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

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 know how much money they have to. pay for the whole of the process of unification however we believe there is more advantages east. to the normal in normalizing the relationship than maintaining the you know we have to pay a lot of boys that takes is for the military weapons and wisdom was the young people mostly men was to go to of military service and this is a lot of cost this is a problem from their states to the united states is spending a lot of money right here defending south korea this is one of the motivations of trump to get american forces out of there but the nuclear. first ok when you talk about that are equal what's on the to do list for the trump and came in the next they've had eight months they've made some progress we've got a bit of a pickup situation now what's what's on the to do list

korea for it's hard to imagine a united korea i think korea has south korea studied the german unification as a model and wow 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 korean unification 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. is that commitment however determine it does not. go into in a civil war between east and the alien east and west germany. while there's as korea does civil war and then a based on this experienced some of the emotional emotional sentiment emotional. and negative emotional reactions to miscarry you know it's a wholly korean sentiment is still strong in south korea however. and the economic perspective on the unification i think it's still i think it was to be criticised as well as obviously young people as i was korea concern about these money you know how much money they have to. pay for the whole of the process of unification however we believe the

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

belt of money south korea should get for hosting u.s. forces on south korean soil but let's put it this way even though there is no firm number on how much it costs to run these two massive military exercises every spring and every summer there is another exercise that was suspended about a year or so ago and the rough estimate for running that program or exercise was about fourteen million dollars but come all consider the cost of running the u.s. military the budget for this fiscal year is just about seven hundred billion dollars so fourteen million dollars seven hundred billion dollars is it really about saving money especially when you consider that the military spends a lot more just to try to outfit the new fifth generation f. thirty five fighter jet and it all seems good for kim jong un in the end he can look at this and think well i went to amazing i got more face time and camera time at the u.s. presidents didn't have to denuclearize and the war games go down as well. that's right and that is something which north korea has been

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

troop presence in south korea they may not like the fact that those troops are pointed against them but if you look at the power disparity the growing power disparity apart from the nuclear weapons because more than south and the relative size of the two economies and the those troops remaining on the peninsula serve as a security guarantee for north korea they also have to worry like everyone else in the region about china's ambitions so i don't think north korea has any complaints with u.s. troops they don't like provocative exercises and i'm happy to say that trump has said that the exercises will continue to be suspended and less north korea does something that provokes again so i think that's overplayed that's very interesting mike you want to jump in there but we have to remember that not all of south koreans like having the american military there we have to remember what they want and don't like because and under conditions of a complex under the conditions of a conflict the united states actually takes control of south korea's defenses and intelligence so there's a sovereignty

forces korea and the republic of korea. exercises with the south koreans will continue. the president has expressed concerns about the cost of these drizzle and saying south korea doesn't carry enough of the financial burden. arthel: olivia, i believe it's 2:05 in tokyo. >> it's very early in the morning. thank you so much for having me on. arthel: you signaled this would happen for the sake of continuing this diplomatic dance with dictator kim jong-un. the u.s. and south korea canceling their massive springtime drills. how costly is this concession? >> this is a pretty major concession. and the relinquishing of continuation of the military exercises is the gift that keeps object giving for north korea. the president in singapore says that they were going to discontinue exercise, now we are taking it a step further. some of these exercises are being retired. and these are for long-term capabilities for the u.s. forces serving in korea to be prepared and have situational awareness tore conflict on the korean peninsula. this is concerning especially considering we made no

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 it can get a breath of fresh air pakistan has detained dozens of people as part of a crackdown on armed groups they include people india suspects of being behind an attack that killed more than forty soldiers in the disputed kashmir region last month a group called jaish e mohammad said it was responsible and the brother if its leader was one of those detained the bombing triggered the most serious standoff between india and pakistan in years. there's been an increase in knife attacks on young people in the u.k. the murder of two teenagers o

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.

