workers party broadcast on state run tv. >> kim also called on the country to boost prosperity while focused on defense nuclear weapons. and he assured the country will have sustainable growth by launching a five-year economic strategy this year. regarding relations with south korea kim called for unification under a federal system. his grandfather north korean founder kim il-sung proposed such a policy at the last party congress in 1980. kim also demanded that japan apologize for its past sins and not disrupt the unification of the two koreas. he did not say anything about the japanese abducted by north korea decades ago. the bbc says north korean authorities expelled a reporter and his crew after they were detained over their reporting. tokyo based correspondent rupert wingfield-hayes, a producer and a cameraman were stopped friday. they were at the pyongyang airport about to leave the country. the officials held them for three days and they questioned wingfield-hayes for about eight hours about the content of his reports. the bbc says the officials expelled the three on monday and that they headed back to the airport. the team was visiting the country to accompany a group of nobel laureates conducting a research trip. japan and south korea have responded to kim jong-un's remarks. >> japan rejects north korea's announcement that it will proceed with its nuclear and missile development. north korea does not respect u.n. resolutions or international agreements. >> a spokesperson for south korea's defense ministry spoke to reporters in seoul. >> translator: we reaffirmed that north korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear program. our government and the international community will never recognize north korea as a nuclear-armed state. >> moon said south korea will continue to watch for provocations by the north. an expert on north korea says the most remarkable bit of information to come from the congress is how the country describes its economy. nhk world's takafumi terui has the details. >> reporter: mr. yamamoto says there is one main reason for the big gathering in pyongyang. >> translator: basically north korea decided to hold the ruling workers party congress at a time when the nation's economic power has become the strongest. the country is now discussing its future economic development plan. >> reporter: he says one of the main factors that fuelled economic growth is the reduction of the limited market economy. >> translator: north korea has partially changed its economic plan since kim il sun's era. the terms are different but north korea seems to be taking a similar path to china. this congress will be the turning point. >> reporter: at the congress kim spoke of continued nuclear development while referring to his country's contribution to denuclearization. he says there's a reason for the contradiction. >> kim's grandfather and the founder of the country called for a denuclearized korean peninsula. the successor cannot deny the founder's idea but he has to explain the current policy without denying his grandfather's remarks. that's led to such seemingly contract -- contradictory expressions. >> kim says he wants to sign a peace treaty with the u.s. which means it would officially end the korean war, but he did not mention he will abandon his nuclear program in return. he also mentioned the country is ready to have good relationships with other countries, even if they have been hostile in the past. >> he predicts a new, younger generation, may start to replace key votes within the workers party. he is also keeping an eye on the background and expertise of those who are chosen. takafumi terui, nhk world, tokyo. voters in the philippines have been voting. polling stations across the island nations were crowded from 6:00 a.m. 54 million voters are registered, officials say. >> we expect especially the president to rid the corrupon. >>e hope tthe cdidates will do it b it' not, you know, i hope it would be whoever is the best for the philippines. >> there are four main hopefuls. the latest polls suggest outspoken mayor rod ree go is slightly ahead. despite controversial comments. president aquino urged other candidates to unite against him. he's backing manuel rohas, vice president, jejomar, and grace poe are in the running. their campaigns focussed on a dispute in the south china sea. they want to have dialogue with the chinese. roxas and poe hope to strengthen the alliance with the u.s. results should be in by tuesday night. all schools in southwest japan are set to reopen this week. many have been sheltering people who lost their homes for over three weeks. other homes were damaged. students in the village of minamiaso used special buses to get to classes on monday. the local train service was knocked out in the disaster. some are living in a dorm because roads are impassable. junior high students in the hardest-hit town of mashiki have had to move while their school is repaired. they're attending classes in an elementary school next door. >> translator: there are so many friends i haven't seen for awhile. it's really exciting. >> translator: i haven't done any sports for a long time so i want to play soccer. >> the quakes shut more than 400 schools. nearly half are still out of action as of the end of last week. prime minister shinzo abe says the central government will do all it can to back rebuilding efforts by kumamoto prefecture and its municipalities. abe said on monday that his cabinet will designate the earthquakes as a disaster to allow the state to take the lead in restoring infrastructure. >> translator: the government will reconstruct and repair collapsed bridges, tunnels, and