he says our image of north korea is wrong. north korea is and what it tells it is just look at the country functions at the highest level what is the main goal of of the government of the regime i should say it's to make money is to make cash for kim. what intrigues me personally is how north korea manages to make money. one of the questions we were stuck with says where just a month ago how much money does north korea make. for north korea's leadership questions like these are dangerous the north korean regime send a letter of indictment under my name to that's government charging me with 3 capital crimes the worst of the 3 was the accusation that our research my research was in my name and damaged the supreme dignity of the supreme leader this sounds like it's a funny crime rights that missing the supreme dignity of somebody in north korea carries the death penalty. remco broke his investigations threatened to disrupt north korea's cash flow the country is internationally isolated because of its nuclear program without legal

north korea's gateway to the world. and a symbol of how few tile the un efforts are to dry up kim sources of cash. the sino korean friendship bridge across the yalu river it's one of the few ways to enter or leave north korea every day trucks queue in front of the customs checkpoint smugglers traders and also the agents and entrepreneurs of biro 39 they're all hoping for a quick deal here china is by far north korea's most important trading partner financial experts estimate that 90 percent of north korea's exports go to its powerful neighbor in the north. thousands of north koreans are said to work in textile factories in the region. disguised as businessmen and equipped with hidden cameras we film in one of the factories chinese textile companies hire north koreans because their wages are lower than those of chinese workers the seamstresses work day and night. often sleep on the company premises they're likely to be locked up for years far away from their families. together with a team of labor lawyers trade experts a

north korea's like game of thrones but without the dragons. society as capitalists and everything is geared to make sure that there's as much cash for kim as is possible. with the. war yes in that he's got. $39.00 is involved in everything that makes money for north korea selling arms smuggling of drugs guns are free to go for us bills this is about hundreds of millions of dollars a year. and everything. you need a 100 you don't. make dollars. hamburg germany. until a few years ago the north korean state insurance company k n i see how to branch in an innocuous looking apartment block here. 6 north korean officials made deals with major european insurance companies. or jungle. paul one and they're all. good on another don't you know there was a. helicopter there. the head of my age and any of her. son made. her all weird to me as a. terrible loss of lloyd the jungle lloyd to me those are all new chair ball and then press of pin you guys you're more of a formal. alas you can bet the river you know someone down there could be. punished. brizard.

extent trades with north korea. one thing can be said for certain well known fashion brands have their goods manufactured by a chinese company that cooperates with north korea a country where work has have no rights where human life counts for nothing. his investigation shows that this is not an isolated incident. for years and years we've heard testimonies from north korean escapees who are in concentration camps that they have been forced outs of produce textile for export markets i think for the 1st time less than able to corroborate as for an external source on the through a testimony in this same database i found the department of bureaucratic departments that is responsible for managing the production of textiles for one of the goals inflation comes from god it means that we know that only buy clothes produced by forced laborers levies a slave labor remain even by closing all for you're in america that was made in cars and facing cars by people and therefore see the light of day again these are the kinds of ca

year and new missiles for north korea. this parade came at the end of a rare party conference, first that has been held in five it has gone on for a days. we knew the parade was on the way and we could see it are some of the rehearsals indeed from satellite images and indeedin from satellite images and indeed in the last 2a hours north korea has held this parade and showing off new military hardware. what do we know? 0nly military hardware. what do we know? only from this still images over and speaking to analysts, they are saying not only do they have new submarine launched listing missiles, they appear to have new short—range ballistic missiles and why is this important? it appears the technology is changing, the kind of fuel that north korea is using is changing and that could mean if they have these solid propelled ballistic missiles, that means the solid fuel makes it easier to deploy, quicker to fire, if necessary. it also shows, more importantly, that north korea is capable, even in these bleak economic circumstan

president to set foot in north korea. experts believe after all that the mecurio north korean leader will be skeptical about future diplomacy i think it will be much more cost going forward which is not necessarily good for us the negotiations and i think you know the price of everything has gone up as well because there is skepticism that the relationship can actually ringback change in that. vice president comma harris speaking right now. at the inaugural. i mean this from the bottom are there any angels who have been there all nurses we know from our family experience what you do the courage the pain you absorb for others to thank you to heal we must remember. simply. you do that as a nation now to shine the lights in the darkness and we do apologize that was not a live event but that was a recorded tape of the president there he is joe biden in standing alongside the vice president's come along harris and right now in washington d.c. at the lincoln memorial there is a final inauguration event taking place it's a conce