to everyone in south korea i was hoping for an agreement i was disappointed yesterday. i hope trumping can we meet again and that will lead to peace on the korean peninsula state run media in north korea has reported the failure of the summit to reach an agreement but was still positive in tone remaining positive to president moon now back in his familiar role as mediator between the u.s. and north korea problem bride al-jazeera. a sudanese president omar bashir has stepped down as leader of the ruling national congress party but protesters have been calling for him to resign as president that. protesters in sudan were sentenced to between six months and five years. a quarter stablished under the country's recently imposed state of emergency law sentence them earlier this week the bashir out nor the public gatherings in a bid to stop the demonstrations. kurdish forces in syria say they've launched the final push against i saw earlier on friday the final group of civilians were evacuated from the building of a bug who's thousands of people have left in recent weeks and t

there are lots of them throughout south korea and they cost hundreds of dollars a month. many parents go into debt to send their children to these institutions but if they didn't their kids might fall behind. the trial soon move on to high school and then to university and the amount of study will increase accordingly. i'm not so good at english at the moment so i need to put in at least fourteen hours a day. they were based on helping the. south korea is famous for its educational system it consistently tops international rankings but the price kids pay is an enormous. the pressure to perform as masses and underline tech hanging out with friends or other leisure pursuits are for the ambitious out of the question. cereal then once to make school a more gripping and pleasurable experience with the help of virtual reality. when i was at home or think i'll certainly take other subsect we don't you know let's see they always. say seems very boring about the class and the contents so it's very hard for a game. for consulting the fact that she's developed an app that takes stud

countries have trained to be prepared in case of an attack from north korea on south korea the u.s. has a treaty obligation to provide and to protect south korea in case of any attack from its enemies notably from north korea well even though the exercises themselves were very expensive it's long been thought that the president wanted to end those exercises one because that's something that pyongyang has been asking for and to to give a reason to want to strike a deal on its nuclear weapons program however there are some military analysts who suggest that the exercises themselves were quite valuable in terms of troop readiness and that the president and his ongoing efforts to try to broker a deal to get rid of nuclear weapons on the korean peninsula might have given away some leverage whether or not that is in fact the case we'll have to see but certainly the south korean government is saying that for now it wants to support u.s. efforts to broker a deal with pyongyang on the nuclear weapons question and so it is willing to a focus instead on other smaller joint military exercises w

police in south korea have arrested two men for lately running a spy camera operation in hotel rooms around the country intimate footage of unsuspecting guests was lifestream to paying customers online well the case is part of a bigger problem in south korea and our reporter william i know a good craft has been tracking this story it is creepy it is disturbing i don't know where to begin let's begin with what the police are saying right so the police as mentioned arrested two men two for additional people are under investigation for implanting into these hotel rooms forty two rooms and thirty small hotels and ten cities around south korea. very small cameras into things like phone boxes and hair dryers and t.v. digital boxes. to spy on people six hundred people at eight hundred couples and to essentially make sex tapes illicit sex tapes these videos were then live stream to a website that these people had allegedly set up with as many as four thousand members watching these videos live some of these members even paid forty five dollars the equivalent forty five dollars a month for ex

following this story for us in seoul, south korea. paula, what more can you tell us about the change in approach with these exercises? >> well, george, these military exercises are going to be very different to what we usually see at this time of year. quite often, for decades, we have seen these annual massive drills during the springtime, which the u.s. and south korea said were defensive in nature, but had always irritated the north koreans. so what they have decided to do now is that they are canceling those two particular exercises, the full legal and key resolve and replacing them with something much smaller. we understand from the defense ministers, from the u.s. and also here in south korea, that they might just be unit level. so is a lot smaller and some of them will also be virtual training. now, this, according to the defense secretary of the u.s., is so that they can help the diplomatic process and this can be in line with what we're seeing between the u.s. and north korea. there are, of course, skeptics who are saying tha

and south korea and launch scale joint exercises to ease the tensions in the korean peninsula. and this fight makes mixed martial arts history the latest from u.s.c. two three five. all are still ahead but first talks in dog between the afghan taliban and the u.s. have ended for the day with no agreement the two sides have been meeting this week in qatar capital aimed at ending the seventeen year war in afghanistan a taliban spokesman says negotiations are in a sensitive phase and both sides must be careful and cautious to use his words moving forward dosage a body has been following the talks. they five has wrapped up here talks between the u.s. and the taliban in this hotel right behind me in doha now they have not reached an agreement yet we've spoken to officials from both sides the americans say there it doesn't look like they're going to have any kind of an agreement in the coming days so they're still working on it that's how the ban are adamant that they're only discussing the future of fourteen thousand u.s. troops currently in afghanistan this is the only subject they

