we talk about north korea and south korea are we talking possibly in the future about united korea it's hard to imagine a united korea i think korea has south korea studied the german unification as a model and while it's expensive and i think they're a bit freaked out about that i don't know i don't i don't hear any talk of creative occasion this is sort of a pipe dream from people who don't live in the region or but it's a very expensive thing and german unification is still a work in progress. yeah. obviously. germany and korea. this is a commitment to however determine it does not undergo. a civil war between east and the alien east and west germany. why in those as korea does civil war and then based on this experienced some of the emotional emotional sentiment emotional. negative emotional reactions to miscarry you know it's so cold in north korea and sentiment is still strong in south korea however. and then the economic perspective on the unification i think is still i think it was to be criticised as well as obviously young people in south korea concern about these money you kn

from south korea to travel to north korea without any permission from south korea government but now and then so is us chris like a island. if you wanted to go abroad you have to take it -- l. plan on so now they found that if you. if you feed normalized relations with korea but we we have a lady di -- the train rail racer is connected between -- between north korea south korea and then was the open borders open we can travel people can imagine can travel to our north korea. to china middle east asia viaa seth previously the island mindset so it's okay so this is a very symbolic action. on you to try this trend trip or so -- brings to these are sort of the korean people's mindset. and at the same time you know vietnam -- definitely historically historically. the similarity between north and south korea might so dispatcher they wore there was war between vietnam and united states and north korea and the united states. and vietnam on claim that they won the war against the united states and north korea seoul claim that they want. are these crammed war against the united states so i nee

korea. is the tip of the spear of the trump administrations diplomatic initiative in north korea and i am very happy, i am helene cooper, pentagon correspondent with the new york times. i'm very happy to be here and we are really excited to have steve. so welcome. >> thank you very much. >> you have now been on the job for six months. how's it going? >> it feels like a lot more than six months. >> really? >> yeah. let me start by saying the obvious that diplomacy is still very much alive. while we haven't made as much progress in the six months as i would have hoped coming in on the first day, they are closely engaged with our counterparts in north korea. we came off of a summit meeting in hanoi where president trump in german kim jong un spent two days together discussing some weighty issues. and the president that in his press conference and it is true, that we remain engaged. the door is open and we will continue to work with the north koreans to try to achieve our shared goal of the comp

forces korea. they have done a -- taken a number of steps around the demilitarized zone in order to lower tensions. the elimination of all weapons has been implemented in the joint security area. it's a remarkable thing. for those of you in korea or have the country to visit the dmz, i would strongly commend it. i think some of the details are still being worked out in the final arrangements in the dmz. i heard from someone recently that it's not so easy to travel there until all the issues are implemented around this set of agreements. i was age to visit. it's a palpable difference from anything i have seen since i first visited the dmz in 1988. over those 31 years, we have gone from feeling two armies bristling with weapons, poised on a very narrow buffer on the korean peninsula to a more calm and orderly engagement. there's regular communication between the north, south and between -- and with the u.n. command. these are not inconsequential changes that have taken place on the korean peninsula.

is sanctions exemptions is something that south korea would have welcomed right. absolutely in fact government here was very much prepared to. proceed with these measures there would be what you might term limited economic engagements and they would have mainly consisted of restoring some of the joint ventures that were already in place before the things started to get worse here in the korean peninsula they would have included the reopening the industrial complex in kaesong restarting the tourism initiative on the east coast which allowed south koreans to travel to north korea at the time and also there have been talks about linking railways and roads through the d.m.z. so that there can be transportation of goods and people between the two koreas and these are the things the government was fully prepared to proceed with and implement and now it's kind of end up with an egg on their face so what what are they going to do now because i mean the intro korean dialogue was something that was going on at quite a pace and it seems much smoother than the conversation be