position that north korea finds itself in at the moment you've had this the normal sanctions that it faces from the international community compounded by the whole pandemic of the past year where basically north korea has pretty much sealed itself off from the outside world which is seen devastating impact on its economy and then of course over the past summer you have had these devastating storms 2 typhoons back to back to rancho rains with the impacted agriculture and also infrastructure so it has been admission of just the the problems that north korea faces at the moment what we're also waiting to see is this as this party gathering proceeds over the next few days is the policy that north korea will now adopt to the united states because the end of the trump era means the end of this remarkable policy of summit meetings which ended in failure in hanoi in 2019 and the big question now is with joe biden what replaces that will the united states build upon this incredible precedent of the leader of the united states meeting on a regular basis with the leader of north korea which unt

who managed to flee from north korea. ko young one was a north korean diplomat he escaped in 1901 later he was deputy director of south korea's institute for national security strategy. few people know more about the kim regime's workings than he does. by you. no the old down young neighbors who quarries share you with us always who should cause you don't wonder at all those who who are still joan there. are. so you don't. talk to any problem the north korean ex and all tell you that your 30 day is absolutely crucial in earnings residence for the north korean regime it's absolutely fatal take away everything collapses. here in new york the united nations imposed and monitor the sanctions against north korea. and entity as important as bureau 39 should be heading the list of banned organizations office 39 as is normally talk to. north korean defectors we don't really see office 13 going into our investigations instead we're looking at the north korean banks the shell companies traditionally operate overseas in 3rd countrie

no this is al jazeera live from doha i'm fully back to go also coming up north korea unveils a new submarine launch ballistic missile and military parades sending a message to the world is so different group york city when we continue to watch a cry for help hospitals in brazil's amazonas state are running out of oxygen as they try to contain cope with 19 and a u.s. president elect joe biden and i am says a 1.9 trillion dollar emergency relief plan to contain economic turmoil caused by the pandemic. indonesia's civil defense authorities are warning strong aftershocks could trigger is tsunami after a $6.00 magnitude earthquake hit the island. the epicenter is believed to have been about 6 kilometers from the city of my journey at least $35.00 people have been killed and hundreds injured rescue operations are underway to save those trapped in collapsed buildings including a hospital thousands have been displaced by the quake. and by the love we believe the still potential for most strong aftershocks like what happened at midnight the buildings were hit by 2 quakes and a piece $28.00 of shocks

korea hoped for from the north korea u.s. diplomatic process but he did at least give chairman enormous face by allowing him to meet a sitting president of the united states i don't think you can hope for anything of the sort from president biden i think he realizes that there will be constant pressure sanctions and political pressure of all kinds and the president biden is most unlikely to give north korea all the things it wants economic aid prestige and so on without north korea giving up some big cards in return john everard we thank you very much for speaking to us from london. now the un says attacks on 2 refugee camps in ethiopia is northern to greater region are a major violation of international law satellite imagery shows fires burning and signs of destruction at the she she. camps their home to refugees from neighboring eritrea the un's lost access to that region and previously said food and medicine is running out its votes are being counted in uganda closely contested election with the final results expected on s

news incirlik south korea and can use a website focus only on reporting and lazing news from north korea germany welcome north korean antagonism towards the united states is well known so should we be reading anything into kim jong un calling it the biggest enemy. use the term biggest main enemy but it's not the 1st time that north korea called united states like. it returned this time after a while they didn't use that term during that period to town to the starting in 2018 singapore summit between john and and u.s. president on the trump obviously after donald trump walked out on to john and during the hanoi summit in 2019 it seems that north korea is thinking that if in a waste of time and now they are not going to try to much energy into improving relations with the united states and close future i think that's why we have reverted back to their old phrase and seeing united states as the biggest mean enemy what does that mean for the incoming biden administration what will the biden administration do now and how will they be dealing with kim jong un moving forward . until now u.s. ar

