock votes cast by hundreds of thousands of members of the social democratic party are being counted and the result is expected within the next hour or so to decide whether the party joins a government coalition led by chancellor angela merkel dominic kane reports. thursday night in leipzig and for the social democrats the hot topic is coalition across germany the party members are deciding if they want to work with anger merkel's christian democrats again young members like benyamin are clear. because of his tone in him. there's no grand vision in this grand coalition and i think we can only develop as an opposition party i think it's not logical that the election losers build the new government contrast that with the views of older members like christoph yaps he's proud of his fifty years as a social democrat and says pragmatism is important i was also. a list i think i'm a realist i don't want germany

adrian brown al jazeera beijing. british officials say there found some limited contamination of nurtured nerve agent into public places following the poisoning of a former russian spy out of five hundred people who visited the two places in sort of london have been urged to wash their clothes and other belongings police have identified more than two hundred witnesses in their investigation they've also cordoned off the graves assegais scrap holes wife and his son script hall and his daughter usually have remained in critical condition in hospital after being infected with a nerve agent we've learnt that there has been some limited contamination in both the milk and seizes restaurants insoles free so anyone who visited the mill kirpan sees his restaurant where the two affected individuals were can be reassured that this limited exposure will not come to health today. however there may be a very small health risk associated with repeated contact with belongings which may have been contaminated by this substance so we'

and from urban poverty to rural poverty in the second of our two reports in our series adrian brown reports from shanshu province in northwest china where some farmers a surviving by borrowing into the clay hillsides that's wednesday from zero seven hundred g.m.t. right here on al-jazeera. canada's prime minister justin trudeau is called donald trump to express his concern about planned tariffs on steel an element imports trudeau told the us president the juices would get in the way of negotiations of a trade deal with canada and mexico and the latest nafta talks of wrapped up in mexico city john ahmann has more. even from three thousand kilometers away washington d.c. president trump managed to open the seventh round of nafta negotiations we are renegotiating nafta as i said i work and if we don't make a deal terminate nafta that would be i would imagine one of the points that we're going to share it will be tariffs on steel for canada and for mexico. to do the announced plans to post tariffs on steel imports from around the world that kind of durham excludes felt that as the u.s. is part

remain in the capital struggling to cope with the high cost of living is our china correspondent adrian brown. you zone you is having a good afternoon he reckons ill have made around ten dollars by the end of it he collects discarded clothes plastic and scrap metal anything he can sell to recyclers. you shows me his home a room measuring just over five square metres in the rent one hundred dollars a month to economize the electric heater stays off which means it's as cold inside as out a dangerous measure of exposed wiring loops around the room he washes outside where there's also a public toilet. poor there was my father had to share this bear with me last asama my children also visited all five of us have to live in this tiny room some of us have to sleep on the floor can you imagine five people squeeze in this room. he came to beijing almost ten years ago because there was no work in his home province of chandon his wife two daughters and a son are all in other cities he sees them just once a year. so i first daughter and my second daughter a both in college now the reason i'm working here

china and the united states but chinese firms are fighting back in american courts and winning adrian brown reports. just over a decade ago this electrical components firm in eastern china faced an uncertain future it was being sued in a u.s. court over intellectual property rights the chinese company for the action eventually able to prove that the plugs and other devices manufactured here were not copies the case lasted seven years chen whooshing the company's president told me he'd do it again if he had to. try american companies are using intellectual property rights as a tool to beat competitors from other countries the final go is to rule out. the american market and the overtaxing is on the way shane money is lost us lawsuit in two thousand and ten by then he'd spent more than twenty million dollars in legal fees today he's become something of a celebrity in china's corporate world dispensing advice to other executives involved in similar legal battles or is it too good and pretty sure that this set a clear message and in lightened many chinese enterprises to deal with it with their

china today is a one party state dominated now by one man adrian brown al-jazeera beijing south korea has announced plans for a special envoy to go to north korea on monday the invitation was this year by the sister of north korea's leader when she attended the winter olympics mcbride has more from seoul. the delegation is being led by two ministry level intelligence officials one of them an expert in u.s. korean relations the other an expert in into korean relations so it seems this delegation has a jewel purpose first of all of exploring the possibility of dialogue between pyongyang and washington but also looking at what is the next step in into korean relations with the anticipated visit perhaps by a south korean president a moon j.n. to north korea following on from the invitation there was extended by kim jong un sr attending the opening of the winter olympics the team will be in pyongyang for two days of talks will then return to seoul to brief officials here and then go straight on to washington to brief and their record officials the process does point up the differences in a