and south korea and. and i know that china has had a history of relations with north korea. and it's mostly because there were a lot of folks in china's government that were trying to undermine xi jinping. so they were the ones that were sneaking in military and other. supplies to the north koreans flouting she brings order and so she's a big himself as a lot of internal issues to deal with but i think that after she being was able to consolidate more power under him. and cleaned out some of those folks that were defying. his policies. basically said you know. that you know you're the one that i'm going to respect because i know that all the people who are trying to undermine you your back are now in jail and i can't deal with them anymore and so i think that's a difference that has happened between the north koreans and china but you know make no mistake china does not want nuclear i ask because that could spin out of control shared all that's all that's on there and china quite literally the fallout here you know john what it could mean counterintuitive here i mean i guess

it's basically north korea taking digital data as a hostage. you know stopping these you know code the real trade with china coal and iron ore and other stuff you know this is the real ascension so he took the only siller that's. there we cannot stop everything how can this top or north koreans you know. how many shadow companies in operatives are there how far does their network truly extend and what kind of danger do they pose. of final reports the security council we've documented north korean weapons prohibited military training programs in dozens of african and middle eastern member states in mozambique the contracts one of the contracts we saw was worth more than six million dollars intense and near the contract was worth a similar amount in euro's a little more i think maybe twelve million. so it's all about the money part of the problem with ballistic missiles is that. the technology wasn't supplied to all the countries that want to this technology so the north koreans stepped in and this is very alarming that in terms of proliferation

no i don't think so and i think north korea wants the u.s. troops to stay i don't see any reason to say that they want them out to the extent that north korea has become a status quo power and just wants to survive and develop its economy the u.s. presence on the peninsula has a certain utility not least of which is visa v. china the relationship between pyongyang and beijing is soaring more very complex hold that i've had a total hold that thought hold that thought we're going to do it quickly or if you are right we well after a quick break we're going to continue our discussion on this you know what summit stay with are to. go in and you may never get. my teenage gang rules here. but. you. might. as. well the right number. the monkey. music that i see. what we really need is someone from the outside. we had some very good laws there because of. series they lost the. country has gone into a nihilistic theme just want to thank. the road and get down to traveling across america to find what makes america the charlatans the genius of this place

this is where the ordeal ends for many of the refugees from north korea. this young high ranking official from the north traveled thousands of kilometers on a trek across china all the way to seoul he's been living here with a new identity for two years today he calls himself michael kim he's twenty eight years old and works part time as a museum attendant. you know what. this is an exhibition organized by the seoul authorities. it shows a model apartment in north korea and to illustrate what life looks like for the residents of pyongyang it within the team is of highway and as it is it was having actually lived there myself i've been asked to explain in further detail. both on a. ride on when i began my career in the state security agency the cia of north korea. i worked in the financial department where i came to attention due to my expertise i was transferred to offer it's thirty nine. years or so and that was unusual. is that you know i want to listen. i was only twenty five when i joined i was the youngest member of staff that said if the us congress

south korea's leader offers to help the u.s. and north korea reach a deal on de-nuclearization after another round of talks fail. the sheer steps aside as head of sudan's ruling party yes more than a dozen protesters are sentenced to jail.

in the korea of tomorrow our d.l. leader kim jong il sent us a letter in december two thousand and nine saying keep your feet on the ground and look at the world combine a noble spirit with the wealth of knowledge and become the supporting structure for my late father's revolution make sure that the whole world looks up to the korea of kim il sung. is north korea's economic upswing and economic miracle a final fake conflict to keep the people in the dark about the new wave of sanctions threatening to bring the country to its knees the official figures cannot be verified unable to talk to citizens directly we can't say what they think and feel all we can take away are our general observations. traveling across the country the impression you get is that a brighter future awaits following the famine of the one nine hundred ninety s. which claimed the lives of between six hundred thousand and one million people the streets have no cars but some dashes of new color life is hard but seemingly not as hard as it used to be. k

i have done a lot of work on north korea. north korea is something that needs to be discussed. or atesident has ended, least had north korea suspend its missile launches. the north koreans tested at least 80 missiles during the clinton years, tested for nuclear weapons. there was a test of what may have been a hydrogen bomb tested thisptember 2017 -- all of ended in late 2017 and it ended for a number of reasons. the president managed to get other nations to start enforcing u.s. sanctions -- u.n. sanctions. there was massive cheating by sanctions.the the president twisted some arms and call people out. many nationsk that like being the focus of a presidential tweet, and the president is not shy on calling people out. addition, the president was clear in his rhetoric against north korea including threatening at the un's general assembly to totally destroy north korea if it threatened our allies. of remember how angry all the pundits were and "the new york times" when he said that. but the president threatened military action in an organization of peace, but the president calls i