korea wants the the bike the ministration to be asking can we allow north korea to be accepted finally as a member of the world's nuclear club has a nuclear powered nuclear powered state that is a very difficult challenge a very difficult question for the buyer demonstration to answer indeed robert brother with an update thanks so much rob insult. well still ahead here on al-jazeera hundreds of asylum seekers form new migrant caravans to honduras to pursue the american dream and counting the votes in uganda the hotly contested election pitting longtime leader against pop star turned politician bobby wine. the wind has just broken a record in montana yes i know it's a windy place when it's been even windy and that screaming cold wind is cross the plains states on friday comes up again so it's part of wrapped around the systems of some snow involved in that not a huge amount of mr lee but you could probably use the word blizzard for lincoln in the brusca and as wind dies down it stays cold when the wind picks up again for sunday attempt it looks like for you get out a wind chill of that

korea south korea and the united states we have played down from north korea any talk of the development of nuclear weapons well latin it now seems to be in the past because we've had very detailed sections about where the nuclear strategy is up to in north korea and the takeaway seems to be from kim jong un that nuclear weapons remain as far as north korea is concerned they key to its survival its development of nuclear weapons is very much into linked with developments in its relationship with with washington and it does seem to indicate possibly a return to the old ways the old acrimony before several years ago it does seem as though the trump here is now at an end of the north korea doesn't place much store in what might come from a new bided ministration we have seen a suspension the past couple of years of these large as far as north korea is concerned provocative military exercises between u.s. and south korean forces well may well be the case and you bite the ministration will reintroduce the spring exercise between u.s. and south korean forces which always causes a hostile react

korea south korea and the united states we have played down from north korea any talk of the development of nuclear weapons while latin it now seems to be in the past because we've had very detailed sections about where the nuclear strategy is up to in north korea and the take away seems to be from kim jong un that nuclear weapons remain as far as north korea is concerned they key to its survival he has gone into extensive detail about the different weapons that are being developed such as medium range weapons submarine launch but listed missiles are something of a shopping list here of course submarine launch missiles they development on those has continued unabated the past few years in fact in some in some respects the nuclear arsenal they have now is more sophisticated than before we had this period of diplomacy and also a specific mention about intercontinental ballistic missiles we haven't of course seen those controversial provocative tests of long range missiles but north korea kicked cording to kim jong il and still very much committed to their development talking about developi

korea in the middle of tumultuous times when we heard from the north korean leader. absolutely this is normally a party congress like this is the classic propaganda set piece a chance to sing the praises of the ruling workers' party of career to illustrate the infallibility of the leadership and yet we have seen in the opening address by kim jong un a very rare admission of failings by the leadership that the current economic plan basically has fallen short in almost all aspects saying that the country has been through the worst of the worst of course north korea. bitterly faces these international sanctions and the past year has really seen its problems compounded by the impact of the global pandemic it is has virtually cut itself off from the outside world over the past year there has been some trade across its border with china but virtually all people traffic has stopped in and out which has had a devastating impact on the economy and then in addition to that through last summer we saw these devastating storms 2 typhoons back to back with flooding which caused da

president to set foot in north korea. experts believe after all that the mecurio north korean leader will be skeptical about future diplomacy i think it will be much more cautious going forward which is not necessarily good for us the negotiations and i think you know the price of everything has gone up as well because. that the relationship can actually change in that a different outcome is possible and the skepticism it's starting to. for the biden administration there are no easy answers on north korea they say they're going to work more closely with their allies in the region not approach will help but it doesn't solve the underlying problem which is getting more acute by the day and that is that north korea with toy is expanding its nuclear program james bays al-jazeera washington. i'll be back for the headlines and just a moment but 1st has a look back at some of the events of the momentous and unique inauguration day in the united states so just. take that by we love you we will be back in some to. joseph roe but i

