the where we started in negotiations with north korea is not the north korea, it is today and north korea has nuclear weapons. this isn't a non proliferation challenge. you know, when we started negotiating in the, in the 19 90s we were trying to prevent north korea from building nuclear weapons and we tend to still have that same proposition when we go into negotiations. now, despite the fact that north korea tested their first nuclear weapon in 2006 and has since then conducted five other tests. so, you know, i think we, we need to understand that what we're dealing with now, the nature of the denuclearization challenge right now is not non proliferation, it is disarmament. and i think that really takes a very different approach in order to solve of how do you convince an insecure country to disarm and to trust that we have their best interests at heart, especially when there are examples out there that would prove otherwise. and so i think, you know, that's the fundamental problem with our approach today is that we still continue to hold on to this notion that we can, that we have time

north korea problem. also think we should not allow it to be overblown. >> great. thank you. >> thank you. on the russia angle, i was not at that conference, but i was on a panel recently with a russian diplomat, a former diplomat. the way he described russia's approach was a bit more strategic and just ukraine. it was not just about ukraine. it was about building a security partner for the war against the west. and i think that that also feeds into why russia would be more willing to build military cooperation and not just you and arms deal. because we know that kim jong-un did not need to go to russia to broker and arms deal. i think that this just plays into all of the great competition that is going on. i do think that it will change south korea's calculus on ukraine. and because it does suddenly now make ukraine more of a korean peninsula security if russia will directly grow its military cooperation with north korea. but i think that the china angle is also really important here. china does still ca

her expertise in north korea, usd prk and the northeast security is well known and established. she was named one of the groundbreaker's 2020 for her role in cofounding and managing the 38 north website that provides policy and technical analysis on north korea. this town is also an expert reviewer with freedom houses in the world index where she worked on the human rights in north korea project. from 2008 to 2018, she served as the assistant director of the u.s. korea institute at johns hopkins school of advanced international studies. thank you for being with us. thank you, chairman van holland, ranking member and distinguished members of the subcommittee. i'm going to use my time to reflect on two recent and important developments with security on the korean peninsula from the u.s. perspective one of these is positive and one of these is negative. the developments related to the vast improvement as senator romney's suggested comments intro lateral relations between the united states, japan and south korea the scope of agreements reached are impressive and unprecedented. to put

to north korea.i think they want to keep negotiating with russia and north korea not to deliver those kind of key technologies to north korea. that's what they can do. i think on north korea they have critical limitations on the influence that russia and north korea, and i want, but what they can do is to tone down or lower down the technology level of delivering from russia to north korea. >> victor, if the russians supply north korea with nuclear fuel, yes, that would be crossing the red line. unless that happens, but if that happens what's going to happen? nato will basically say this is terrible. in other words, you would unite nato with asian allies that we talked about earlier today. and so that i think will be over the longer term really a net negative for putin if he supports north korea's nuclear weapons program. so openly. so that's why i think that's not really going to happen. but otherwise, look, anything -- look, this guy is 40 years old and what is he really achieved other than buildin

june was neither far from her brother's side. ever present in north korea's media coverage, the spend on television in south korea, a government spokesman, hope phrases will let them know. one has all kind of to put down there to keep me all kimble with them. i'm so i guess i'm just kind of doing that when i call from somebody says to me, to give me the guns for them and or what if i get us the good will continue the following months with more meetings between the late as each time kimmy or joan was at the center of the action. the flooring of relations between the 2 degrees was a little more remote control because it followed a period of great tension of appealing, sweet, clear, and ballistic nissan program. just a few months earlier, north korea conducted 6 nuclear test. you know, at the end of the trip to tell us, have your full start place you on this all want me. all right, on a great day, you as president, donald trump, then busted north korea at the united nations. now north korea's reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles threatens the entire world. the unite

the meeting between the ladies june was neither far from from his side. ever present in north korea's media coverage, the and on television in south korea, a government spokesman also praises. let them know. i'm has all kind of the other kind of give me all. kimble with them, i'm so i guess i'm, i just kind of do a whole lot at call. come with the social media, give me the on your end for them and or what if i get us to good will continue going through the following months with more meetings between the late as each time kimmy or joan was at the center of the action the flooring of relations between the 2 degrees was a little more remote control because it followed a period of great tension of appealing to clear and the listing. we saw programs just a few months earlier. north korea conducted its 6 nuclear test street. you know, at the end of the trip to a town, it's had your full start place you on this all want me to turn it on days later you as president, donald trump, then busted north korea at the united nations. now north korea's reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic

you have thousands of war orphans in north korea and south korea.ou have massive devastation of infrastructure, schools, virtually everything, not only in north korea, but on both sides of the korean peninsula. host: how many american troops killed or wounded? guest: i think the estimates on the number of troops is never exact but i think the latest estimates i have heard on american troops is about 30,000 u.s. forces lost their lives in the korean theater. host: after the korean armistice was signed in 1953 the commander of u.s. forces and u.n. forces was general mark clark. [video clip] >> it will allow some of the groovy wounds of korea to hill. i am thankful. it is however only a step forward what must yet be done. the path now is up at the cease-fire agreement into full effect as quickly as we can get down to working out settlement of the korean problems. i cannot find it in me to -- in this hour, rather it is a time for prayer. we may succeed in our difficult endeavor to turn this armistice to the advantage of mankind. if we extract hope from

heavy rain fell on the capital of north korea, but despite the vagaries of nature, hundreds of northgreeted lavrov. the koreans seemed to be chanting lavrov lavrov at the stadium. this emphasizes the importance of the visit, which continues the series of contacts between russia and the dprk. the highest level. in the summer, sergei shaigu visited the country, in september kimchen made a six-day visit to the far east, including cooperation in the defense sector. and this became the reason for western speculation that north korea has already begun to massively supply weapons and ammunition to russia. together with the russian delegation, our olga skabeeva. the first exclusive footage from phinyang, the very one. closed capital of the world, the distance from beijing to pyongyang in a straight line is 800 km, right now foreign minister lavrov is starting his trip to the dprk, the il-96 takes off in literally 20 minutes from china to korea, an hour’s flight. lavov's plane has just landed in north korea. the minister of foreign affairs is greeted by a huge, gigantic delegation with flower

why did it happen that north korea ended up in our country, but south korea did not?ell, let's remember. north korea is fundamentally a socialist state. and we have already remembered that it was the socialist bloc that became the basis of brix and today is becoming the basis of a new statement russia on several continents at once. the korean party was created with the direct assistance of the bolsheviks in 1921 in irkutsk. korea itself, let me remind you, was then under japanese rule. there were many koreans in soviet russia in those years; as we have already said, they actively participated in our civil war on the side of the red army. in the far east, the interests of the komentern were represented by the prominent bolshevik boris shumatsky. he hatched a dizzying plan to create a unified army. from all korean parts of soviet russia and performing the borosk march through manjuria to liberate korea from the japanese. the execution of this task was entrusted to nestor kalandarishvi. georgian anarchist, legendary partisan commander who went over to the side of the bol

request for military assistance. 90 days following north korea's invasion were grim. . ground and air forces in size and firepower to match the scale of the expanding war. as u.n. military units went to the public of korea by air and sea and may ground targets were pounded by her air force. ti gene and pusan gave the general and his u.n. command the need -- needed time to prepare its own initiative. un's initiative turned out to be the bold invasion some 150 miles behind koreans lines. the surprise paid off. when elements of the 1st calvary division raised 100 mouth to link up with advancing seventh infantry division forces north korea's plan for unifying korea became a nightmare. ♪♪ ♪♪ by september's and stohl was retaken by u.n. forces and the embattled capital of korea was returned to president sigmund reid. ♪♪ as north korea watched its grand strategy for conquest sagging collapse its communist leader kim il-sung would admit that his decision to invade the south would not have been made had he believed the united states would commit itself to such total military su

although i think it was more north korea that is building up and considering an invasion of south koreauring the early 1970s. i think this period between 1968 and the early 1970s is actually a period of increased north korean adventurism on the korean peninsula as a whole. you have not only the capture of the pueblo, but you also have another incident in which the north koreans shot down an american spy plane. this occurred at the beginning of the nixon administration. you have an axe murderer incident in the demilitarized zone, and you also have multiple north korean efforts to try to assassinate the president of south korea. and one of the reasons for this is because he had been so extraordinarily successful at lifting south koreans out of poverty, and the north koreans were very well aware that south korea was making enormous economic strides under his presidency. there was this period of heightened friction. there was also this perception in north korea that maybe now would be the best possible time to invade the south, because the united states is so occupied with vietnam and it do