roads, on behalf of kumamoto prefecture. we will do whatever we can to fully rebuild the disaster-hit areas. our efforts will continue until people there get back their normal lives. >> kumamoto governor called for further financial support from the central government to deal with the disaster. and the earthquakes are impacting the local economy. gene otani has the details. many companies have us is spended operations due to the earthquake. the prefecture's labor office has received more than 5700 requests from people who have lost their jobs. factories of a food producer that made soybean products have been damaged. the company had not been able to fix all the production lines. the ceiling of a tofu factory collapsed. it's unclear if production can resume because the manpower shortage is holding up repairs. another food maker that has been producing pickles for half a century restarted production by hand. the workers say the company's factory was heavily damaged due to the danger of collapse. the company started receiving orders for the products and they have begun making their products by hand in another building. mitsubishi electric resumed partial operation. workers were seen arriving at the facility in the morning. the company had suspended the plant's operations after the strong earthquake on april 14th. the plant makes devices that control mortars in cars with air conditioners. they have completed safety checks. japanese officials are concerned about currency movement. the dollar plunged to a lowest and a half against the yen. the prime minister said his government prepared to take action if the currency swings become too big. >> translator: we think excessive volatility in the exchange rate would be undesirable for the trade, economic, and fiscal policies. the government is ready to intervene in the currency market. >> he said a group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed that fluctuations in currency markets are unwelcome. japan's finance minister planned a consumption tax hike in april next year. the government aims to go ahead with the plan to raise the rate from the current rate from 8 to 10%. it's necessary to gain the trust of market participants and other nations given japan's fiscal deficit. tokyo stocks closed higher. for details we go to our business reporter at the tokyo stock exchange. >> the nikkei is higher away from a near one month low topping a six session losing streak. it supported investor sentiment. the nikkei added about 0.7% finishing at 16,216. the broader topix gained .64%. ihi climbed 3.8%. toshiba added 1.35% as a conglomerate announced a top management shake up in a bid to shore up public confidence after an accounting scandal. seven & i holdings is up the president wants to outgoing chairman as an advisor. investors welcome the decision. the china's worse than expected trade figures brings fresh concerns over the country's economic slowdown. we'll get more how they're doing with china's inflations numbers on tuesday. >> thank you. moving on in china the shanghai tumbling closing at 2832. worries over state of the country commodity. looking at hong kong index up by a fraction. despite a plunge in shanghai. look at the markets singapore advancing by 1.3% finally snapping the ten-day losing streak. sydney ending in gains. investors picked up related shares in higher fuel prices. here is a look at some of the other business stories. japanese workers earn higher pay in march. a government survey shows wages grew at the fastest pace in five and a half years. the labor ministry said it has risen from a year earlier. a japanese government survey shows that consumer sentiment worsened in april for the first time in two months. the consumer confidence index stood down from march. officials say a plunge in tokyo stock prices, higher gasoline prices, and earthquakes may have influenced the mood. tv makers are rolling out new models on hopes that the olympics games will trig ur a surge in demand. south korea is featuring tvs with organic light diodes. the thin screens can produce clearer images. sony will roll out programs enabling users to search for programs by using voice and speaking into a microphone. let's take a look what is happening in the business world this week. on tuesday, china will release its april data for consumer and producer prices. the producer price index has fallen by more than 4%, a month for 15 consecutive months. on thursday finance ministry officials in japan will release the current account data for march. the country posted a surplus in february for 20 straight months due to lower oil prices. on friday many firms will release their earnings for the business year through march. the year before japan enjoyed higher profits on the yen. investors are keen to see the latest trend is affecting their bottom line. malaysian will release the gdp figures. the economy expanded 4.5% in 2015 compare to the previous year. china will release economic data including retail sales for april. every monday we ask a specialist to share their views on the week. in this edition of expert view we hear from the chief japan fx strategies at bank of america merrill lynch global research. he expects japan's current balance will continue to register a surplus for the time being. >> i think income surplus is not going to change any time soon. oil price has rebounded since march, but the rebound is still not something that will threaten japan's surplus. so japan's current surplus probably improved into march from that perspective. >> and looking ahead, along with the oil factory, a sense for exchange rates will be key in deciding the futureaccount. >> we're forecasting y ining do to 110. i think it can test at 100 to 105 area at some point. i think the question is whether or not the fed rate hike can boost dollar/yen. and this is a difficult question. i think if we consider the new equity markets has been supported by the trend. i think if the fedeads for next hik and two hikhis yearhis will impact t equity mark, which mightap ll dollar/yen. suming t oil pri remains retivelyheap in the dollar/yen doesn't, say, fall to 100. >> that's it for business news. i'm going to leave you with the markets. former japanese fishermen filed a lawsuit against the japanese government. they were onhe sit near a drogen bomb test more than 60 yes ago an m hav been exposeto radiion. e unitedtates cducted the te in 19. 