PPP LEADER CAMPAIGNS IN SEOUL

PPP LEADER CAMPAIGNS IN SEOUL

[Anchor Lead]
With the general election just five days away, the campaign trail is heating up for all parties involved. Han Dong-hoon, People Power Party's interim leader, made another visit to Seoul yesterday, after spending the past weekend rallying support. Chairman Han passionately appealed to the public, stating, "Early voting is a battle of momentum"

[Pkg]
The ruling People Power Party's interim leader Han Dong-hoon campaigned in various parts of the capital region on Thursday with the general election just days away. He said voters must go to the polls during the early voting period or on election day to "penalize criminals.“

[Soundbite]
Han Dong-hoon (Chair, PPP Emergency Committee): How is it we see criminals like Kim Jun-hyeok, fraudsters like Yang Moon-seok run for office? We must stop them.

Against the opposition's call to lay judgment on the Yoon administration, PPP candidates wooed voters through pledges to sincerely serve local communities. The PPP chief called for active participation in early voting with this mindset: "If I vote, our side will prevail.“

[Soundbite]
Han Dong-hoon (Chair, PPP Emergency Committee): Opinion poll predictions are often not accurate in general elections. Voters are making up their minds right now. Early voting is a battle of wills.

Han and all of PPP's candidates will cast their ballots on the first day of early voting which is Friday. Han also slammed DP candidate Kim Jun-hyeok for controversial claims about Ewha Womans University students extending sexual favors to the U.S. military in the past. Kim also used sexual expressions while comparing President Yoon Suk Yeol to Joseon dynasty king Yeonsangun.

[Soundbite]
Han Dong-hoon (Chair, PPP Emergency Committee): I give this advice to DP chair. If your party keeps Kim Jun-hyeok, why not just have a flasher as a candidate? What's the difference?

Han continues to campaign in key battleground in metropolitan areas on Friday, urging support for the ruling party.

DP CHAIR COURTS YEONGNAM VOTERS

[Anchor Lead]
Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, has spent the past two days touring the Yeongnam region, emphasizing the need to judge the current regime. He also appealed to the conservative voters, saying that in order for the Yoon government to get back on track, people must guide them in the right way.

[Pkg]
Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung has been drumming up support in the Yeongnam area for two days in a row. He maintained that the current administration must be judged with an external shock factor because it's the only way the government would change course on its policy directions.

[Soundbite]
Lee Jae-myung (Chair, Democratic Party): It was Busan below Nakdonggang River front that defended the country during the Korean War. I ask the democratic, enlightened people of Busan to save this country in crisis.

Lee referred to the last presidential election when he lost by a mere 0.73% point margin while repeating that the polls are neck and neck in more than 50 districts and asked the voters to not be fooled by the ruling party's plea. He implored the voters in southeastern Korea that the direction of state affairs must change if they want the Yoon Suk Yeol administration to succeed. The people in the Yeongnam region have traditionally been staunch supporters of the conservative party.

[Soundbite]
Lee Jae-myung (Chair, Democratic Party): If PPP supporters want the Yoon administration to succeed, they should be able to say that this isn't right, put the administration back on the right track.

Lee even went to Daegu, the heart of the conservatives, and asked for a chance to compete with the ruling party, claiming that their support for the People Power Party hasn't lead to Daegu's growth.

REAL OVERSEAS VOTER TURNOUT

[Anchor Lead]
Despite concerns about low overseas voter registration, the National Election Commission reports a 62.8% turnout for this election, a historic high for parliamentary votes. Nonetheless, this impressive rate reflects only 4.7% of all eligible voters, leading to criticism that the figure misleadingly inflates actual participation.

[Pkg]
Overseas voters did not balk at traveling long distances to cast their ballots at polling stations set up at diplomatic offices in various countries. The National Election Commission says overseas voter turnout was 62.8 percent...the highest ever for a parliamentary election. But a closer look reveals that...the number refers only to the percentage of registered voters who actually cast their ballots. Then what is the actual figure this time? Of some 1.97 million overseas voters, only 90,000 cast their ballots. That's 4.7 out of 100 voters. In other words, the turnout rate announced by the NEC is not actually accurate.

[Soundbite]
Cha Hee-ro (Election commissioner in Paris): It refers to 62% of the registered voters only. The rest did not vote even though they can.

The NEC dispatches its officials overseas to raise overseas voters' awareness and encourage them to vote, but the turnout remains low. Of the seven rounds of overseas voting so far, only 11 percent of voters cast their ballots during the 19th presidential election, even though public interest in the election was high. More than 17 billion won, or 13 million dollars, has been spent on overseas voting for the general elections, but the result falls short of expectations.

[Soundbite]
Chae Su-eung (Election commissioner in Berlin): Voters don't want to travel long distances to the polling stations, their interest in the elections is low.

Overseas voting was introduced because overseas Koreans filed a constitutional complaint. It's about time to come up with ways to raise voter turnout.

POLLING STATION FINAL CHECK

[Anchor Lead]
As early voting for the general elections begins today, the government conducted on-site inspections of all advance polling stations yesterday. Given the recent string of discoveries of illegal cameras, the focus was on security, including the deployment of specialized equipment for the final checks.

[Pkg]
A police officer holding a device begins inspecting a polling station. He thoroughly checks the water purifier, all plugs and the inside of the polling booths. This investigative device he's holding can detect illegal cameras.

[Soundbite]
(Police officer): This device can detect heat emitted from cameras, sense wireless internet.