there was an increase in rail traffic between russia and north korea. following the summit in early september between north korean leader kim jong and russian president vladimir putin that took place in, in south eastern russia. and those shipments according to join us dug olds. satellite imagery show something like a 1000 containers from north korea going into russia and reaching a, a russian military installation near ukraine. what was in those containers precisely is kind of led to speculation. busy there had been concerns that north korea would provide russia with artillery shells, in particular, in printing, perhaps other weapons as well then. and so what would you say roger is providing those career and return? that's the big question to it for. for this region, there was a trilateral summit with the north korean nuclear negotiators from the us, japan and south korea. the us negotiators and kim, uh suggested that there was some serious concern that russia was providing or would provide a north korea with a satellite technology perhaps some other pe

you have thousands of war orphans in north korea and south korea.ou have massive devastation of infrastructure, schools, virtually everything, not only in north korea, but on both sides of the korean peninsula. host: how many american troops killed or wounded? guest: i think the estimates on the number of troops is never exact but i think the latest estimates i have heard on american troops is about 30,000 u.s. forces lost their lives in the korean theater. host: after the korean armistice was signed in 1953 the commander of u.s. forces and u.n. forces was general mark clark. [video clip] >> it will allow some of the groovy wounds of korea to hill. i am thankful. it is however only a step forward what must yet be done. the path now is up at the cease-fire agreement into full effect as quickly as we can get down to working out settlement of the korean problems. i cannot find it in me to -- in this hour, rather it is a time for prayer. we may succeed in our difficult endeavor to turn this armistice to the advantage of mankind. if we extract hope from

bombing of north korea was intense and horrific. north koreans hilton extensive system of underground tunnels, because living anywhere above ground was so dangerous at the time. you know, there is no question that it was horrific. i do think if you are going to look at the korean war in general my you are going to look at, well, what was morally justified and what was not morally justified? it is always a very difficult western. especially in the context of the korean war because i think historical evidence is very clear that he took the actions that led to the larger war in the peninsula. if you are going to look at things that the united states did wrong and question the moral justifications, i do think the extensive bombing of north korea where they were not only bombing military targets, but bombing infrastructure and civilian infrastructure. really punishing the country. i think that would sort of be one of the first thing that comes to my mind. >> what do you think is the legacy of the korean war? >> i think there is a lot of l

of svoboda ranok. and after the september meeting between putin and kimchenin between russia and north korea , rail traffic increased sharply, as evidenced by north korean satellite images. of the tumangan railway station, this was reported by the analytical project of the american center for strategic and international studies beyond parallel, and here are the pictures that were taken on october 5 of this year show probably 73 closed wagons on the railway, if we analyze the data for the last five years, then at most 20 such wagons were sent to this connection. given the recent talks between the leaders of both countries, analysts suggest ... that the sharp increase in rail traffic is likely to indicate north korea's supply of weapons and ammunition to russia. i will remind you that on september 13, kim jong-un visited russia, then, answering the question about whether the russian and north korean leaders will discuss the issue military-technical cooperation, putin answered, and i quote: let's talk about all issues. at the time, the new york times wrote that putin wanted to receive from kind

has come, in fact, the path is quite impressive, for individual travelers, the north korea is nowsame alpine skiing as part of a group by simply purchasing a tour, and it is cheaper, by the way, than courchevel, about a thousand euros per week, but taking into account the fact that there are now direct flights to europe no, it’s also more accessible. the russian tourism industry also expects that thanks to contacts at a higher level, connections by rail will be established between. i’ve already come to primorye twice on an armored train, and the locomotive was ours, russian, which means regular trains can go , this is a very friendly country, for all the few days that we spent in pyongyang in its environs, i saw from the looks of those people we met that everything was absolutely sincere in their benevolent intentions, as it seemed to me, they probably did during these 3 days in pyongyang everything so that we... probably want to return there, and this is probably the most important thing, because if you want to return to the country where you were, yes, it’s probably a good count

