apparently today is the 17th anniversary that kim jong il was elected secretary of the party and people are coming to these statues to pay their respects." >> a lot of people from different walks of life. army soldiers. they come... north korea has one of the largest standing armies in the world. men are conscripted for up to 10 years. it's because of the idea of "songun" which means "military first." >> we are headed to the border between north and south korea. it's one of the most heavily fortified border areas in the world. we just passed three checkpoints but we were not allowed to film because of security concerns we went to meet lt. colonel nam tong ho, of the korean people's army >> on this side is north korea and the other is united states and south korea. >> the west is always saying north korea has to dismantle their nuclear weapons program... north korea has to do this... ...and has to do that... what would it take? we were told the nuclear deterrent - as they call it - means the government can focus on other things, like development. >> we are building more fancy looking bui

we saw this with kim jong-il. >> jimmy: yes, we did. say -- >> with "the interview." >> jimmy: i was disappointed with responses -- >> ten seconds. >> jimmy: i was disappointed in the response that i saw from some people who said, well, maybe we shouldn't make movies like this, we shouldn't do this kind of thing, people that don't really understand how big this is, the big picture and how important something like that is. >> [ bleep ] nation. we have to stop saying when something like this that happened in paris today, we have to stop saying, well, we should not insult a great religion. first of all, there are no great religions. they're all stupid and dangerous. and we should insult them and we should be able to insult whatever we want. there are certain people in the world who want wafers on free speech. kim jong-il in north korea says you cannot make jokes about our country, and there's a lot of muslim people in the world. i know most muslim people would not have carried out an attack like this. but here's the important point. hundre

2000 phinisees a summit, it would be the third after the earlier meetings in 2000 and 2007 between kim jong-il and two different south korean presidents. getting to that stage would be fraught with difficulty. south korea wants to see the north take steps towards nuclear disarmament, pyongyang will continue the development of nuclear weapons as policy. >> two more poised from the airasia flight 8501 have been recovered from the sea he, but only eight of the 162 passengers and crew have been found so far. the airbus took off from indonesia and from there we have the latest. >> more than 24 hours after bodies were found floating in the ocean, they ever failed to find more victims. improved weather conditions ever allowed investigators to fly over the area with they suspect the plane may be. relatives are becoming frustrated. joseph and his wife are waiting for four days for news about their 23-year-old son. >> my son is going there with his friends, five of his friends, i think to celebrate the new year over there. my other son is in singapore, so they're going to meet over there. >> he and his

2015 does see a sum i had, it would be the third aft earlier meetings in 2000 and 20007 between kim jong ilnt south korean presidents but getting to that stage would be fraught with difficulty. the main obstacle remains south korea wants to see the north take steps towards nuclear disarmament. pyongyang has committed itself towards the continuing development of nuclear weapons as a key national policy. harry few set, al jazerra seoul seoul. >>> there have been two more more attacks in nigeria yeah, a campus struck in the town explosives were hiding in a bag and two bomb exploded. >>> the israel i prime minister benjamin netanyahu has won the support of his party in primary elections and will lead the right wing party in to general elections in march. the israel i liters reported netanyahu has an overwhelming lead over his challenger. >>> the united states is criticized the palestinian authority's bid to join the international criminal court as counter productive. the decision came a day after the u.n. security council rejected a resolution put forward by the palestinian leadership. in it, i

. >> if 2015 sees a summit after earlier meetings in 2000 and 2007, between kim jong-il, and two different south korean president, but getting to that stage is fraught with difficulty. south korea wants to see the north take steps towards nuclear disarmament >>> well a commentator on political and economic issues joins us live from the south korean capital. thank you for talking to us. if you believe in astrology, do you think the stars are in the correct alignment to allow for serious dialogue between north and south. >> one clear lesson that we get. nothing is ever prove ail. we hope that a certain dialogue - there's no which to be certain that the dialogue will take place. when we look into the text of kim jong un's speech we notice on his side north korea's side i suppose a lot of people take that quite seriously. however, though in terms of the way that he laid out his logic there, it's very difficult for south korea to fully embrace the military exercise. and things that south korea has to do first. here in south korea, it's a full-grown democracy and we have the public trying to jud