This is done to detect illegal cameras that have already been found at 36 early voting polling stations in Seoul and Busan. From ID checks...

[Soundbite]
Double check for your name, write it down or inscribe your thumbprint.

to printing out ballots...the entire voting procedure is inspected beforehand. From the upcoming general elections, the serial numbers on ballots will be marked using bar codes instead of QR codes. The measure reflects concerns over privacy leaks and forgery. Police will escort ballot boxes during their transportation, and they will be monitored around the clock using security cameras.

[Soundbite]
Lee Sang-min (Minister of Interior and Safety): Stored ballot boxes will be viewed via security cameras in real time, the public can check via local election commission offices.

Early voting for the 22nd general elections began on Friday at 3,565 polling stations nationwide. Anyone who has the right to vote can cast their ballots at a polling station in a nearby community center after presenting their ID card.

YOON MEETS TRAINEE DOCTORS' HEAD

[Anchor Lead]
President Yoon Suk Yeol met yesterday with Park Dan, the head of Korean Intern Resident Association, for a discussion lasting 140 minutes. President Yoon expressed his commitment to respecting the opinions of resident doctors in the ongoing discussions on medical reform, including the issue of increasing the number of doctors.

[Pkg]
President Yoon Suk Yeol earlier said that he wanted to meet with trainee doctors who are on strike and listen to what they had to say. Two days later, a meeting was realized as Yoon met with Park Dan, emergency committee head of the Korean Intern Resident Association on Thursday. It was practically a one-on-one meeting with a minimal number of Yoon's aides in attendance. During the talks that lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes, Yoon mainly listened to the trainee doctors' stance, according to the top office. Yoon's spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung said the president carefully listened to Park regarding problems with the existing medical system and exchanged views on ways to improve the treatment and working conditions of trainee doctors. Kim said the top office has decided to respect the junior doctors' position in future discussions on medical reform including an increase in the number of doctors. Earlier, the president publicly proposed talks with the protesting trainees, after which he is known to have waited for a meeting to take place while refraining from other schedules. Park Dan had also avoided contact with the outside world for over 40 days since submitting his resignation. But with growing calls within the medical community to meet with the president, he appears to have made the move this time. It's believed the presidential office did not film the latest meeting in consideration of the trainee doctors' representative. The government sees the meeting itself as a significant move and plans to continue efforts to keep up the dialogue momentum. However the top office rejected media reports saying the medical school quota hike could be adjusted to the 600 level, saying it's completely not true.

"NO FUTURE FOR KOREAN MEDICINE"

[Anchor Lead]
Given the high stakes of this hard-fought meeting, immediate attention was drawn to Park Dan, the representative of the Association, who voiced his dissatisfaction on social media following his dialogue with the President. This has sparked a flurry of criticism within the association itself, reflecting a discontented undercurrent among its members.

[Pkg]
Korean Intern Resident Association emergency committee head Park Dan met with President Yoon Suk Yeol some forty days after trainee doctors started the walkout. Immediately following the meeting, Park posted a single sentence on his social media outlet - "There is no future for Korean medicine." It was how he showed his disappointment over the meeting's outcome. Earlier, the KIRA emergency committee said that its demand for scrapping the plan to increase medical school enrollment hasn't changed. It's clear that the two sides failed to reach an agreement at the meeting. After a brief statement, Park Dan held an emergency committee meeting to share what went on at the sitdown with the president and discussed future countermeasures. The medical circle maintains that the trainee doctors' demands must be fully incorporated if the dialogue is to continue.

[Soundbite]
Kim Sung-geun (Korean Medical Association's emergency committee): If a problem is to be solved, the terms should be accepted one way or the other.

The Medical Professors' Association of Korea said that it would respect and support whatever decision the trainee doctors make. The Medical Professors Association of Korea's emergency committee also stressed that terminating the plan to increase medical school enrollment and allowing resident doctors' representative to participate in the talks would be the conditions for their return. Many KIRA members were strongly against meeting with the government when the enrollment increase plan hadn't been withdrawn and criticized the association's leadership for making decisions in secret.

ILLEGAL DRUG USE BY FOREIGNERS

[Anchor Lead]
Korean-Chinese individuals, found to be storing methamphetamine enough for 120,000 people in a residential house and distributing it throughout the Seoul metropolitan area, have been apprehended by the police. Additionally, in a house in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do Province, three Russians were arrested for manufacturing cannabis-related narcotics.

[Pkg]
Multiple bags of a white substance come out of a household refrigerator. It's methamphetamine. Some 2,000 pills of the new illegal drug named Yaba are also found in this place. About 3.6kg of methamphetamine found here is enough to be administered by 120,000 people. Police have rounded up four people who distributed illegal substances in the Seoul metropolitan area. Most of them are Korean-Chinese. To evade law enforcement authorities, they contacted one another via Chinese social media. Police have also detained 20 people who either sold or bought illegal drugs distributed by them, and arrested 12 of them. Police have also rounded up a Russian gang that manufactured and used illegal substances in a residential area. They made narcotics with cannabis and chemicals in a villa in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do Province.

[Soundbite]
Lee Young-pil (Gyeonggi Nambu Prov. Police Agency): We raided the site and detained three Russian nationals. Two of them have been arrested.

The perpetrators produced a cannabis concentrate product Hashish, which is over 10 times more potent than regular cannabis. The gang is also suspected of having used the new illegal substance Mephedrone. Police will intensify crackdowns on illegal drug use in residential areas with large populations of foreigners through July.