north korea probably supplies ammunition to russia. the new route was recorded at the royal joint institute for defense research and dozens of satellite images of cargo ships were analyzed. meanwhile, the head of the russian foreign ministry. plans putin's visit to north korea, how this relationship strengthens russian army and what does kimchen-in trade this help for. the number of ukrainians who believe that the ukrainian authorities are ready to make territorial concessions in exchange for achieving peace and maintaining independence has increased. in general, ukrainians began to believe russian narratives more. this is stated in the results of a new study by the kmiz sociological group. what do these trends indicate and how do societal sentiments influence decisions? authorities i would like to remind you that on the youtube platform, on the radio liberty channel, you can watch us, in order to support our project, put your likes, be sure to write comments and your questions, also to the speakers of this broadcast. we will ask inter

china fought for them when they divided the borders, china even partially ceded the territory of north koreater the end, well, the suspension of the war with south korea, therefore, to a large extent , north korea also declares its own type of subjectivity, and it is beneficial for putin, putin does not count with anyone, he will not ask everyone, let him fly to north korea or not. mr. ruslan, and north korea and her strange behavior, accepting putin's kennel, and the horse, as lavrova calls her, is this subjective behavior, is this bargaining, or is this already a final decision? this is the script, this is the script, the answers to strengthen the position of the states in the union. japan, south korea, the united states, japan, south korea, we saw that the united states stepped up, they wanted to open a nato information point in japan. and this means that nato goes beyond the geographical boundaries of europe, where, where they should act according to all the statutes, this means that alliances are strengthened oku squat, which was and is being created a new one, japan, north korea and th

and told about how no one there, literally, has anything for her limits, literally, well, north koreadenly there was an oversight. despite the endless talk about the strictness of the north korean protocol, right now we are filming at the residence of the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of the dprk, who is not accompanied, moreover, no permission was issued for filming, immediately after these words, the outwardly most friendly state security service of the dprk in the circle and ask to explain what is happening, huh, and here they are trying to lead the delegation from russia, sergey viktorych, how is the mood before signing, look at me, i am right now in the center byungyan, a fellow major next to me, seems to be absent, if you look around , absolutely normal, ordinary north korean life, at the eighth second, a man in a strict suit still appears in the frame and starts moving parallel to me, absolutely ordinary, normal people, who are not dressed in the same clothes, do not move according to the shape, bright, different-colored clothes, he does not seem to come close, but th

north korea wants to leave at peace. and if you look at the history north korea is . busy is the country that has been addressed by the collective west pulled along. so there's always, um, just uh, you know, is just uh, uh, words, lots of words uh, lots of smoke but these not, not much fire is just, uh, i think of what the washington wants to do is to put the west side the same level of axis of evil, so they want to make sure that those countries like china, russia, north korea, is the new axis of evil, is just the showmanship and the just woods and washington has suggested that russia will quote and pay the price for its friendship with north korea. we know the us heavily sanctions both north korea and russia. so what do you think what actually be done and what really have an effect on either nation as well as how many rounds of sanctions have we seen sofa on russia and what was the result of the results? oh, that's right. no rush. jason, do we wait back to the you? we have to just do what's disclose for, for russia, oil and gas are going a higher. uh, so overall, ru

personality, or to say it more tactically , respect for the leader of the world of nations is 90% in north korea wait, wait, please, locals are advised not to come into contact with foreigners, in these shots, a married couple defiantly turns away from the cameraman. that is, skabiyeva, of course, advertises north korea, but as it turned out, when she is faced with what the realities are there, she is not there... she does not want to work, apparently, nor to live, well, that is, for her even this is an exaggeration, but this is exactly what they are all amicably offering to the russian people, as such a future and an example to follow, and meanwhile russia itself is moving at full steam, so to speak, precisely towards north korea, at least what concerns the priorities of russia itself, therefore that as it turned out the other day, they accept... literally yesterday they accepted a new budget for the next year and there is just some north korean, i would say north korean figure of expenditures in the budget of the war budget, we also accept the budget and how it will be financed depends on how