[indiscernible] >> south korea's gold towards north korea -- goal towards north korea has been based on freedom for north korean people and based on freedom and democracy. they were fearing that north korea was [indiscernible] and i have noticed that after all of these years, trump came out and what he did in my view, he gave up the legalization of north korea, gave up freedom for north korea, and started respecting the north korean dictator, and then he started negotiating any started threatening north korea's livelihood. for the first time in history, president trump promised -- that was a part of the negotiations -- the regime guarantee, that kind of thing. so i am really disappointed about what he has been doing. he went to singapore under the south korean president, and he went to hanoi, pressured by south korean president -- but fortunately, one party has been kicked out of hanoi. now, it looks like he is going back with a kinder approach. i am sure that the south korean people are preferring that he is coming again, to get together with kim jong, so good you tried to convince

did absolutely on north korea.it allowed things that happened, and to happen, that were very inappropriate. but i'm not blaming the obama administration. i'm blaming many administrations. something should've happened. but i don't think the rhetoric has been bad at all. initially, it was horrible, but now it's been very good. all right, one more. how about you? go ahead. please. please. go ahead. >> [indiscernible] i am from south korean media outlet here. i'd like to ask you, you said that we do not particularly know when there will be -- north korean leader will be willing to come to the table and take the actions that's been required. if that is the case, with the u.s. be willing to strengthen the sanctions and perhaps put the pressure on north korea to move forward? pres. trump: i don't want to comment on that. i can just tell you this. we have very strong sanctions. i don't want to talk about increasing sanctions. they're strong. they have a lot of great people in north korea that have to live also. and that's

and korea, korea has responsibility in the combined forces command to defend south korea and they are chartered with that. only 28,000 u.s. forces. those forces will not win the war. but they do deter war. and we know that from interrogating the highest level of sectors that have come out. that deters war, and that is in our interest to do that. the othert plus 50%, aspect of the financial aspect, if we withdrew our forces, we would absorb a huge bill to our taxpayers to station the horses in the united states. there is a cost-effective aspect of this because we do not have the facilities to base them. if we return the seven fleet aboutapan, the air wings, 70,000 forces, marines and army from korea and japan, we would be building new bases in the united states at taxpayer expense. theo benefit from having burden sharing, the host nation support. is i think cost plus 50% going to cause political problems with our allies. rebeccah: if i could say real quick, i would not want to leave the impression from my own statement that -- i don't think i have, but our allies can pay more. this is

of course i hold north korea responsible. in vietnam the president did not blame kim jong-un. >> i believe something very bad happened to him. i don't think the top leadership knew about it. >> the parents of otto warmbier disagreed with the president saying kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son otto warmbier and for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. no lavish praise can change that. the president took heat from both sides. >> kim jong-un knows everything that happens in his country, certainly with respect to an american being held prison there. >> we should not be naive about this regime and the way they mistreat their own people and mistreated otto warmbier. >> in vietnam, president trump fixer michael cohen testify on capitol hill. president trump went after him on twitter. cohen's attorney said the president was lying. adding sometime in early 2018 mr. cohen was offered an advance for a proposal regarding a book on understanding donald trump. this is just the beginning. cohen due back on capi

extensive discussions between the president and kim jong-un and the issue really was whether north korea was prepared to accept what the president called ththe big deal, which is denuclearize entirely under a definition the president handed the kim jong-un, and have the potential for an enormous economic future. or try to do something less than that which was unacceptable to us. so the president held firm to his view. he deepened his relationship with kim jong-un. i don't view it as a failure at all when anatio interests are protected. >> brennan: but to be clear, north korea still has not agreed to denuclearize as the u.s. defines? it. >> not as we have defined it, although they have committed this public and regimes in north korea four or five times in writing to denuke cries. >> brennan: so that doesn't mean much to to you? >> which we expect them to do if they reach an agreement with us. >> on the specific a seen 0 your state department official spoke to reporters and said what the north koreans proposed specifically was about dissonant ling the three-mile pyongyang complex which he