guys for getting rid of potential rivals for now at least though she would appear to have none adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. well the polls are due to close in the next few hours in colombia's congressional elections this is the first time form of rebels have been able to stand for office at political debut comes after they laid down their arms and being fifty two years of fighting with the colombian government fark is guaranteed to win a minimum of ten seats under the terms of the peace settlement but many colombians still feel the form of fighting should be in prison rather than in congress so let's go to alison around guessing who is monitoring developments for us involving top how is the voting going so far. well marry him things were going smoothly until recently but in the last couple of hours and especially in the last hour we are hearing people. essentially saying that they're not being able to vote in the primary did last in and the right coalition they're also voting for dad not only for congress today here in colombia and the national registry just said that they probably didn

to visit north korea and told him he was welcome to visit china again the visitors left happy adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. well the us president donald trump gave his reaction to the meeting on twitter he wrote received the message last night from china that is meeting with kim jong un went very well and that kim looks forward to his meeting with me earlier this month trying to surprise the world by agreeing to meet came at a place and time to be determined meanwhile south korea greeted the news of the china summit with keen interest kathy novak has this reaction from seoul. the south korean government says it welcomes the visit by kim jong un to china and says that it hopes that the meeting between kim and she jinping will help contribute to the overall goal of denuclearization and peace on the korean peninsula the spokesperson though added that the situation is evolving beyond their expectations and that they will have to monitor things as they go forward with all possibilities in mind there is an acknowledgement there i think of the surprise that was involved with this visit by kim

last frontier for the catholic church it's been that way for centuries never more so than now adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. christians around the world are marking good friday as part of easter this was the scene in occupied east jerusalem where people took part in a procession through the via dolorosa it's believed to be the path of jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion good friday is the day that christians mark the crucifixion of christ. cyprus is a favorite destination for tourists from all over europe who want a mediterranean sunshine holiday most flocked to coastal resorts but tourist towns in the mountainous i'm missing out and government leaders want that to change in order to boost the island's economy assam is a down reports. it's hard to fit into a post card just how nice it is to be away from the subzero temperatures back home to savor is because i know you're in the ukraine. and cold and we wanted to go to spring to see flowers. and maybe to see. it's a familiar story the abundance of beaches and sunshine has attracted steadily increasing numbers of tourists to cyprus.

china today is a one party state dominated now by one man adrian brown al jazeera beijing now a story shows it's never too late to get started on social media when seventy five year old. living in brazil he started using instagram to keep in touch with his grandsons in south korea states it started as a small family project but after less than three years and now has more than three hundred thousand followers around the world. each. my name is lieutenant i draw pictures from my grandchildren and post them on instagram every day. when we lived in brazil i used to drive my grand kids to and from school then move to south korea all of a sudden my grandkids were gone and so was my daily driving job i felt very lonely without much to do. when i visited my son who lives in new york i told him about this my son suggested i draw pictures for the grandkids and post them on something called instagram. i dabbled a bit in our school but trying was just a hobby. i had only use a mobile phone to make calls i was at a bit of a loss by social media such as facebook and instagram. my son explained ove

guys for getting rid of potential rivals for now at least though she would appear to have none adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. u.s. president donald trump says his planned talks with north korea could either fail or bring about a greatest deal for the world to ease nuclear tensions between the two countries speaking at a rally in pennsylvania he said he believes north korea wants to make peace but president trump want he could leave the talks quickly if it didn't like progress for nuclear disarmament could be many ways meanwhile to south korean officials who met north korean leader kim jong un last week are said to be briefed the leaders of china and japan one of the officials will meet china's president xi jinping on monday the other will see japan's president on tuesday the meetings are designed to update leaders on the progress of nuclear talks with north korea the two envoys returned from the u.s. on sunday after that meeting with president trump well now to france where the main far right party the national front is to be renamed the national gathering party leader marine le pen but f

as well as between pyongyang and washington let's go live now to our correspondent in beijing adrian brown so the chinese have delivered a very positive the verdict on this first meeting between the two leaders. yes indeed martin so he was here after all despite the attempts by foreign ministry officials to try and deny they had any knowledge of kim jong un in the country of course he was here in fact for three days state media finally confirming that on wednesday morning and ever since then we've had a torrent of images on state television highlighting the various aspects of kim jong un's visit to beijing the visit that he undertook also with his wife and of course it is she paying and not president trump who now becomes the first world leader to meet kim jong un so sheeting pink perhaps stealing some of the thunder of president trump so a lot of intense diplomacy will carry on from this meeting because of course in the few weeks ahead we have that summit between north korea and south korea and of course as expected that summit between president from and kim jong un why did kim jong un co