lavrov's last visit to north korea in 2018 was much more modest.der of the dprk kimchen, negotiations with foreign minister choi hong-hee, in official reports the parties talk about strategic partnership and the development of bilateral relations, and dry public reports actually hide other agreements on new supplies. of north korean weapons to russia, experts say. at this time, north korea cannot produce complex weapons in significant quantities, but they have a strategic stockpile of simpler weapons for 4-6 months that they can begin to use, at the same time they can begin to build up domestic production, from mines for large artillery ammunition. last week, the white house released data...intelligence indicating that north korea sent 1,000 containers of weapons to russia. last year, the strategic communications coordinator of the us national security council , john kirby, reported that north korea also supplied weapons to the russian pmk wagner, and now the us and its allies are also concerned about the question of what moscow will give pyongyang

yes, they still live in north korea.mmer republic. in part, they were close to soviet ideology, and this was reflected in politics, in everyday life, for example, the metro in pyongyang, and now it is very similar to the moscow one, but the name there is like from the socialist past, glory, prosperity, there is only one stop between them , and travel in terms of rubles are practically free, mere pennies are the essence of socialist realism, this impression can really appear, in some it will even evoke a feeling. and this, by the way, is a plus, but we should not forget that after the collapse of the socialist bloc, north korea has made quite a long way in development, that is, again, on the one hand, you can see this socialist past, on the other hand, on the contrary, you can see where north korea is going has come, in fact, the path is quite impressive for individual travelers, north korea is now is closed, but for example it’s quite possible to get to the same ski resort... as part of a group, simply by purchasing a to

north korea's most powerful woman. oh no, just 0 of the woods. and the guy's man, i'm in the meantime, i want to know the man. uh move of the man. uh no, i don't know the whole image of the honda deal. what's the most of the same name as musician, west or recently? yes, ma'am, todd savannah, may i ask where they'll have to. uh i mean, what was it came for what's going on as far as the bonus? 5, a lot of interesting here with me, you know, to and i'm calling to find out what's going on there. so you can me, this one is telling me in my thoughts, somebody's blood pressure. so it's a little issue for an understanding like an ocean i'm laying hold on can play sure . yeah. and the silica headquarters who is all to assume the position that we have. i've been working in the field of human rights here in israel and palestine for about 23 years. it can be in the courts, it can be civil disobedience, and it can be a company, farmers or shepherds to protect it from settlers. settlers are very, very group, some of them are not violent at all, although they o

according to pyongyang's official ideology, there is no south or north korea. rily occupied by the imperialists, but after the victory of the juche idea, it will also be saved. olga skabeeva, natalya konyukhova, sergey eliseev, mikhail devyatkin and evgeny frolov. on thursday, the verkhovna rada of ukraine adopted in the first reading a government bill banning the canonical and most massive in the country of the ukrainian orthodox church. the so-called abolition of russian culture is shameless slander and unpunished destruction of the ukrainian orthodox church. this is the essence of the way to oppose. those who are related to the common, spiritual and cultural heritage created by the peoples of historical russia. sometimes it seems to us that it is impossible to stop the streams of hatred and malice that pour out from various sources of information in order to erase the common historical memory of the peoples of holy russia. but we believe that the word is true, love and mercy, promoting god: helping to stop the conveyor belt of lies. meanwhile, in the recently

they advertise, and this was also very clearly visible on the other day, the actual way of life in north koreat a kind of advertising about how beautiful everything is in the north. brilliant comrade kim , respected supreme leader, this is the official title, he is also called the light of the world, smiling widely, meets lavrov at the headquarters of the central committee of the labor party of the knd . lavova greeted by people in national costumes , a huge delegation, we see heavy rain over the minister, holding an umbrella, people with flowers under the heavy rain, when lavrov leaves, the jubilant crowd continues to move behind the cortege. streets in pyongyang are now closed due to lavrov's visit. despite the sanctions, pay attention to what cars are included in the motorcade of the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of k. in fact, everyone is lying about the fact that something may be wrong in north korea, some oppression, and here, in fact, everyone really wants to go there, this is the first time in history humanity direct inclusion from the dprk, contrary to endless rumors and spe

told about how no one there literally limits her in anything, literally, well, north korea is a beaconpite endless conversations about the strictness of the north korean protocol, right now we are filming at the residence of the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of the dprk, we are not accompanied by anyone, moreover, no restrictions have been issued for filming. immediately after these words, the outwardly most affable state security service of the north korean government takes us into a circle and asks us to explain what is happening. and here they are asking to lead the delegation. russia, sergey viktorovich, how are you feeling before signing, look at me, that i am right now in the center of bhenyan, comrade major next to me, it doesn’t seem to be there, if you look around, absolutely normal, ordinary north korean life, at the eighth second a man in a strict suit appears in the frame and starts moving parallel to me, absolutely ordinary, normal people who are not dressed in .. the same clothes don’t move according to their shape, bright, different-colored clothes, he doesn’t