of south korea who's once again standing in as a possible mediator between north korea and the u.s. to get things back on track it will also possibly help his personal initiative to try to help into korean relations go move forward to the next step he has stated in the last couple of days that despite the disappointment of the hanoi summit he's still determined to try to resume economic and tourism projects with north korea is still wants to try to go ahead with that although it's difficult to see just how without getting sanctions relief from the united states donald trump has launched a furious attack against his democratic opponents and the lower end destination in a speech to supporters the longest of his presidency so far his address to the annual conservative political action conference or c. pack came after a bad week for the u.s. president his second summit with north korea's kim jong un. ended in failure while his former lawyer michael cohen labeled him a racist a con man and a cheat in his testimony to congress trying to attack the democrats over their plan to tackle clima

bragg, north korea, you go to korea nor tcre korea for the fi. are you amazed with the negotiation of the environment. it is so tough it's different than any place or soldier or airmen airm airman has ever seen. that's property problematic when you giver away that exercise or war game as the president calls it, you are dealing with the potential for improved readiness and certainly in conflict does break out, you are seeing the potential for many, many casualties that you might not otherwise have because military forces are fought used to the terrain they are working on. >> we will see if we hear more from the white house for these movements in north korea. thank you both. >>> well, former chief of staff john kelly unloads about his time at the white house and about the wpresident's push for border wall. why he is calling it an act of money. >>> jussie smollett is charged with 16 counts we will talk about the upcoming arraignment. >>> also, r & b star r. kelly is behind bars. he is expected to be released. we will have more with his exclusive int

and global community have with kim and north korea? >> we cannot simply trust someday in the near future north korea is going to fedex us its nuclear and missile arsenals. we have to put in place a more long term strategy that defends our national interests, the security of allies, confronts a range of challenges that north korea poses to the united states and to international security. so, for example, we can't sort of bet all or nothing that north korea will disarm completely. we need a near term agreement to restrict the advancement of their nuclear and missile test programs. we need to confront this broader range of threats. just today, for example, or just this week, unicef warned 60,000 north korean children could be plunged into severe malnutrition, due to the lowest north korean harvest in a decade. that will threaten and risk our ability to shape the transformation of north korea, a healthy populous is one that can seek outside information, that can help us build a more stable region for the future. we should not only be confr

to defend south korea?taryou need a good expert on that. we have substantial forces, 28,000 great americans, serving proudly the u.s. military in the republic of korea, and the south korean military force, in a conventional sense, is stronger than the north korean military. over time, that advantage could we do not do enough training exercises together. my own guess, not as a military expert, is to say that this suspension of large-scale exercises will not have an immediate effect on our preparedness. host: we will go to anderson, california next. howie, good morning. welcome to the program. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i imagine that you were in the bush administration, too, gw's, right? do you think it would be proper for another country to make the claim that george bush, because ,f what went on in abu ghraib was aware of everything that was going on there and knew what was happening and was responsible for the torture of people that were there? a foreignou expect country to, um, you

and north korea reach a deal. ahmed bashir steps aside as head of sudan's ruling party but protests against him gone. hello yesterday so sudden downpours and flash floods in jordan around the west bank as well you just possibly the end of the cloud now has dissipated and the next day or so should be fine but i have to say the breeze is picking up in the cloud is picking up there is something brewing in the mediterranean so you will see a bit of rain come the end of saturday just coming onshore in lebanon there's a big gap between that and the next system which is currently developing i will show itself in pakistan afghanistan leaving iran dry saturday and probably sunday by which time the rain will have made its way inland but probably further north than the last lot so it's like to affect the world in syria sudden turkey but look what else is brewing so it's not the end of it this is still unsettled spring weather that we would normally blowing down the gulf of momentum she's being kept out to be knocked down fur