. >> if 2015 does see a summit, lit be the third after the earlier meetings to kim jong-il and two differentresidents. but getting to that stage, would be foul with difficulty, the main obstacle remains south korean wants to see the north take steps towards nuclear disarmament. harry faucet, al jazeera seoul. >> a funeral has been held in indonesia for one of the victims of the air asia crash. emergency crews are working to recover the rest of the bodies in the joba sea, but only nine have been retrieve sod far. where relatives are having to endure a painful wait. more than 24 hours after bodies were found floating they fail to spot more victims, improved weather conditions have finally allowed helicopters to fly over the area, where serj teams suspect the plane may be. meanwhile relatives are starting to become frustrating. yeah, my son is going there. with his friends. five of his friends to celebrate the new years over there. and then my other son is in singapore, so they are going to meet over there. joseph and his wife have come from their hometown in the east of indonesian to put up th

considerably shorter than seen in previous years and noticeably similar to those of his father kim jong il whose regime was known for its brutality. brianna keilar cnn, washington. >>> for more on the possibility of a summit in the koreas and the latest reaction will ripley joins me by phone from beijing. let's talk first about north korea's reaction and its words it has for the united states to these sanctions about the hacking. >> reporter: yeah we were talking yesterday, expecting some sort of official statement from north korean state media. there is one attributed to the foreign ministry. no big surprises in the statement. they're outraged at the united states' action. they continue to focus on scrutiny in and out of the united states over whether north korea was actually behind this cyber attack. we've reported about it at cnn, but the u.s. law enforcement, the president insist that their intelligence shows that north korea was behind this seeker attack so they pushed forward with the sanctions. north korea's response was that the sanctions are essentially the u.s. trying to solidify

for that reason -- for example when kim jong-il died. how long was it before the world knew?it was a long time. >> maybe two days. >> was it two days? >> yeah. >> so likewise. when there is a gap you can't help but speculate and wonder what is happening behind closed doors. and so in the case of kim jong-un's disappearance for 40 days you can't help but speculate what's going on behind closed doors. sometimes there's a kernel of truth behind these rumors the media is sometimes required to speculate or address that issue. >> but, ap and reuters run a pretty tight ship on those matters and separate opinion from fact and don't generally print speculation unless they identify it no one knows for sure, diplomat says this, but in russia they are saying this. the problem comes at the next level where people aren't really so much reporting on north korea but assembling stories about north korea for websites over to chad. >> yeah. when you talk about kernels of truth rings true. this example some of you will be familiar with. it shows absurd levels, disappearance of 40 days. we had a

. -- kim jong-il and -- kim jong-ilun decided he didn't like it.alitarians don't like to be mocked. the devil cannot there to be mocked. you are seeing a movement to now among more than one power. group in more than one western state trying to kill people brutally in order to keep from being made fun of. >> you bring up the interview an excellent and hilarious movie. in favor of liberty rather than security, a stop in risk policy, wouldn't that be difficult in paris? you have 5 million muslims living among 65 million people. >> i don't think stop and fritz -- stop and risk is on -- it infringes on people's liberty. it's going to have to make various compromises between liberty and security as the situation develops. the question is where do you draw the line? i tried thinking steps like stop and frisk are reasonable. i think one has to pay attention to the fact that satire and humor are so feared and so opposed by the tell terry and. they are willing to get out and use that as an excuse to murder dozens of people. >> how do the states we are referr

2015 does see a summit it would be a third after the earlier meetings in 2000 and 2007 between kim jong il different south korean presidents but get to that stage would be fraught with difficulty. the main obstacle remains nuclear disarmament and pyongyang has committed itself to continue as a key national policy. harry fawcett, al jazerra seoul. >>> still to think come. palestinian president mahmoud abbas moves to joint international criminal court. plus welcoming the new year in style. russia puts on a brave face as western sanctions and a sliding ruble continue to batter the economy. only on al jazeera america >> on techknow >> we should not be having earthquakes in texas >> the true cost of energy hits home... >> my yard is gone... >> are we destroying our way of life? >> contaminated water from the fracking activities come here >> they stick it to the core of the earth >> but this cutting edge technology could be the answer >> the future of fracking is about the water >> protecting the planet saving lives... >> how do you convince a big oil company to use this? techknow only on al jaz

