Contact in years. Also u. S. President donald trump refuses to declassify a democratic member of the russia probe citing National Security concerns very. Also colombias former rival group the far suspend Political Campaigning a bid security concerns following days of angry protests. Spacex. Rockets ahead fears in russia that its legacy could be a threat. To the news the first full day of competition is underway at the Winter Olympics in south korea but its the diplomatic action on the sidelines thats getting the most attention so far now a meeting between south korean president moon j. And the north Korean Leaders younger sister kim jong is jus to be held at the president s official residence in seoul north koreas nominal head of state can and will also be at the meeting which is the highest level contact between the two sides in years that follows a year of tension between washington and pyongyang as north korea stepped up its a Ballistic Missile program. And joins me now live from kong what can we expect to happen in this meeting today. So even if another side Major Development occurs during the north korean delegations visit it has already been a historic one but very heavy on the symbolism analysts are skeptical that it will result in any substantive Seismic Shift in the relationship between the two koreas but that is certainly the hope president moon j. In is very big on engagement with north korea he is passionately seizing this moment at the olympics to pursue a closer relationship with north korea after a pretty tense twenty seventeen you have to bear in mind that he is the son of north korean refugee parents in any event he is hosting this north korean delegation at the president ial blue house that will be followed by a luncheon in attendance as you mentioned will be north Korean Leader kim jong il sister kim jong as well as the ceremonial head of state and chairman of the sports and reunification committees the hope is that kim jong un sr will come with some sort of letter from the north Korean Leader and perhaps instead and invite to president moon its unclear so if the delegation will stay for a performance tomorrow by a north korean troop the interest in korea to see these performers has been so great that more than one hundred fifty six thousand people entered a lottery for free tickets of course the other focus of attention has been the american Vice President mike pence who said pretty close to the north korean delegation during the opening ceremonies we saw all the photographs i mean the house being told that he snubbed them i mean what is penn saying. Well it was pretty cozy in that the ip room so looked like pence was literally within an arm arms length or two of kim jong un sr in the storm a ceremonial head of state pences team is saying that there was no snub although he appeared to greet everyone in that v. I. P. Room but for the ceremonial head of state he says he simply was not close enough to do so but he also says that there was no interest in interacting with the north korean delegation and if there was that he might have exchanged pleasantries but that to use that venue to discuss heavy geo political issues would have been inappropriate now he did say it i think it is safe to say that both the North Koreans in the americans have rebuffed president moves attempt to facilitate a dialogue between the two countries this week pence said that the United States will continue to exert maximum pressure on north korea and that the toughest economic sanctions have yet to come with north korea the North Koreans are saying we have zero interest in any dialogue with the United States well we will be checking in with you throughout the day natasha as we get more news out of the blue in seoul for the moment thank you well of course the attention love just on kim jong un system over the past twenty four hours is underlined how little is known about north koreas most powerful woman. Is widely thought to be her brothers closest confidant of the pairing alongside him at Public Events shes had a meteoric rise through the ranks of the ruling party and is now Deputy Director of its Propaganda Department its thought she played a central role in shaping her brothers public image despite her influence she can never become a leader herself under the patriarchal traditions that are dependent north koreas society well north korean analyst keith lu says the stakes are high for all parties involved in this new round of diplomacy. Well in the spirit of the olympics its quite exciting to see both countries represented together in the opening ceremonies i must say however that i think its also significant that the leader of north korea sent his sister and that the present United States sent the Vice President and mrs pence this is high level attention on the part of both nations the United States and north korea and it also states as to the seriousness of the overall situation on the peninsula today well were in New Territory now arent we given the degree to which north and south korea are interacting in the context of the olympics i would imagine that there is there are plans for the north there is probably a hope by leaders in south korea that this will turn into something more substantive as relates to future dialogue. To the u. S. Though where the President Donald Trump has blocked the release of a classified memo written by democrats on the House Intelligence Committee citing National Security concerns the memo rebuts a document prepared by the committees republicans which was made public last week the republican memo allege the f. B. I. Is biased against trump during its investigation into his president ial campaigns links with russia now that it was released despite public opposition from the f. B. I. Trump claimed that document totally vindicates him but democrats and some republicans dispute that the white house states that although the president is inclined to declassify the february the fifth member and because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages he is unable to do so at this time however given the Public Interest and transparency in these unprecedented circumstances the president has directed the Justice Department personnel be available to give Technical Assistance to the committee should the committee wish to revise the february the fifth member random to mitigate the risks identified by the department confused you wont be kristen salumi as our correspondent hopefully going to clarify exactly what all this means kristen why wont the president release the memo. Well thats what Many Democrats are certainly asking at this time that letter that you that quote that you just read from the white house was written by white House Counsel don began and with it with the letter that he sent is another supporting document a letter from the f. B. I. And the Deputy Attorney general of the Justice Department. Basically saying that theyre worried about revealing sources and methods in the f. B. I. And releasing information that could hurt ongoing investigations but thats exactly the same rationale that they gave for not releasing the republican memo the nunez memo f. B. I. Was against releasing that one as well and President Trump in that case went ahead and released it anyway so people are asking you know whats the difference here. After he did that he said the new as memo completely vindicated him and democrats of course saw it much differently they said that the five page memo left out key facts and Important Information on the timeline they wanted to have their chance to give their side of the story even a republican on the Intelligence Committee trey gowdy he also said that the republican memo didnt in any way discredit the Mueller Investigation so yes a lot of questions about where this goes from here at this point the but we can surely expect some sort of political fallout absolutely and were already hearing it from democrats from the Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer nancy pelosi theyre calling it a double standard let me read you what Chuck Schumer said in a straight statement the rationale for releasing the new as memo transparency than ish is when it could show information thats harmful to him President Trump millions of americans are asking one simple question what is he hiding. Well for them and well leave it there are a christian to keep an eye on things christians will be there in washington d. C. Lets bring in there Claire Finkelstein shes director of ethics and rule of law at the university of Pennsylvania Law School joins me from philadelphia good to have you with us on al jazeera live i mean to release or not to release that is the question i presume we wonder what the political backlash will be that has yet to be determined but what do you think the democrats are going to do. Well first of all lets know that its very unlikely that the democratic memo can hands intelligence that is sensitive over and above the intelligence that was in the republican memo so the marginal amount of intelligence thats released by releasing the democratic memo if they were to do so is probably has a minimal impact on National Security and therefore its very hard to believe that the president has refused to release the memo on grounds of protecting intelligence. The democrats have a number of different options here i doubt theyre going to take this lying down they know in that in all likelihood president from his just trying to shield himself from the effects of the muller investigation by setting up a a way of trying to fire run rosenstein at least it looks as though the republicans on the House Intel Committee may have cooperated with the white house to try to bring about that negative publicity rosenstein making it easier for a president to fire them unfortunately this seems to have backfired very badly on the republicans and its interesting that the republicans on the House Intel Committee seem to have recognized that by deciding to release the democratic memo unanimously so even the republicans on the committee were happy to have it relieves the president to block that is rather extraordinary misfit think of this ocean trip there but again one of the big issues for maybe for our International Viewers who are very upset aware about what this all means is it all sort of leads towards this investigation about any collusion between russia and that of the Trump Campaign during the president ial election of twenty sixteen how important is it to you might say clear the air get these issues out into the open because at the moment all were seeing is argument and counter argument between the two political sides and thats not doing anything for you but its a National Unity certainly across the u. S. Right well the transparency is really very important at this point because there is such a loss of trust between democrats and republicans and between both faith and count the white house the white house could could be taking a very different view of us they would be saying of course lets release the democratic memo along with the republican memo if classification issues were not sufficiently sensitive in the Republican Base theyre not usually sensitive in the democratic case and let the public to the side and know we are not attempting to bring down this investigation and we show you by demonstrating our transparency but they have taken just the opposite view and the big worry here that i would be losing sleep over if i were one of the president s lawyers is whether or not any cooperation between the white house and the republicans on the House Intel Committee is itself obstruction of justice and implicates the president yet further in actions that attempt to interfere with his own investigation well i think the worry about that is why the republicans on the House Intel Committee did decide to release this number one its a shame that the president has blocked or we should see what does happen certainly in the keeping a very close eye on it for the moment Claire Finkelstein there in philadelphia thanks so much for joining us on aljazeera thank you. Colombias former rebel group the fog has temporarily suspended its campaign for Upcoming Elections because of demonstrations and threats to its candidates the group became a Political Party last year after it made a peace deal with the colombian government more than fifty two years of conflict but many colombians are so angry at the farka believe its members should be in prison. George restraint is the director of the culture of research said to the professor of economics without you have any other university he says assaults concerns about the safety of the activists are justified its a very risky situation its a difficult transition from a conflict to Political Party beijing for the now party and for america really grew because there is strong need for vindication for revenge even in the general population in colombia especially in urban areas then this is why decision by far to stop can fade over because of this where the difference of the country they need to go see there not to a share of the risk to the general feeling that what relation is that they have not. Subject themselves to the new system of justice. Is yet another special justice for the transfusion system and that is what makes people really im really against the fire they feel these a very unfair situation of course what they fire need to luis to recognize and address these very strong sense of sentiment in the population against political participation with. But plenty more ahead on the aljazeera news hour including sending a united. Political rivals in selling ill join forces to demand free and Fair Elections. And as soon fame gets ready to elect a new leader here in dublin ill be looking at the political journey of gerry adams whos headed the party for decades. Also ahead in sports the climbing specialist take on center stage of day four of the divide taught by what happened with tatiana. The Egyptian Army has launched what its calling a comprehensive operation against terrorist and criminal groups in the Sinai Peninsula in a televised statement an Army Spokesman said it involves the land the sea and air forces covering central sinai and areas of the nile delta and Western Desert hospitals have been put on high alert and ordered to prepare extra beds and staff to deal with emergencies and medical evacuations now the Turkish Military is establishing a new position in syrias province as part of efforts to expand the socalled deescalation zone theyve deployed talent took care of the cold turkey state News Agency Russian forces are expected to position themselves six kilometers outside the town now the objective is to create a line dividing Syrian Government forces and opposition fighters to prevent contact itll be the scientific tests bob baffert of Ground Fighting if lisa tweaks. Meanwhile turkey is facing what could be a difficult talk old syria with the u. S. Secretary of state next week theyre likely to focus on the controversial turkish offensive of syrias a free district against what it calls terrorists Kurdish Militia washington supports of obs the fighters who backed local militias against i saw it turkey that the operation still has strong public support us to the reports from istanbul. These are whole its the shells and production there used by the turkish army in operational of wrench in northern syria. An offensive jointly conducted with the Free Syrian Army in syrias kurdish enclave afrin province employees of this arms supplier well into your to work an extra hour every day they say it is the least they can do to support the army. You are so your man a twenty one year old student is one of them that you soloed he wants to join the army as soon as possible. By submitting this application letter i wanted to show a positive and concrete support for our soldiers and set an example for others if the operation hadnt been