this and more on the summit in north korea. -- summit with north korea. for?rvous laughter] and do i get my fees back if i'm not happy? like a satisfaction guarantee? ugh...schwab! oh right, i'm calling schwab. thanks, carl! wait, lisa! lisa?!... are you getting low costs backed by a satisfaction guarantee? if not, talk to schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. the best simple salad ever?d great tasting, heart-healthy california walnuts. so simple, so good. get the recipes at walnuts.org. i'm a fighter. always have been. when i found out i had age-related macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. my doctor and i came up with a plan. it includes preservision. only preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. that's why i fight. because it's my vision. preservision. also, in a great-tasting chewable. >> the fact is at the moment, the leverage is on the side of the united states, as the economic sanctions continue to take hold. th

forces korea. our witnesses are the honorable randall shriver, assistant secretary of defense with that apartment of defense, admiral philip davidson, commander of the u.s. and a pacific command and general robert abrams, commander united nations command combined forces u.s. forces korea. welcome i'm a gentleman. we appreciate you being here. we appreciate your service and we look forward to your testimony. obviously the pacific region is a critical region. both president obama and president trump have emphasized our need to place a greater emphasis on the region. and we look forward to hearing about all of the issues around there obviously with china. working with countries around them to make sure they are playing by the rules and respecting their neighbors. i think the number one most important thing is that it is crucial to maintain a strong u.s. presence in the region. i think our presence brings stability and makes it more likely to be a peaceful and prosperous place in the indo- pacific. i t

forces korea. welcome, gentlemen. appreciate your service and look forward to your testimony. the pacific region is a critical region, president obama and donald trump talked about the need for greater emphasis on the indo pacific region and we look forward to hearing about all the issues, china is the largest issue, working with them and to make sure they are playing by the rules and respecting their neighbors. the number one most important thing is it is crucial to maintain a strong us presence in the indo pacific region. our presence brings stability and makes it more likely to be a peaceful and prosperous place. crucial to that also is building alliances. the president alone doesn't work unless we have friends and allies in the region who want us there who see us being there as an asset to their interests. i believe we can do that and we have done a good job of it. i particularly want to emphasize this is the first year that is the indo pacific command the change in the authorizing the last yea

korea person anthony, about what iran might look to purchase from north korea's missile arsenal. it's been a while since iran acquired a whole system. there are two that are force multipliers. the one is the shahhab 3 the basis for the liquid fueled mrbms and the other moussa dan, whatever you want to call it, which become relatively failing its flight tests but a qualitative change to iran's liquid fueled ballistic inventory. both can carry nuclear warheads. what's the next possible one iran could look to purchase from the north koreans if that's something to do. we speculated in 2017, i think i at least will still stand by it, that it could be a two-stage solid fueled mrbm. iran has one. i haven't really seen it tested since 2011 or 2013. i think it's because some of its tests weren't so successful. if the north koreans have this it could be something the iranians want to look to purchase. >> excellent. >> please. >> for charlie's question there, i don't have the technical ability to say who is, you know, head or not but they have the symbiotic relationship and benefit from tha

forces korea. our witnesses are the honorable randall schriver. indo-pacific security affairs department much defense. admiral flich s davidson. and general robert abrams, commander of the united nations command. u.s. forces korea. welcome, gentlemen. appreciate your being here and your service and look forward to your testimony. obviously the pacific region is critical. both president obama and president trump have emphasized our need to place greater emphasis on the indo-pacific region. and we look forward to hearing about all the issues around there. obviously china is the largest issue working with them. but also working with countries around them to make sure they are playing by the rules and respecting their neighbors. the the number one most important thing is to crucial to maintain a strong u.s. presence in the indo-pacific region. i think our presence brings stability and makes it more likely it's going to be a peaceful and prospersous place. crucial to that also is building alliances. our

yes this as these details of been emerging from a briefing that was given by south korea's by agency the national intelligence service to lawmakers here in seoul about developments at tongue chang reno this is as you mentioned there a site for the launch of satellites into space but also has been used for the testing of engines for ballistic missiles and there was a verbal agreement an undertaking a verbal undertaking last year from the north koreans that they would at least dismantle parts of this site well the intelligence briefing which seems to be corroborated now by sources in the u.s. based on satellite photos seems to indicate that they are in fact has been building going on at the site specifically the restoration of a door and part of the roof on one of the buildings one of the facilities there which seems to has led people to wonder what north korea is up to whether there might be any resumption of testing but there is a very large question mark over just when this work was carried out was it after the summit took place the failed summit last week in hanoi or was it jordan