then, iran will enter the war, north korea, it is unlikely.nd events in the united states. in the united states , the newly elected speaker of the us house of representatives , mike johnson, said that he would support increasing aid to ukraine, but there are conditions, among which he called accountability. i will remind you that yesterday, late in the evening kyiv time, the ward representatives of the united states were led by representative mike johnson of louisiana. 220 republicans voted for johnson's candidacy for the post of speaker, although in reality, he would have needed 217 votes to win. the election of a new speaker came 20. two days after the house of representatives voted to remove republican kevin mccarthy from office for the first time in us history. the washington post notes that johnson is opposed to aid to ukraine. the publication recalls that johnson was one of 57 american lawmakers, all republicans, who voted against a $40 billion aid package for ukraine in may. earlier, johnson also called for increased surveillance by the

was kemersen, since then i have not been to north korea , so my impressions of north korea... this isg man, which i was then. and what are the impressions of a very young person? this cannot be explained in a few words. but, uh, imagine when a relatively small country, at that time 17 million people lived in north korea. and they all look with aspiration at one. the only person, all their successes, all their achievements , everything that they have, was and will be, they dedicate to one person, how they did it, in this global, huge world, when the whole world becomes one big flying cage, maintaining such a closed nature, how did they do it, sowing a mystery? it’s great how they did it, except that there can only be a colossal, constant mobilization of the people, so the people are mobilized for the task of defense, for the task of independence and prosperity of their country, as they imagine it. how they picture it, this prosperity, everything, and of course, the leader, the leader is the most important thing, by the way, to say, it’s not necessary, even to study something very deepl

taras, there is such news from north korea, which is not very comforting for us, because it is recorded on satellite images, it is the beyond parallel project of the american center for strategic international studies, actually recorded a sharp increase in the number of cargo transportation between north korea and russia, in fact, they recorded it after the leaders of these countries met, what does this mean for us and what can they lead from north korea? well, actually, this means that actually kimchynin's visit to russia to vladimir was to some extent successful and the fact that they arranged such an entertaining program for him there, they showed him the walrus misha in the oceanarium, i think that this impressed comrade en so much that, in fact, he i still decided to help the russian dictator, my colleague, not in word but in deed, and so on decided to strengthen the military aid that korea has actually already begun to provide little by little to the russian federation, it is clear that what bhinyan is doing is absolutely not autonomous, let's say, in close agreement with his chin

last year he. passed a law allowing north korea to strike the united states or south korea if they triedve him from power. the us navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier ronald reagan and its strike group arrived in the southern port of busan after naval exercises with seoul and tokyo. washington and the south korean army have been building up their forces throughout this year, demonstrating its superiority over philyanam. these operations involve american aircraft carriers, submarines and the latest bombers. which are intended to strike any potential response to north korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats. north korea says the exercises are a rehearsal for an invasion, promising deterrence measures. and repelling american forces in the event of an imminent attack. according to satellite images, two ships that had not previously made voyages between russia and north korea began active movement between ports, and immediately after vladimir putin and kimchinyn met at negotiations in vladevostok. now , satellite images analyzed by the royal united services institute in london have sh

certain types of weapons to the russian federation, why will it continue, because in principle, north korea did this during these almost two years of war. we know that soldiers from the ssu found ammunition of north korean production, there was ammunition for barrel artillery , for the rzvv, this, this, this weaponry that the dprk received from the soviet union back in the 60s and 80s years here the question is both the quantity and the quality of the weapons that the dprk will be able to supply to the russian federation, it should be noted that most likely these supplies will not significantly change the situation on front, especially since kim jong-un is asleep and sees how these damn imperialists are preparing an external intervention in the dprk and they are really preparing for war, so the question is about the amount of that. which the dprk will be able to supply to the russian federation, the russian federation, for its part, what it can offer the dprk in the field of military-technical cooperation, then it is most likely some space technologies in the field, yes, space, kayndr is al