that north korea touts a new ballistic missile during a military parade sending a message of strength to the u.s. . welcome to the program the health system in the brazilian state of arizona says at the point of collapse because of a surge in corona virus infections hospitals in the state capital are running out of beds and doxygen doctors and nurses have put messages on social media pleading for more supplies when i have reports now from rio de janeiro. my nose was already in chaos with no room to bury the dead lord treat the sick. now hospitals in the largest city of the brazilian amazon have simply run out of oxygen to save who with 1000 patients doctors are using morphine to ease their pain while desperate health workers have taken to social media to raise the alarm to please meter cardboard to do but we have simply run out of oxygen in an entire health care unit there are a lot of people dying if anyone has any oxygen available piece into to us piece and this video to everyone peace. of police is one of many go to brazil we only have 3 oxygen cylinders left we're having to use th

play watching al jazeera live from our world headquarters in doha fully battle also ahead north korea unveils a new submarine launch ballistic missile during a military parade sending a message just strength to the world to be sold to group york city we continue to be a cry for help hospitals in brazil's amazon a state of running out of oxygen as they try to contain covert 19 and fears about war chemical stockpiles in beirut sports months after the huge explosion that killed more than 200 people. thank you for joining us indonesia's civil defense authorities are warning strong aftershocks could trigger is tsunami after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit the island of soloway c. the epicenter is believed to have been about 6 kilometers from the city of my jamie at least 35 people have been killed and hundreds injured rescue operations are underway to save those trapped in collapsed building including a hospital thousands have been displaced by the quake. we believe this still potential for more strong aftershocks like what happened at midnight the buildings were hit by 2 quakes and at leas

president to set foot in north korea. experts believe after all that the mecurio north korean leader will be skeptical about future diplomacy i think it will be much more cautious going forward which is not necessarily good for us to negotiations and i think you know the price of everything has gone up as well because his skepticism that the relationship can actually change and that a different outcome is possible and the skepticism is starting to read for the biden administration there are no easy answers on north korea they say they're going to work more closely with their allies in the region that approach will help but it doesn't solve the underlying problem which is getting more acute by the day that north korea with toy is expanding its nuclear program james. washington. but he does have been reacting to joe biden's inauguration traditional u.s. allies are celebrating biden's multilateral approach ballasts takes a look joe biden versus a president many nations it leads the news the u.s. inauguration was relayed in d

north korea germany welcome north korean antagonism towards the united states is well known so should we be reading anything into kim jong un calling it the biggest enemy. use the term biggest main enemy but it's not the 1st time that north korea called united states like. it returned this time after a while they didn't use that term during the period of the town to the starting in 2018 singapore a summit between john and and u.s. president on the trump obviously after donald trump walked out on to john and during the hanoi summit in 2019 it seems that north korea is thinking that that has been a waste of time and now they are not going to try to much energy into improving relations with the united states and close future i think that's why we have reverted back to their old phrase and seeing united states as the biggest mean enemy what does that mean for the incoming biden administration what will the biden administration do now and how will they be dealing with kim jong il moving forward. until now u.s. arsenal and biden did not share and much hints about what the policy direction w

potential of such new weapons with a return to provoke a missile testing if north korea should be so corner and so frustrated then we cannot rule out the possibility that north korea will take all wrong path at least say at the beginning of the biden or the ministry shown mainly in order to get attention from washington to restart negotiations with the united states in recent speeches kim jong un has made it clear he intends to push ahead. for the development of his nuclear arsenal that doesn't necessarily put him on a collision course with the u.s. i will return to the acrimonious relations of the past but it does confirm the compilation we needed but the recent period of face to face summit miles is officially over almost cried out there so. the u.s. says it has met its goal of reducing its number of troops in afghanistan to 2500 by this month despite an all bearing it congress passed new measures measures 2 weeks ago prohibiting the move that was promised by donald trump now with uncertainty over peace talks and an increase in violence some fear the drawback could further destabil

korea and north for you this hour. your child is there with me the whole run a reminder of our top stories the health system in the brazilian state of amazonas is at the point of collapse because of a surge in corona virus infections hospitals in the state capital now saw running out of beds and oxygen intensive care ward to so full that dozens of patients are being airlift.