last frontier for the catholic church it's been that way for centuries never more so than now adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. britain's prime minister has been touring the country to sell the benefits of bracks at a year before the u.k. is to delay the european union. says she's committed to making it a success many people though are vets correspondent barnaby philips reports. she didn't vote for bret's it to put on a rapid tour of britain starting in a scottish textile factory the prime minister the country to embrace the idea of leaving the e.u. i believe that we can negotiate a good agreement which is terrorists free in this friction is trade is possible so we maintain those markets in the e.u. but also that we open up markets around the rest of the world breaks it provides us with opportunities. but who's this campaigning against brick sit outside downing street boris johnson or maybe not but his impersonator and these protesters believe breck's it can be stopped with a second referendum on the final deal from her because she ations between britain and the e.u. says will a student jus

guys for getting rid of potential rivals for now at least though she would appear to have none adrian brown al-jazeera beijing well graham on the web is a research fellow at the institute for defense and strategic studies at nanyang technological university and he says the decision makes she move honorable in the long term. the chinese communist party today is a lot more different than it was in the past you have a lot more competent personalities within the chinese communist party all you have to do is look into the politburo the seven member standing political which is the core leadership of the party and you find the likes of you could jump in one one tuning and others who are extremely savvy people. do you think of course since you came to power and when you the team was able to consolidate that over time by reading up rivals and getting people who are who support him to be on his side having said what i just did i'm not an apologist or supporting the idea how come the news that we seem yesterday i think on balance this is not a very positive step for china we're living in a very comple

china today is a one party state dominated now by one man adrian brown al-jazeera beijing an indian navy sailboat with an all female crew is approaching the end of its journey round the world the seventy me to vessel set out from india in september and sailed into cape town on friday with its six crew members on board the team will finish their epic journey at the indian quarter. just the fact russian olympic athletes dogs running in the world's most famous sled race have tested positive for a banned painkiller the iditarod race started in the anchorage in alaska shelob ellis has more on the controversy. the. sled dogs and their drivers are off on the i destroyed the sixteen hundred kilometers ahead of them and came to distance themselves from dog door ping and defense. this is the world's most famous dog sled race and for the first time in its history dogs failed drug tests for animals belonging to last year's runner up bella c.v. to suppose for a bad painkiller tramadol cv who has won the race four times denied doping his dogs he wasn't on the start line and protest i'm one who believe

china correspondent adrian brown is in beijing so let's start with the issue of those nuclear talks between the u.s. and north korea's talks of course something that china's long cold for they're welcoming this development. yes i think china's pretty much sticking to the script sami a short time ago we heard from the foreign ministry spur media spokesman here in beijing he said the china welcomed what he said were the positive signals and that china wanted to encourage efforts of all relevant parties will of course one of those relevant parties is china because reluctantly china has been enforcing u.n. sanctions against its old ally and neighbor china didn't want to do that it's always said that the only way to resolve this crisis is through dialogue but i think there's one other issue here sami china doesn't want to be sidelined china believes it's done you know the hard job of bringing north korea to this position and while china was reluctant to enforce sanctions it clearly now a knowledge is that those sanctions have brought about economic hardship in north korea which in turn has broug

korea and there's not even someone at the state department coordinating east asian policy with adrian brown joins us from beijing with the latest so let's start with what's happening on the issue of north korea and those talks planned talks between the u.s. leader in the north korean leader that talks of course something that they doing as long called for is beijing relieved. yeah a short time ago we heard from the foreign ministry spokesman here in beijing he said that china welcomes what he called positive signals and the china hopes this positive momentum continues and the china continues to support the efforts of all relevant parties to bring about peace on the korean peninsula and of course one of those relevant parties is china it is china that has been reluctantly in forcing sanctions against north korea and as you rightly point out it is china that has been saying all along the only way to ultimately resolve this crisis is through dialogue but i think you know it's both good and bad news for china it's good news because it could mean those sanctions could eventually be lifted possib

and from urban poverty to rural poverty in the second of two special reports from that series adrian brown to more reporting from shang she province in the northwest of china for some farmers are surviving by their own burrowing into the clay hillsides that's wednesday from seven hours g.m.t. here on al-jazeera. updating the top stories for you so far today north and south korea have agreed to hold an into korean summit at the end of april the first in eleven years it follows a meeting between a south korean delegation and north korea's leader kim jong il and in pyongyang the south special envoy says the north is willing to give up nuclear weapons if it feels its security is not being threatened our correspondent rob mcbride has the latest now from the south korean capital seoul. well they have issued this statement that north korea has apparently agreed that if it faces no threat if its security as a regime if it's future is secured then it does not see why it should hold any nuclear weapons now that it is open to war sorts of interpretation of a guarantee that it is prepared to give up n

be the north korean leader's first foreign trip since taking power in two thousand and eleven adrian brown has more from beijing. a train like the one used by kim jong un's fargo eases out of beijing railway station heading towards north korea no clue as to who might be on bush. earlier a motorcade brings the center of beijing to a standstill. excited office workers captured the moment convinced that it's him kim jong un. but china's foreign ministry spokeswoman was not so sure unable to explain who the mystery visitor might be well. i'm not aware of any information at present three further questions about whether kim was in beijing with batted away there would be no big announcement here is it possible that you wouldn't know that looking gentleman is here. everything's off the wall for me i. just really think children's shoes it's you know is this seems to me you have more information i think that you and in the house as possible wasn't possible it was. at the beginning we were there for you know i suggest you go home and have dinner and carry on with your life she said throughout the day