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 we 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. well robert kelly is a professor of political science and diplomacy at the sun national university says north korea will be expected to refrain from any need testing in response ten richest military exercises. i think it's probably a quid pro quo for the continuing moratorium on the cell tests and nuclear tests the north koreans could continue to test missiles they could detonate weapons even larger than the one they did fifteen months ago sixteen months ago and i think you know trump has basically informally given them this

, such as japan, china, and south korea. so the space program, of course, as you canan imagine is an important source of intelligence for north korean leadership. >> if these reports are true, where does that leave the theomatic ffort betetween ununited statetes and nonorth k, which was up in the air last week? >> before i come onto the u.s. right of things, let's remind ofrybody that -- u.s. side things, let's remind everybody that thii site was actually part of confidence building measures with south korea. after the summit in september between kim jong-un and moon jae-in, firstly, the north agreed to permanently shut down this site, aad now we are here that they are ramping up activity there. also, from the north and the south, thhy wanted to build on joint economic projects to try and give north korea some hard currency lifeline after the summit in september. so one wonders what this latest news will do to relations between north and south korea. as to relations between north korea and the unittd states, things seem to h

i can tell you japan, south korea, china. speaking of china, we are very well on our way to doing something special. we will see. i am always prepared to walk. i'm never afraid to walk from a deal. i would do that with china if it did not work out. >> are you concerned if you are not able to reach an agreement that the testing will start again or that while all of this time is passing by they are continuing to develop their program? pres. trump: he said the testing will not start. he said he is not going to do testing of rockets or missiles or anything having to do with nuclear and all i can tell you is that is what he said and we will see. go ahead, please. in the back. red. in the red. >> jessica stone from cgtn. i have a question about china, as you were talking about. you talk about china being willing to help economically and you will talk to president moon and president abe. how would you describe china's role in facilitating the engagement that's happened so far between pyongyang and washington? pres. trump: china has

korea 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

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 good 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 now a case that sparked outrage in the u.s. last year has resurfaced it involves two police officers who shot and killed an unarmed black man in sacramento county california the city's district attorney announced the officers will not face criminal charges the policeman claimed twenty two year old stefan clarke had a gun but no weapon was found dozens of people gathered outside sacramento police department on saturday to protest the decision quark's family is devastated. you. know. this is. now the. game in a deep summer do

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 it can get a breath of fresh air still ahead on al-jazeera a call for drastic action on plastic as it piles up in oceans around the world plus politics immigration and organized crime why a region in southern italy is embracing political adversaries from the north. and out into what is generally in a quiet across parts of north america now we have lost the tornadoes but instead we start with some very very. cold air that's digging down from canada so many of us have seen the temperatures well below average looks like those temperatures will

and south korea's president. has ordered his government to take extraordinary measures to combat pollution seven major cities including seoul have recorded high concentrations of fine dust particles that can cause illness measures include shutting down public parking lots and limiting the number of cars and out on the road. as well from so. the people of seoul and other cities throughout south korea have been breathing this now for the best part of a week and in the past few days the government has been holding emergency meetings trying to figure out ways of dealing with it they've put in place a number of special measures such as controlling traffic on the roads putting controls on construction sites power stations and giving instructions to things like elementary schools not to have outdoor activities but there's very little the government can do here about the prevailing winds and it's got a lot of this pollution has come from neighboring china in fact president moon j.n. of south korea this wednesday morning

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 it can get a breath of fresh air. but of course news still ahead on the news out a skater going from down an alley to ice queen following a painful crash. this course now his job elizabeth thank you and investigation is underway one of the world's top. trying to find out why twenty one horses have died there in the last two months california santa anita park has been closed indefinitely after another hole said to be euthanized their own cheese day the track is due to host the breeders cup in november experts are trying to find out if the tra

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 we 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. kelly is a professor of political science and diplomacy and national university says north korea will be expected to refrain from any nuclear testing in return. i think it's probably a quid pro quo for the continuing moratorium on the tests and nuclear tests the north koreans could continue to test missiles they could detonate weapons even larger than the one they did fifteen months ago sixteen months ago and i think you know trump has basically informally given them this in order to maintain that halt i suppose it's a reaso