north korea relations. but with new military hardware, we've seen a few of them and this is big, perhaps kim jong-un wants any new relations with president-elect biden on his own very tough terms. back to you. >> bill: thanks, greg. want to bring in gordon change, author. good day to you. let's start with north korea. the world's most powerful weapon. what do we know about it? >> it's a submarine ballistic missile. north korea's first of those types of missiles, august 6, 2016, looks liked china's jl-1 missile. something that has been observed around the world. the question is, how did north korea develop the chinese looking missile? the least likely explanation is they did it on their own. these guys happen help, had help from china. >> you remember four years ago when. trump came in to office and chairman kim was tending icbms. that went or for some time. now how will he tell joe biden? >> i have a bad track record trying to predict what kim jong-un does. i think he probably will launch a missile or two t

president to set foot in north korea. experts believe after all that the mecurio north korean leader will be skeptical about future diplomacy i think it will be much more cautious going forward which is not necessarily good for us the negotiations and i think you know the price of everything has gone up as well because. that the relationship can actually change and that a different outcome is possible and the skepticism it's starting to. for the biden administration there are no easy answers on north korea they say they're going to work more closely with our allies in the region that approach will help but it doesn't solve the underlying problem which is getting more acute by the day and that is that north korea with toy is expanding its nuclear program james. washington. well p.j. crowley is a former u.s. assistant secretary of state for public affairs he joins us over skype from washington d.c. sir thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera a lot to talk about when we focus on the american foreign policy under

that without any well coordinated strategy north korea watchers will be looking in the coming days of this congress for any clues about kim's likely approach to the new administration of u.s. president elect joe biden and whether there will be a return to more traditional arm's length diplomacy. the 1st test could come soon with a possible announcement of resumed military exercises between u.s. and south korean forces in the spring which had been largely suspended during trump's term you have a very narrow window of opportunity very limited amount of time for biden or the musicians to. 1 strike a conversation and dialogue with north korean regime so close to the inauguration north korea's position for now seems to be a cautious wait and see. robert bright al-jazeera so. benjamin so much time is a nonresident fellow at the stinson center and editor of the website north korean economy watch he's joining us live by skype from west to salem it's good to have you on al-jazeera thanks very much indeed for joining us give us some context here this is a very high neutral statement from the le

president to set foot in north korea. experts believe after all that the mecurio north korean leader will be skeptical about future diplomacy i think it will be much more cautious going forward which is not necessarily good for us to negotiations and i think you know the price of everything has gone up as well because his skepticism that the relationship can actually ringback change and that a different outcome is possible and the skepticism is starting to. put a by ministration there are no easy answers on north korea they say they're going to work more closely with our allies in the region not approach will help but it doesn't solve the underlying problem which is getting more acute by the day and that north korea with toy is expanding its nuclear program james. washington. china's foreign ministry has the found defended it's the city to put sanctions on for several former transit officials under the former president relations between the u.s. and china soured over trade and human rights with biden promising to put huma

we have years now of economic sanctions from the us and others on north korea. do we really believe that north korea will continue to be willing to live within this self—imposed economic isolation? i live within this self-imposed economic isolation?- economic isolation? i think when it comes _ economic isolation? i think when it comes to _ economic isolation? i think when it comes to what - economic isolation? i think| when it comes to what they economic isolation? i think - when it comes to what they are prepared to do, north korea has shown they will endure a famine, in the 1990s, tens of thousands of north koreans are thought to have died in a famine is money was funnelled towards nuclear weapons. here we are again in dire economic circumstances, the country has been cut off effectively, there is a border arcade in place to stop the spread of covid—19 and strict economic sanctions and devastating typhoons and floods and a triple whammy when it comes to north korea, as well as the economic circumstances not being great in the first place —— border bloc

player watching al-jazeera live from doha with me fully back also coming up north korea and veils a new submarine launched ballistic missile during a military parade sending a message to the world it's so easy to go to we don't seem to want to be a cry for help hospitals in brazil's amazonas state are running out of oxygen as they try to contain covert 19 and google is accused of strong arm tactics in australia for hiding some new sites from its search results. indonesia's civil defense i thought is a warning strong aftershocks good trigger a tsunami after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit the island of soloway c. the epicenter is believed to have been about 6 or 6 kilometers from the city of my journey and he said the 5 people have been killed and hundreds injured rescue operations are underway to save those trapped in collapsed buildings including a hospital thousands have been displaced by the quake. the mostest in la we believe this still potential for more strong aftershocks like what happened at midnight the buildings were hit by 2 quakes and at least 28 aftershocks and because the a