north korea talks side of a very delicate face at this point of time north korea essentially has to get back to the u.s. how it wants to go forward and dora crum doesn't want to do that in a negative direction by imposing a new whole set of sanctions and that's why he's kind of holding his hand at this point of time and waiting till we have some signs are still where north korea wants to go forward on this front sanctions that were announced today we're going to chinese companies not korea ones do you think he was maybe confused in his tweet or is he trying to spin this is a surrogate is doing something positive towards north korea. you know the issue is that there is a sanctions committee which is looking after implementing as an executed in the u.n. sanctions and some of these sanctions are being invaded on the side in terms of ship to ship transfers and that's where a whole list of shipping vessels were saying shouldn't it which actually also included one south korean vessel but the whole the whole purpose is these are not really new new sanctions per se it's implementation of existi

missileorth korea's threat is part of its capabilities.t is really a core capability that it uses, not only for the military, but for diplomatic purposes. talk about that. in the region, north korea poses , threat to u.s. forces, japan it's scads and the like there. we talk about missile defense in the region. we talk about patriot, fad, and i am sure everybody is the mayor idealhat controversy, the in the region would be to have ,n integrated missile defense u.s., south korea and japan. unlikelyhat is really given the friction between korea and japan. japan has moved out on patriot koreanshree and the have embarked on a program for the air missile defense, which is really trying to target missiles before launch which i think is difficult for many reasons. we really have -- we don't have an integrated missile defense in the region. that is a shortfall. that is something we should all press south korea and japan to try to press forward on that, but as we know, even with the joint intelligence sharing agreement, that was hard to negotiate, a

north korea was a part of the republic of korea. after alliced that, ce, trumprs of patien and gave up the liberation of north korea, gave up freedom for north korea, and started respecting north korean dictators. he started negotiating instead of pressuring. it escalated north korea 's livelihood. for the first time, president not to touch -- that was part of the negotiations. disappointed about what he has been doing. under the singapore persuasion of the south korean president. hanoi, pressured by the south korean president. he kicked the parties out of hanoi. now it looks like he is going -- with the north korean dictator. he is coming here again in the next few days to get together with kim jung-un and so on. could you try to convince me is not -- north korean dictator? >> the president has not given anything to north korea. they have been given a bilateral meeting with the president. there will not be a deal until north korea agrees to negotiate in earnest. it has been a concern that president moon wants to move too fast and g

of south korea this wednesday morning giving an instruction that south korea should be working more with china on what is seen here as a shared problem it's thought a lot of this pollution comes from deserts in china with the fine dust being sucked up into the atmosphere mixing with pollution from factories and power stations and then being pushed by the prevailing winds just far enough to cover the korean peninsula but not strong enough to take it any further so sophisticated cities like seoul having to wait for a change in the wind direction before they can get a breath of fresh air. without there are these are our top stories north korea is reportedly restoring facilities a long range rocket launch sites one that it's mantles last year and reports and south korean media for the failed summit last week between donald trump and kim jong. un human rights chief at michelle bash l.a. has called on saudi arabia to release women activists allegedly tortured into tension by its groups have named ten saudi women held for their campaigning in fear they could face sentences. today our law allow

north korea talks ayatollah very delicate fears are the spoiling of time north korea essentially has to get back to the u.s. side wants to go forward and donald trump doesn't want to do that in a negative direction by imposing a new whole set of sanctions and that's why he's kind of trying to ensure that at least at the leader to leader level there's good communication and a good relationship because he believes not korea is a top down society and of kim jong un can take that strategic decision which he needs to make it will unlock the door to of very positive relationship and positive denuclearization related negotiations. the u.n. human rights council has called for holtz to israeli settlement expansion in the golan heights a day after donald trump pledged to recognize the disputed area as a part of israel the region was seized from it syria back in ninety six thousand. after fifty two years it's time for the united states to fully recognize israel sovereignty over the golan heights which is a critical strategic and security importance the state of israel and regional stability isr