23 crew members -- 23 crew members from fukuru maru number 5 were found to have been exposed to fallout from the test. one of them died six months later. supporters of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit say 1,000 japanese fishing boats were operating in nearby waters at the time. 45 plaintiffs filed a suit on monday at the kochi district court. they are demanding the japanese government pay $18,000 in compensation for each former crew member. they say the government failed to monitor their radiation levels, even after it learned about the case of the fukuru maru number 5. 85-year-old yutaka kuwano is one of the plaintiffs. he was 21 at the time of the test and was fishing for tuna near the atoll at the time. >> translator: ashes like soot were falling. it was like black snow coming down diagonally. >> 12 years ago he was diagnosed with stomach cancer after developing symptoms like nosebleed and abnormally high number of white blood cells. the health ministry released evidence on the incident two years ago. they showed crews on several boats had higher than usual levels of red yags. textbook include changes of japan's security laws and a reduction of the voting age to 18 starting this summer. one textbook said the security legislation has eased restrictions on overseas missions for japan's self-defense forces. and on providing logistics support for u.s. and other foreign troops. another points to an argument that the legislation violates the institution by exceeding the limits that the war renouncing article ix permits for self-defense. an entry about the lowering of the voting age said young voters hold japan's future in their hands. and says they're expected to be proactively involved in politics. high school students will begin using the books in the school year starting next april. nhk "newsline" comes to you live from tokyo where it's a cool 17 degrees celsius. intermittent rain is in the forecast. jonathan oh joins us with the world weather report. >> we're watching out for the possibility of more thderstormin the aa throhout theay on moay. wead a nice break last week or most of the week we had a pattern or high pressure was dominating the weather allowing for sunny skies and warm temperatures. as we went through the weekend the block set up that prevented the high from moving had weakened. as it gave away to rain and storms, we saw some damage taking place. let me show you video coming out of colorado where a tornadolew rough wiggi daming campground and taking down trees. at least five peeople were injured in the tornado. you might notice the recreational vehicles the path of obstruction was reported to be about 10 kilometers long. the worst place to be is inside a car or moving vehicle and places like mobile buildings or recreational vehicles. we sti he a low preure set up tha in place. that's gngo bring the possibility of some thunderstorms. they may be strong throughout the day on monday. looking at an enhanced risk of thunderstorms into missouri, oklahoma, northeastern texas, arkansas is part of the picture. the area where we see a chance of severe weather extends from chicago to houston. looking at strong wind gusts, tornados, and flash flooding part of the equation. to the west of that dry weather conditions and windy conditions combined increase the chance of seeing some fire danger weather. be on the look look out. the areas like chicago and denver looking at the possibility of thunderstorms. a secondary low will bring showers into places like washington, d.c., and portions of the carolinas throughout the day on monday. speaking of rainfall, let's look at what is happening in east as asia. we're dealing with heavy rainfall. over a week period in some portions of china we saw close to 500 millimeters of rainfall. i know it's a rainy period but that's a lot of rainfall. we have a stationary frontal boundary that will sway toward the east. we're looking at wet weather across the area from eastern portions of china through the korean peninsula and also into japan. we're looking at wet weather coming up on tuesday. you need your umbrellas from tokyo and hong kong and taipei. it will be a wet day throughout tuesday. wrapping things up with a look at europe. you might notice the low pressure system sitting off the coast of spain. it's a cut off low. the jet stream is not pushing it. as long as it stays cut off it's going to wrap itself over the same area bringing rainfall over the day on monday. look out for the possibility of unstable weather. maybe thunderstorms. we have another area of unstable weather through the bealkins peninsula. here is a look at the extended forecast. and always, for your thoughts and comments log on to our website and click on contact us. úg: >> hello and thank you for joining us us. fouran has been reduced to years for michel platini. in belgium, the trial is underway for members of they killr cell, plotted to police officers. there are also links to