but for now it seems pretty unclear where we are headed from now on both north korea. going back to becoming this hostile to the united states but john in the core of the problem still remains on the one hand you have north korea that confuses to give up its nuclear weapons and on the other hand you have the united states and the rest of the international community that says unless you give up those nuclear weapons you will not receive sanctions relief so we have this deadlock situation is what you're saying is it looks like this will continue. yes i'm pretty sure this is going to continue for a while. if you see the readout from the party congress from friday records reported on saturday north korea not only discussed the direction towards the united policy direction towards united states but it also focused a lot of calm length on about their military capacity how they are going to be fought their capability even more and they have a very long list of wish list that they want it in the next coming years like tactical nuclear weapons more nuclear warheads longer range

they're facilitating illicit financial flows into north korea. we haven't used the president article ii authorities which may be sufficient for this to work with other countries to interdict some of the smuggling operations in the maritime domain, for example. there's a lot more that could be done on pressure but as soon as the summit, the first summit was announced in singapore, i think xi jinping had what my daughters would call formal, he had fear of missing out. what he didn't want was for used to be able to solve this problem without china. that would become he saw that as a and this is when the elder branch was offered to kim jong-un would never spoken to xi jinping. i think china sees the whole problem differently from others. they view it as a u.s. problem. i wish it would get better because that is a lot to do with being able to convince china to act against north korea's nuclear and missile programs. every provocation i think ought to be seen as pushing us together closer together because really what china wants to do is use the north k

president to set foot in north korea. experts believe after all that the mecurio north korean leader will be skeptical about future diplomacy i think it will be much more cautious going forward which is not necessarily good for us to negotiations and i think you know the price of everything has gone up as well because his skepticism that the relationship can actually ringback change and that a different outcome is possible and the skepticism is starting. for the biden administration there are no easy answers on north korea they say they're going to work more closely with their allies in the region not approach will help but it doesn't solve the underlying problem which is getting more acute by the day and that is that north korea with time is expanding its nuclear program james. washington. to china where the foreign ministry has defended its decision to put sanctions on several former trump administration officials of the former president's relations between the u.s. and china south over trade and human rights with biden

korea south korea and the united states we have played down from north korea any talk of the development of nuclear weapons well latin it now seems to be in the past because we've had very detailed sections about where the nuclear strategy is up to in north korea and the takeaway seems to be from kim jong un that nuclear weapons remain as far as north korea is concerned they key to its survival its development of nuclear weapons is very much into linked with developments in its relationship with with washington and it does seem to indicate possibly a return to the old ways the old acrimony before several years ago it does seem as though the trump here is now at an end of the north korea doesn't place much store in what might come from you by didn't ministration we have seen a suspension of the past couple of years of these large as far as north korea is concerned provocative military exercises between u.s. and south korean forces well may well be the case you bite the ministration will reintroduce the spring exercise between u.s. and south korean forces which always causes a hostile reac

strike a conversation and dialogue with north korean regime so close to the inauguration north korea's position for now seems to be a cautious wait and see. robert bright al-jazeera so. saudi arabia the u.a.e. bahrain and egypt have agreed to restore full diplomatic relations with the qatar announcement followed tuesday's gulf summit in saudi sitting alone in march the qatari amir's 1st visit to saudi arabia since the illegal blockade began 3 years ago delegates from the gulf countries signed a declaration calling for solidarity and stability al-jazeera. has more from doha. what happened yesterday was the announcement of fishel announcement that the chapter that of the crisis is over and this was reiterated by the. by the sa the minister of foreign affairs when he was asked repeatedly about the particular issue and he said the crisis is over life is back to normal embassies will be resettled back and it will be back to normal and i think this is a process which is going to take some time because we are talking about logistics which is going to be taken into place different departments

this was the phrase the obama administration used to describe its policy towards north korea andhi i think most people would recognize democrats and republicans that was not a very successful policy, failed policy and granted north korea's difficult, no doubt but the policy that was known as strategic patients was the policy that enabled the north korean rogue regime to massively build up a nuclear arsenal. so kind of like leading from behind the obama administration's term strategic patients became synonymous with a passive and even weak foreign-policy approach is related to north korea. i was very surprised to hear the white house press secretary trot out this term against her teaching patients but this time when talking about the biden administrations policy with regard to china. now this is almost certainly music to china's ears, the leadership of china because it's kind of a green light that says xi jinping and the other authoritarians in china that its failure to uphold promise after promise in the united states, something are referred to as promising we have here continuing to

