SURGING WATERMELON PRICES

SURGING WATERMELON PRICES

[Anchor Lead]
Recently, the price of fruits has skyrocketed, with a single greenhouse-grown watermelon, now in its peak harvesting season, reaching a staggering 40,000 won. This price hike is causing concern not only among consumers but also farmers.

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An agricultural product market in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province. Spring watermelons are seen in piles, ready to be sold. But rarely any customer is interested. This is because watermelons this season are excessively expensive. Currently, the highest retail price of a watermelon is 40,000 won or nearly 30 U.S. dollars each. Price is up over 30 percent, compared to the same period last year. At one point last month, the price neared 50,000 won or about 37 dollars per watermelon.

[Soundbite]
Seong Mi-sook (Fruit store owner): Not many can afford it. It's far more expensive than before. The supply is also irregular coming in once or twice a week.

Haman in Gyeongsangnam-do Province produces 70 percent of spring watermelons sold in the nation. After winter's growing season, farmers are ready to harvest and begin shipping out their products but not many are of high quality. This is because the watermelons didn't get sufficient sunlight last winter due to frequent rain.

[Soundbite]
Moon Seong-seop (Watermelon farmer): We can ship out watermelons weighing at least three kilograms. We discard watermelons that weigh less.

As many of the watermelons are of low quality, the actual harvest is just half the amount posted last year. This means that the surging retail price doesn't help the farmers at all.

[Soundbite]
Song Byung-woo (Chair, Haman Daesan Agricultural Cooperative): It varies per farm but it is estimated that compared to average, earnings have halved for farmers who have failed this year.

After classifying a lack of sunlight as a farming disaster, the government has launched an investigation to figure out the damages. However, soaring watermelon prices are a burden both for consumers and farmers alike.

YOON VOWS TO TAME PRICES

[Anchor Lead]
In light of the steep rise in the cost of living, President Yoon Suk Yeol has ordered the implementation of measures that the public can truly feel. Following the announcement of healthcare reforms, this marks the first time President Yoon has requested the medical community to engage in dialogue by visiting a hospital.

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President Yoon Suk Yeol said consumer prices are the number one matter of concern to the public and the basic indicator of the success of government policies. In line with being what he called an "active government," he urged all ministries to step in to tame consumer prices.

[Soundbite]
Yoon Suk Yeol (President): Each ministry is responsible for making sure that a decrease in prices is felt by the public.

In particular, Yoon mentioned special measures to lower the prices of groceries including agricultural goods. After inspecting prices at Hanaro Mart, Yoon pledged support for supply prices and discounts and promised to immediately inject emergency funds to stabilize prices. He stressed it's important that consumers can actually benefit from these measures.

[Soundbite]
Yoon Suk Yeol (President): Benefits offered by the government must be publicized broadly so that consumers do not miss out on them.

Yoon also visited a hospital for the first time since the announcement of health care reforms. He thanked the doctors who remained in their jobs and promised to bolster essential health care.

[Soundbite]
Yoon Suk Yeol (President): The government is responsible for essential health care. Our top responsibility is to help children grow healthily.

He stressed that expanding the medical school admissions quota is imperative, and urged doctors to trust the government and sit down for negotiations.

RETURN-TO-WORK ORDER NOTICE

[Anchor Lead]
We turn to the ongoing dispute between trainee doctors and the government regarding the government's plan to increase medical school admission quotas. The government has once again exerted pressure on non-returning trainee doctors by issuing a return-to-work order. However, medical school professors from Seoul National University and Yonsei University have decided to submit their resignations en masse on the 25th.

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The government on Monday issued on the health ministry’s website a public notice of return-to-work orders for trainee doctors who have not returned to their posts. The notice which takes effect on Tuesday targets some 13-hundred trainees who have yet to return to their worksites. In the notice, the health ministry said that a collective stoppage of healthcare can deal a severe blow to people’s lives and health. It added that those refusing the return-to-work order without a justified cause can face administrative procedures or criminal charges.

[Soundbite]
Park Min-soo (2nd Vice Minister of Health and Welfare): It’s not too late. We ask that doctors return to patients, where they belong.

The suspension of medical license for yet-to-return trainee doctors is also impending. With suspension notices set to arrive past March 25th, trainees are known to be preparing for legal action. Meanwhile, emergency committees of medical professors at Seoul National and Yonsei Universities each held plenary meetings on Monday and decided to hand in mass resignations from March 25th. Earlier, steering committees representing professors at 20 medical universities nationwide had also agreed to submit resignation letters from the 25th. Meanwhile the government is in the final stages of allocating student enrollment quotas for each medical school, for a combined increase of 2,000. They will unveil the results possibly as early as Wednesday.

NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]
The National Police Agency says it has apprehended 676 individuals related to election crimes and transferred 13 of them to the prosecution as of Monday. Cases are closed for 89 others while investigation is ongoing for the remaining 574. More than half of this total, 352 people, are being questioned on charges of distributing false information. A police official said their alleged acts and motives will be thoroughly investigated. The Financial Supervisory Service has launched a probe into all virtual accounts following a KBS report about illegal gambling by teenagers using virtual bank accounts. The agency will first inspect how virtual accounts are issued at all banks and proceed to improve regulations so that accounts suspected of being used for unlawful transactions can be blocked in advance. Measures will also be sought to provide cautionary guidelines such as through pop-up notices when minors try to transfer money to suspicious accounts. Overall monitoring of money transfers before and after they take place will be stepped up.