bride has moved from south korea's capital seoul. effectively joint military exercises in south korea have been scaled back since president donald trump announced after the single poor summit last june that he was no fan of these war games as he called them that they were a waste of money but this confirmation that key resolve and foal eagle these spring exercises involving tens of thousands of troops of war planes ships and tanks will effectively come to an end is seen as a big concession they'll be replaced by a much smaller less high profile exercises these exercises have always enraged the north koreans who see them as a possible credit to war seems the joint militaries of south korea and the u.s. of now agreed at least in part with that saying that they do indeed lead to a rise in tension that these exercises are being ended as a way of supporting the diplomatic efforts this will be welcomed by president moon j.n. of south korea who's once again standing in as a possible mediator between north korea and the u.s. to get things ba

plants combined with small crumb china and north korea mean south korea has double the levels of dangerous particulates matter than other rich countries so the south koreans follow the ways of their forebears by eating lots of pork sales of it are up around twenty percent so i'm going to do it feels like oil from the meat washes away the dust in my throat the people who were doing the work. the government has declared the pollution a social disaster health professional sating pork is an urban legend and makes no difference but it doesn't just affect humans despite the discomfort harry sometimes has to get his mask on too now how would you fancy attending a conference devoted entirely to pastries and sweet treats well that's exactly what's just kicked off in the moroccan city of casablanca the international forum brings together professionals from the confectionery industry gamers to highlight the importance of the cafe and restaurant sector and it's also an opportunity for morocco to promote its own unique sweet snacks. they look good and that wraps up our show for more check out our websi

, china, japan and south korea, but also to suggest that's moving the goal post is in defiance of the factual history of the issue of north korea's weapons of mass destruction programs. if you read the u.n. security council resolutions, they are as pointed on the issues of chemical and biological weapons as they are on nuclear weapons, and ultimately the process of final fully verified denuclearization is to set the antecedent for the lifting of those sanctions. those sanctions which are international sanctions imposed unanimously by the u.n. security council would also look to the elimination of biological and chemical weapons programs as part of the complete process that we're undertaking. so this issue is one that we've discussed with the north koreans, it is not new and it would be -- it would be a very serious oversight on our part to leave any weapons of mass destruction out of the equation if we truly are going to be successful in transforming the korean peninsula, in order to have a much more peaceful and engaged relationship, not only between the united states and north korea

at the same time north korea was disengaging also from china and russia and south korea. we are not quite sure what happened and what transpired inside north korea during the month of november and december. but whatever it was it is like a switch came back on in late december. partially driven, in fact really driven by an exchange of letters between president trump and chairman kim. we began to see tightened up engagement between us and the north koreans that flowed into chairman kim's new year's address. that is their equivalent of the state of the union address. chairman kim reaffirmed his commitment to denuclearization as well as to transferring the resources in the economy to developing in his country to develop the domestic economy. those messages were reassuring and they set in motion a series of visit that had us engaged with north koreans almost nonstop since the new year. the secretaries counterpart came here in mid-january and spent a full day with the secretary and had an extended visit they covered a lot of topics. i was introduced to my new counterpart recent

combined with small crumb china and north korea mean south korea has double the levels of dangerous particular matter than other rich countries so the south koreans follow the ways of their forebears by using lots of pork sales of it are up around twenty percent who are going to do it feels like oil from the meat washes away the dust in my throat go to the people who do the work. the government has declared the pollution a social disaster health professionals say eating pork is an urban legend and makes no difference but it doesn't just affect humans despite the discomfort curry sometimes has to get his mask onto. in other news saudi arabia is hoping to raise twenty billion dollars to promote a remote site in the northwestern part of the country as a tourist destination outlaw which last month's host of the region's first ever hot air balloon festival is famous for its pretty islamic heritage sites it's hoped the investment will create such a five thousand jobs pump billions of dollars into the country the measure is part of saudi's attempts to diversify its economy away from oil. a

and south korea and there are major military exercises tensions on the korean peninsula. i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera life and also coming up. later as more gunfire is exchanged in kashmir we take a look at the pakistan based armed groups that india is accusing of inciting violence. talks continue in doha to end afghanistan's seventeen year war. and the campaign to save a reptile and kenya that's facing extinction. the u.s. and south korea have agreed to end large scale joint military exercises on the korean peninsula drills have been a point of contention with north korea's leader kim jong washington in seoul say it's part of efforts to reduce tensions with pyongyang about the two will still carry out smaller joint exercises it comes just days after denuclearization talks between u.s. president donald trump and kim jong il broke down in vietnam. rob mcbride that is has more from the south korean capital seoul. effectively joint military exercises in south korea have been scaled back since president donald trump announced after the single poor summit last june th