china's allies are north korea and pakistan. it doesn't have allies. we have allies and so we need to work with these allies especially japan and australia and deepen that relationship with india. these are all easy things to say and we talk about a lot in the think tank world. for the essay, i wanted people to think differently. why, for example, the real competition in asia is between china and japan and not china and the united states because that's an eternal one, in a sense. what u.s. strategy has been since the 19th century, we should be very proud that we've had a strategy of a free and open indo-pacific since the mid 19th century, it's not something new. people say we don't have strategy and we don't think strategically. we do. we've thought for a very long time and proud that now that conditions change so that the goals are-- the goal of a free and open indo-pacific hasn't changed, and we need a strategic for it. there's a lot to worry about, a lot that can go wrong. i'm heartened that people care, if you guys made it a priority, that mike gal

strike a conversation and dialogue with north korean regime so close to the inauguration north korea's position for now seems to be a cautious wait and see. bright al-jazeera soul. and german style burstein is a long resident fellow at the stinson center an editor of the website north korean economy watch he says coronavirus restrictions have made the food shortage situation even more dire. well so in fact kids are going to have been relatively forthcoming about the problems of the economy over the past few years he's frequently criticized officials for reform and then apologized several times for people suffering so it's not that unusual really but i mean what's the situation or 3 is there now is extremely dire ways sanctions and to the border closure by the north korean authorities do to cope with one team so they are in a very very tight spot for sure and there's very little that can turn and can do but really admit that i mean in the short run what the government could do is loosen up some of the very very stark regulations that they essentially any imports from coming through the

from the international community compounded by the whole pandemic of the past year where basically north korea has pretty much sealed itself off from the outside world which is seeing the devastating impact on its economy and then of course over the past summer you have had these devastating storms what we're also waiting to see as this as this party gathering proceeds over the next few days is the policy that north korea will now adopt to the united states because the end of the trump era means the end of this remarkable policy of summit meetings which ended in failure in hanoi in 2019 and the big question now is with joe biden what replaces that saudi arabia the united arab emirates bahrain and egypt have agreed to restore full diplomatic relations with qatar now the announcement followed follows choose days gold summit in the saudi city of. mark the atari amir's 1st visit to saudi arabia since the illegal blockade began 3 years ago delegates from the gulf countries signed a declaration calling for solidarity and stability. the all of the correlation. has achieved a settlement of all i

north korea's leader has made a rare admission of failure speaking at the workers party congress the country's largest political event kim jong un's economic plan has failed significantly and pound painful lessons have been learnt can promise that the workers' party would find a way to make a radical leap forward robert bryant is in south korea and has more on kim's remarks he has made admissions that nearly every aspect of economic policy the fight current 5 year plan basically has fallen short is basically failed saying that north korea has been through the worst of the worst which is a pretty incredible admission you've had this the normal sanctions that it faces from the international community compounded by the whole pandemic of the past year where basically north korea is pretty much sealed itself off from the outside world which is seen the devastating impact on its economy and then of course over the past summer you have had these devastating storms what we're also waiting to see is this as this party gathering proceeds over the next few days is the policy that north korea wi

strike a conversation and dialogue with north korean regime so close to the inauguration north korea's position for now seems to be a cautious wait and see. from the bride al-jazeera seoul. the u.s. director of national intelligence is the latest official to point the finger at russia over a massive hacking attack president trump has downplayed the attack and trying to shift the blame away from russia cable and on to has more from washington d.c. . this is really a definitive statement by the wider intelligence community pointing the finger directly at russia the statement says that it is in their words quote likely that russia was the origin of this attack and they said it was a serious compromise that that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate the statement also said that the purpose of the attack according to the intelligence agencies in the u.s. was not to bring down computer systems in america but rather to just intelligence gather and to get intelligence and they believe that was the purpose of this attack now this is a significant statement because it comes