by professor hazel smith a korea expert from london school of oriental and african studies professor thank you so much for joining us so if all of this happened with you know deadly insects biological weapons if all this happened it was more than 60 years ago but having said that is this still a very real live issue for north koreans now the truth is about the korean war is that it was a very dirty war on all sides there atrocities by the north koreans by the south koreans there were many many people killed and many many orphans and many maimed so the whole of the war still remains controversial particularly for north koreans and for south koreans because they've still got family members that have split since not 53 once when the war ended there's been no communication between the 2 sides so the issues about alleged germ warfare a part and parcel of the discourse which takes place in north korea this is a controversial topic at the time in the 1950 s. remains controversial now this story no smoking gun evidence this to took place but it forms part of the official discourse it doesn't

by professor hazel smith a korea expert from london school of oriental and african studies professor thank you so much for joining us so if all of this happened with you know deadly insects biological weapons if all this happened it was more than 60 years ago but having said that is this still a very real live issue for north koreans now the truth is about the korean war is that it was a very dirty war on all sides there atrocities by the north koreans by the south koreans there were many many people killed and many many orphans and many maimed so the whole of the war still remains controversial particularly for north koreans and for south koreans because they've still got family members that have split since not 53 once when the war ended there's been no communication between the 2 sides so the issues about alleged germ warfare a part and parcel of the discourse which takes place in north korea this is a controversial topic at the time in the 1950 s. remains controversial now this story no smoking gun evidence this to took place but it forms part of the official discourse it doesn't

by professor hazel smith a korea expert from london school of oriental and african studies professor thank you so much for joining us so if all of this happened with you know deadly insects biological weapons if all this happened it was more than 60 years ago but having said that is this still a very real live issue for north koreans now the truth is about the korean war is that it was a very dirty war on all sides there atrocities by the north koreans by the south koreans there were many many people killed and many many orphans and many maimed so the whole of the war full remains controversial but sickly for north koreans and for south koreans because they've still got family members that are split since not 53 once when the war ended there's been no communication between the 2 sides so the issues about. alleged germ warfare a part and parcel of the discourse which takes place in north korea this is a controversial topic at the time in the 1950 s. remains controversial now there's still no smoking gun evidence this to took place but it forms part of the official discourse it doesn't

is steve song the director of the china institute at the school of oriental and african studies in london to both of you welcome i'm sorry let me start with you. are these protests are they really non violent and the chief executive who we just saw in that story there has she sold out the country to beijing we have seen some actually from violent clashes between the police and protesters and we know that there have been there had been some kind of violence so we can really say that it has it has been violent. to someone who was in the protest today and he told me that most of like at least in the group where he was and like a lot of people were actually protesting very peacefully but then police fired tear gas without any warning all of a sudden and then fire also fired rubber bullets. and they and he told me that it is and it was in no way and organized riot as described i can relax and to answer your question whether she has become really to beijing she insisted that she didn't receive any instruction from beijing and in an interview she even cried and said that what she did was offer h

from it hussein a research associate at the school of oriental and african studies here in london surveyinghere are now it's the 2nd anniversary of the start of the air sea and land blockade on qatar by its neighbors saudi arabia the u.a.e. bahrain egypt and others accused katter's leaders of supporting terrorism they consistently deny that and say talks can settle the dispute peacefully stake a look back at how the diplomatic dispute began on may 20th 2017 the u.s. president on tramp lands in saudi arabia to meet king solomon and other arab leaders translator took credit for saudis move against catheter in a series of tweets linking it to the summit just 3 days later the catheter news agency is hacked attributing false statements to the emir their broadcast on saudi and mirai media despite the cattery government saying its fake news then on june 4th leaked e-mails from the u.s. ambassador to the u.s. reveal what appears to be a long running effort to discredit catheter and that brings us to june 5th when diplomatic ties are cut and an economic embargo is imposed well over the last 2 years

warning that this could put civilians at risk and to thomas is a researcher at the school of oriental african studies in london joins me now via skype from glasgow good to have you with us again on the program we're looking and seeing that this american under secretary of state is arriving in the region can he do anything more that the ethiopian president couldn't know what in khartoum certainly seems to be certainly the from the military side be listening to these dignitaries and diplomats. well i think the european prime minister had an important role to play in leading the african union's response to the crisis. but there's also a potentially important role for the u.s. the u.s. has an enormous amount of in. the egypt and the gulf countries which are the closest allies of the military government in our 2. way the military leaders have to dan went to visit those countries just immediately before their crackdown and. they may well have come to an agreement or got a green light in those countries now it's a big question will america take a firm line against this repression this brutal repression that based on

at a thomas is a researcher at the school of oriental and african studies in london joins me now via skype from glasgow good to have you with us mr thomas on al-jazeera can we just start with the fun that. is coming into the country i mean what can he do that the ethiopian prime minister couldn't i mean no one called to certainly from the military side wants to all seems to want to listen to these dignitaries and diplomats. well i think the crackdown which took place last week took place. immediately after a trip by different leader to different neighboring country over which america has quite an important influence so i think that the arrival of the u.s. secretary of state may be a bit different from from the arrival of other dignitaries and i think the government will be watching the sudanese government will be watching very very carefully to any sign that america might be putting pressure on the on the saudi and. aligned to moderate the situation moderate the by a lot happening in khartoum at the moment and of course with today 3 now of a civil disobedience observation by civil so