i'm adrian brown in northwest china where president xi jinping recently vowed to eliminate poverty it's going to be a big challenge find out why here on al-jazeera. south korea's president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress in relations with the north. says he has no plans to ease sanctions against pyongyang ahead of a historic summit with leader kim jong il next month and don't trump says he believes north korea stance is genuine but mcbrien has more from seoul. there is widespread optimism in south korea at what many believe is a landmark agreement but conservative opposition parties still suspect north korea of playing a game of deception to buy time for its nuclear and missile development there's been similar caution from japan which has accused north korea of reneging on previous agreements made in here or past discussions with north korea have not resulted in the nuclear a creation so our response should be based on lessons learned from their talks for the sake of talks are meaningless in china one of north korea's few allies and a possible partner in brokering fu

on national people's congress is holding its annual conference in beijing china correspondent adrian brown reports. tiananmen square has been the setting for some of the most of fining moments in recent chinese history not all of them peaceful now a new political drama is unfolding this carefully choreographed gathering involves almost three thousand delegates and almost as many journalists like parliament the media in china is controlled by the party offering uniform coverage of the national people's congress normally last for ten days but this year it's being extended by five days possibly to give delegates more time to discuss proposed changes to china's constitution which could mean she jingping being president for life the issue is overshadowing this congress but most delegates we spoke to didn't want to talk about it i don't want to discuss it i asked them he said. and no comment from him either. party discipline though would ensure the amendment is passed that. those capable people should stay in their posts as long as possible. to their decision is made by the party as a delegate i

adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. still ahead. of a. conservative president sebastian pinera is back in office and ten months off to a crushing elections last fall says national father gamble son and change depending on the fact that possible. hello there another snow maker is developing across north america we can see in the satellite picture plenty of cloud in the southern part of our map and it's this area here that's really developing pushing its way towards the northeast and on its northern flank is where we're going to see the wintery weather that's in the eastern parts of the states there as we head through monday and then it works its way northward to choose day giving some heavy snowfall for the northeastern part of the u.s. and the eastern parts of canada including for us in ottawa meanwhile towards the west generally quite quiet for many of us until later in the day when we see some rain gradually work its way into that west coast and some of that is likely to be rather heavy even further towards the south and the wet weather

who exactly was on that train which traveled between north korea and the chinese capital beijing adrian brown reports. a train like the one used by kim jong un's fargo eases out of beijing railway station heading towards north korea no clue as to who might be on board earlier a motorcade brings the center of beijing to a standstill. they are. excited office workers captured the moment convinced that it's kim jong il. but china's foreign ministry spokeswoman was not so sure unable to explain who the mystery visitor might be. well. i'm not aware of any information at present three further questions about whether kim was in beijing with batted away there would be no big announcement here is it possible that you wouldn't know that you can journalists here. everything is possible for me i think these are the freely given chillies true it's true and i tell you this it seems to me you have more information than i think before you and in the house as possible places thousand possible was obviously we were there for you know i suggest you go home and have dinner and carry on with your life she said th

adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. to carry brown director of the lao china it's a chance at king's college london tell me if he could be setting himself up for a fall well he's in control of a much bigger country in a more important country and also a country which is quite soon going to be the world's largest economy probably so the stakes are much much higher but i don't really think we should see this is being a return to a kind of maoist sort of power. that don't have an independent kind of basis and charisma that was sort of more than the party that was the problem really whereas i mean she's in pain works within the party and the country that he leads is so much more complicated it's not possible for one person even a complete megalomaniac to make decisions about china on their own because it's got so many different kinds of constituent elements so i think we're a long long way from that in a sense the problem is that we have a you know leader promising so much who might not be able to deliver a great deal becaus

to visit north korea and told him he was welcome to visit china again the visitors left happy adrian brown al-jazeera beijing well the us president donald trump gave his reaction to the meeting on twitter he wrote received a message last night from ping of china that is meeting with kim jong il on went very well and that kim looks forward to his meeting with me in the meantime and unfortunately maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost let's get more on this now then joining us live from washington d.c. is patricia kamal who is a stanton nuclear security fellow at the council on foreign relations her current research portfolio includes projects on the north korean nuclear crisis and the future of the korean peninsula madame thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera so this meeting between the chinese and north korean leaders take place takes place after what seven years that kim jong un has been in power so why now and what do you think each leader takes away from it. so i think the meeting between china and north korea demonstrates that despite the strained r