his son the first hereditary dictator in a communist state kim jong-il was less popular and he didn't have a popular touch. but he was shrewd and he was cruel and the camps as an instrument of enforcement became increasingly important. and the population grew. there are indications now with this third kim family leader kim jong m. who is 28, 29 years old and interestingly it's about the same age as the hero in my book it's unclear how popular he will be or if he will have control at this point. c-span: we will come back to your hero the book shin after a show you some video from our first book interview back in 1991 i asked you if you like to travel. [video playing] i went to school and i got interested in faraway lands pretty remember as a kid in college i didn't believe they existed. i really didn't. sometimes i would go to bed thinking walter cronkite in those other people were putting together a big elaborate deception. they were photographing in the world outside of what i knew wasn't there. and i always wanted particularly to see what was there. c-span: do remember saying that?

our theory is that kim jong-il had become very ill because he had become incapacitated the summer of 2008 if we could see a difference in how they were handling things especially on our need for verification of things that they had to do. so there are a number of theories. secretary clinton was asking me on a number of occasions for demos on how we could start the north korean talks when she asked me to her office after the inaugural i was convinced it was in the context of asking what we could do. but instead, i sat down, she had a nice big chair with a fireplace and she asked me -- she said all these nice things about my service and i sort of felt like frodo at the end of lord of the rings were subbing. [laughter] she said there's one more thing i would like you to do and i thought that it was a memo, the state department was built on the nose. she said i would like you to go to iraq. i said i'm very flattered. i know how important it is that i have to think about it. i thought about it overnight and i thought what the heck, i will do it. >> in the chapter called the longest day yo

after the earlier meetings between kim jong-il and two different south korean presidents, but gettingo that stage would be difficult. south korea wants the north to take steps towards nuclear disarmament, pong i don't think continuing development as a key national policy. al jazeera seoul. >> the last former high level talks in february led to rare reunions for families separated over 60 years, since the end of the korean war. >> a rocket crashed into a wedding party in afghanistan killing at least 28 people. officials say the rocket same from a firefight between afghan security forces and the taliban. that attack comes days after the u.s. and nato officially ended their combat mission in afghanistan. jennifer glass has more from kabul. >> this was a big day for afghanistan and president of afghanistan saying the nation is in their hands. the afghan security forces are in our fully in security of the country. he he promised afghan security forces that anyone who hasn't been promoted over the last five years an automatic promotion. he promised education and accommodation. he praised af

deaths since 2010 most of them thought to be related to the transition of power to kim jong-un from his father kim jong-iltress radiates out. >> david very quickly, based on all the conversations you've had with u.s. government officials, experts, what should we be bracing for? >> you know a cyberweapons are useful for north korea in the way that nuclear weapons and missiles are not. nuclear weapons are an on/off switch you drop one and wait for your country to be retaliated against in a massive way. with a cyberweapon, i think the north koreans believe they can turn it up or down and in this case they may have misjudged to some degree because i don't think they necessarily expected that the united states would have a national response to it. >> silly movie like "the interview" causing this commotion. excellent reporting as usual. thanks very much. guys thanks to you as well. >>> coming up we are hearing part of what's on that cockpit voice recording from the airasia jet that crashed into the java sea. >>> at the top of the hour we have more on the power struggle that's opening up new opportunities right

his eyebrows similar to those of his father kim jong-il. with us now in "the situation room," gordon chang. we also have steven yates, deputy assistant for national security to vice president dick cheney. welcome, gentlemen. thanks for being with us. steven starting with you, there are sometimes sanctions and there's not a whole lot of bite to them. and sometimes there are sanctions that go very far. how would you classify these? >> i would classify these as basically an initial step. they seem to be modeled somewhat after the approach that was taken against russia after its taking crimea from the ukraine where where we have a narrow list of targets we're going after. i see some of these entities as important in north korea but unlikely would have this kind of strategic impact on kim jong-un's calculus. >> so gordon who specifically are we talking about being affected here and who won't be affected? >> well the most important target is the general reconnaissance bureaus which is a military or semi-military intelligence organization which in