and vietnam robin fried has more from south korea's capital seoul. effectively joint military exercises in south korea have been scaled back since president donald trump announced after the single poor summit last june that he was no fan of these war games as he called them that they were a waste of money but this confirmation that key resolve and foal eagle these spring exercises involving tens of thousands of troops of war planes ships and tanks will effectively come to an end is seen as a big concession they'll be replaced by a much smaller less high profile exercises these exercises have always enraged the north koreans who see them as a possible credit to war seems the joint militaries of south korea and the u.s. of now agreed at least in part with that saying that they do indeed lead to a rise in tension that these exercises are being ended as a way of supporting the diplomatic efforts this will be welcome by president moon j.n. of south korea who's once again standing in as a possible mediator between north korea and the u.s. to get things bac

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 not 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. 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 it can get a breath of fresh air. on terror none of our top stories on our jazeera yes president donald trump has responded to reports that north korea has begun work to restore a space rocket launch site saying he would be very disappointed if they were true satellite images reveal work has been underway on buildings that the tongue shangri site in the north west of the country this comes just days after nuclear talks between the north korean leader kim jong un and us president on trump in vietnam ended in failure i think we have to try to pick a

president onil trump and broke down in vietnam mcbride has more from south korea's capital seoul. effectively joint military exercises in south korea have been scaled back since president donald trump announced after the single poor summit last june that he was no fan of these war games as he called them that they were a waste of money but this confirmation that key resolve and foal eagle these spring exercises involving tens of thousands of troops of war planes ships and tanks will effectively come to an end is seen as a big concession they'll be replaced by a much smaller less high profile exercises these exercises have always enraged the north koreans who see them as a possible credit to war seems the joint to militaries of south korea and the u.s. of now agreed at least in part with that saying that they do indeed lead to a rise in tension that these exercises are being ended as a way of supporting the diplomatic efforts this will be welcome by president moon j.n. of south korea who's once again standing in as a possible mediator between north korea and the u.s. to get things

says it's ending longstanding joint military exercises with south korea. as more gunfire was exchanged in kashmir we take a look at the pakistan based on the groups that india is accused of inciting violence. talks continue in doha to end afghanistan's seventeen year war. and we look at one group that's trying to keep its traditions alive after it fled venezuela. and then spoke baseball's three hundred thirty million dollar makes his official by. the has signed the biggest contract in n.l. the history with the philadelphia phillies. the u.s. and south korea have agreed to end large scale joint military exercises on the korean peninsula the drills have been a point of contention with north korea's leader kim jong un washington and seoul say it's part of efforts to reduce ten. with pyongyang but the two will still carry out smaller joint exercises in unspent comes just days after denuclearization talks between u.s. president donald trump and kim jong un broke down in vietnam rubber britain's got more from south korea's capital so. effectively joint military

south korea was hoping for an agreement. yesterday.pointed >> i hope trump and kim will tot again and that will lead peace on the korean peninsula. inorter: state run media north korea reported the failure of the summit to reach an agreement but was still positive in tone. remaining positive, too, president moon, now back in his familiar role as mediator between the u.s. and north korea. jazeera, seoul. anchor: to syria where chlorine used as a weapon in the town of duma but an investigation doesn't layack blame. the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons found reasonable grounds the toxic chemical was used but was responsible. toa was the final target regain control of damascus from opposition fighters. the townups gave up days after the attack last april. kurdish forces in syria say about to launch the final push against iso in their last fight against the country. leftd 40,000 people have the territory in the past three months. european union members have blocked a proposal to black list for lax controls on

the potential sickness in the air why south korea is taking urgent steps to curb pollution and fighting for their teenage son who they say has been tortured and jailed on false accusations of joining eisel. hello a showdown shaping up between supporters of venezuela's political rivals nicolas maduro and why don't have both called for demonstrations in four days time and president maduro is vowing to defeat the opposition despite mounting pressure on him to step down below reports from near venezuela's border with. if one is going to become the interim president of venezuela he needs to win the backing of those who have up until now supported president. on tuesday he met the leaders of one of the most significant power blocs and biggest. the public sector union. has you. know forty public workers are being kidnapped by the dictatorship it's being kidnapped by the regime today as a result of this meeting of this great event we will not continue collaborating with the dictatorship so public workers are no place to cooperate ever again no be forced to do anything. on monday why don't return