MED STUDENTS JOINING MILITARY

[Anchor Lead]
The future endeavors of medical students who have submitted leave of absence requests are also under the spotlight. It has been found through surveys that a considerable portion of male students are planning to enlist as regular soldiers in the near future, opting out of roles such as military or public health doctors. This trend has been identified among over 2,000 students.

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A large number of medical students who have applied for leaves of absence to protest the government's plan to expand medical school admissions are preparing to begin their military service. That's according to a poll conducted by the Korean Medical Student Association, an organization of the representatives of 40 medical schools nationwide, on some ten thousand students who are subject to mandatory military service among the 13,000 medical students who have taken leaves of absence. Of some 5,000 respondents, 2,460 students said they would apply for active military service by August. More than 400 said they had already applied. That's far more than some 200 medical students who began their active service in 2022. Medical students who chose to serve as regular soldiers rather than as public health doctors or military doctors said their decision was largely influenced by the recent dispatches of such personnel.

[Soundbite]
Med student planning military service (VOICE MODIFIED): Viewing the slave-like terms for public health doctors at Samsung Medical Center led me to favor active duty instead.

If many medical students join the army as rank-and-file soldiers, residents of rural areas with poor access to health care could bear the brunt of the shortage of military doctors. Large hospitals will have a hard time finding interns and residents, while the military will see its pool of military doctors dwindle.

[Soundbite]
Prof. Park Dae-kyoon (Soonchunhyang Univ. College of Medicine): It would be a great loss for the country and the military overall if medical students begin active service en masse.

The government says medical students are unlikely to begin their military service en masse.

[Soundbite]
Park Min-soo (Second vice minister of Health and Welfare): You're assuming leaves of absence will be approved. We're working to persuade and prevent this from happening.

However, colleges cannot reject applications for leaves of absence with draft notices attached.

CPR TRAINING IN GYEONGGI-DO

[Anchor Lead]
As the importance and techniques of CPR become more widely recognized and taught, there has been an increase in the number of cardiac arrest patients being saved through CPR before the arrival of emergency services. It is said that receiving CPR within four minutes can lead to a survival rate of about 50%. Gyeonggi-do Province has decided to conduct CPR training for ten million residents

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A woman is seen sitting at a coffee shop. Her head suddenly drops. Customers at nearby tables rush to her rescue and they begin performing CPR right away. They continued to perform CPR for over five minutes until the paramedics arrived. The woman's heart began beating again after she was given CPR for about ten minutes. All the rescuers at the scene are members of a female volunteer firefighters' team in Yeoju, Gyeonggi-do Province. They said they had participated in a CPR training program and it was enormously helpful.

[Soundbite]
Ham Jeong-wha (Yeoju assn. of women's volunteer firefighter units): We learned about short breathing the previous day. She suddenly dropped her head and was faced down...When she held up her head again, she was out of breath.

When CPR is administered within four minutes, chances of survival is estimated to be 50 percent. Damage to brain cells begins if the optimal response time is missed even by a minute. The survival rate drops to 25 percent five minutes passed the onset of a heart attack.

[Soundbite]
Yoon Sang-eun (Gimpo Fire Station): It is difficult for rescuers to get to the patient within the optimal time. So civilians and bystanders' CPR is crucial.

In 2022, there were about 34,000 cardiac arrest patients across the nation. 29.3 percent of them were given CPR by civilians and 7.8 percent of the patients survived. In order to raise the survival rate, the Gyeonggi-do provincial government will run a CPR training program with a goal to have ten million residents participate. In performing CPR, the key is to apply appropriate pressure at consistent intervals on the exact pit of the stomach.

[Soundbite]
Lee Seong-yeop (CPR training participant): It sounded simple in theory. But as I applied pressure consistently for two minutes, I realized its difficulty.

As practice is also key, training equipment like dummies will be rented for free with firefighters dispatched. The equipment rental program will be operated on a trial basis for three months in Gimpo, Pyeontaek and Yangju. It will then be expanded to the rest of Gyeonggi-do Province.

FOOTBALL TEAM BEGINS TRAINING

[Anchor Lead]
Ahead of the World Cup second round qualifiers against Thailand, the national football team has convened and commenced training. Son Heung-min was warmly welcomed by fans right from the arrival hall of the airport. yet the atmosphere among the team as they embarked on their first training session was noticeably more somber than usual.

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As Son Heung-min appeared at the arrival gate, applause and cheers erupted. After enduring a tough month, Son bowed in gratitude for the warm welcome. Greeted by a much larger crowd than usual, the Tottenham Hotspur forward stepped out of the car to express his gratitude once again. Players from the German league, including Kim Min-jae, Lee Jae-sung, and Jeong Woo-young, also joined the national team.

[Soundbite]
Jeong Woo-yeong (National football team): Seeing the fans' warm welcome after a long time makes me excited to prepare for the games, despite being tired.

Unlike the airport filled with fans' cheers, the training ground was silent. Just 15 minutes of training was made public in light of various controversies, such as internal conflict during the Asian Cup and card games. Interviews with players on the first day were also canceled The previous day, manager Hwang Sun-hong saw the Olympic team off with a bright look. But he addressed the national team in a completely different attitude and urged them to work harder.

[Soundbite]
Hwang Sun-hong (Head Coach, Nat’l Football Team): Players feel burdensome and pressured. I am asking you to help them focus on preparing and playing matches.

All public events involving players were canceled. With a full focus on training, the national team is preparing for two consecutive matches with Thailand.