it. >> not as we have defined it, although they have committed this public and regimes in north korea four or five times in writing to denuke cries. >> brennan: so that doesn't mean much to to you? >> which we expect them to do if they reach an agreement with us. >> on the specific a seen 0 your state department official spoke to reporters and said what the north koreans proposed specifically was about dissonant ling the three-mile pyongyang complex which he defined as the total at this of north korea 0's plutonium reprocessing and enrichment program in exchange for lifting all sanctions except those on the weapon programs. did the u.s. make a counteroffer? >> well, the counteroffer has been there from the beginning, from the very first summit back in singapore, which is if north korea commits to complete denuclearization, including its ballistic missile program and chemical and biological weapons programs, the prospect of economic progress is there. at north korea put on the table. >> did not. >> this narrow definition. >> very limited concession by the north koreans involving the py

forces korea. welcome, gentlemen, appreciate you being here and your service and look forward to your testimony. the pacific region is a critical region. both president obama and president trump has emphasized our need to place greater emphasis on the indo-pacific region and we look forward to hearing about all of the issues. obviously china is the largest issue working with them but also working with countries around them to make sure they're playing by the rules and respecting their neighbors. i think the number one most important thing is it is crucial to maintain a strong u.s. presence in the indo-pacific region. i think our presence brings stability and makes it more likely that it's going to be a peaceful place. crucial to that is building alliances. our presence alone doesn't work unless we have friends and allies in the region who want us there, who see us being there as an asset to their interests. i believe we can do that and i think we've done a good job of it. i want to emphasis, this i

their reports north korea is rebuilding a rocket launch size after last week's failed summits between donald trump and kim jong un. hello i'm the star of the attain this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. satellite pictures indicate a religious school run by a pakistan based group is intact days after india said it had launched airstrikes honest. algeria's army chief warns against a return of the civil war of the one thousand nine hundred as pro. yes to seek the president's exit. fighting for their teenage son who they say has been tortured and jailed on false accusations of joining i sell iraq. north korea is reportedly restoring facilities as a long range rocket launch site one that it had agreed to dismantle as part of disarmament steps last year the reports in south korean media follow last week's failed summit between donald trump and kim jong un and vietnam a web site specializing in north korea studies called thirty eight north says it has satellite imagery showing efforts to rebuild some structures at the launch site al-jazeera briars has more from seoul. these repor

basically to be prepared in case of an attack from north korea on south korea the u.s. and south korea have the kind of relationship where the u.s. would come to south korea's defense if such a thing were to happen now the president dull trump had criticized these two major exercises in previous years saying that they were much too expensive even though combined they only cost the pentagon about fourteen million dollars a year and these exercises have been going on for the better part of a decade but these exercises are ending for at first people thought this announcement would come alongside any sort of agreement that would have come out of the summit between the u.s. and north korea but instead the exercises are being ended now according to a statement put out by both the pentagon and the south korean military in order to support the ongoing negotiations between the u.s. and north korea to try to find a way to and north korea's nuclear weapons program whether or not that's actually going to be enough to induce north korea to return for another round of talks well we'l

thank you for having me meanwhile north korea is facing more severe food to what's being called its worst harvest in over a decade u.n. figures show production of staple crops such as soybeans and taito is down by more than a third. government office facing a shortfall of one point four million tons of food this year the country's long struggle to feed itself nearly hoff's the population as a native humanitarian assistance and human silverstein is a templeton fellow at the foreign policy institute and as out of north korean economy watch he's skeptical about the extent of the food crisis. i'm not sure that it's as bad as the u.n. and the north korean government have been saying and the reason is that it's very difficult to calculate the north korean food situation most people get their sustenance from markets in the country and the circulation on these markets while it does depend to a great extent on domestic food production we don't know exactly how supply will change on these markets so i suspect that thanks to the markets things won't be as bad as some people fear so i think a m