Summit Plans

[Anchor Lead]

President Park Geun-hye will hold her first summit with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on May 7th. Key items on the agenda are expected to be the bilateral alliance, cooperation on North Korea issues and a revision of the atomic energy agreement.

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President Park Geun-hye will leave for the U.S. on May 5th for Washington at the invitation of President Barack Obama. The first summit between the two is to take place on May 7th. Both leaders are expected to assess the 60 years of bilateral alliance, establish a direction for new cooperative ties and also discuss ways to promote peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia. They are also to discuss the close coordination of policies regarding the North Korean issue, as the regime has been escalating tensions due to its missile threats and a nuclear test.

[Soundbite] Yoon Chang-jung (Spokesman, Cheong Wa Dae) : "We expect the summit to be significant as it comes at a time when Korea-U.S. cooperation is crucial."

Concerns including the revision of the bilateral atomic energy agreement and the sharing of defense expenses are also to be addressed. Before arriving in Washington, President Park will meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on May 6th. While returning from her trip, she will stop by Los Angeles to greet Korean residents before landing back in Seoul on May 10th. An economic delegation, the largest to date, is believed to accompany the president. Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee may be one of the top business figures to be included in the delegation.

2. Another Hit

[Anchor Lead]

Psy’s follow up single to his global smash “Gangnam Style”, is also becoming a huge hit.

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Psy fever is spreading around the world once again. The Korean rapper's new music video, “Gentleman,” which was released on April 13, drew 100 million views on YouTube in just four days. This is the fastest record set in YouTube history. His video is currently seeing 390 hits per second, which is much more than the previous YouTube record. Just on the first day of its release on YouTube, the music video drew 18 million-900,000 views, breaking the previous record set by teen pop superstar Justin Bieber.

[Soundbite] Seo Hwang-uk (Google Korea) : "It's very impressive that it's being mostly viewed in the U.S, which is the world's major market for pop music."

Thanks to the strongly addictive melody and easy-to-sing-along words, many people around the world are already posting parody videos.

[Soundbite] Gu Ja-hyeong (Pop Music Critic) : "He brings everyone together by dancing and creates a festive atmosphere in a non-commercial way."

The popularity of the music video is leading to digital sales. It's topping the iTunes singles charts in 33 countries, including Belgium and Mexico, and is also taking over other rankings worldwide. Outdoing Psy's former hit song, “Gangnam Style,” “Gentleman” is now aiming to top the U.S. Billboard chart.

3. Suncheon Expo

[Anchor Lead]

The Suncheon Bay Garden Expo is just three days away. We go now to the venue to see how the preparations are going.

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Suncheon Bay is often called a "heavenly garden." Surrounded by the Goheung and Yeosu peninsulas, the bay is home to over 2600 hectares of wetland. Visitors enjoy the scent of the spring strolling in a reed field. A 5-kilometer walk along the Dongcheon Stream will take you to the venue of the Suncheon Bay Garden Expo. Spanning an area of 110 hectares, the venue looks like a manmade garden with two million flowers and 500,000 trees growing in it. It serves as a buffer zone between the downtown area of Suncheon and Suncheon Bay to protect green areas and prevent reckless urban development. The exposition will feature attractions such as the Suncheon International Wetlands Center, 83 gardens from 23 countries, the Dream Bridge, and the Suncheon Lake Garden, which is also a symbol of the expo and a miniature version of Suncheon. Visitors will also be able to see many exotic attractions from all over the world. Nearby tourist attractions include ancient Buddhist temples such as Seonam and Songgwang temples, and Naganeupseong Folk Village. Suncheon is now ready to welcome visitors to its garden exposition, which will be open for six months.

4. Phone Thieves

[Anchor Lead]

A gang of thieves has been caught by police for breaking into a cell phone store and stealing phones. The crime took less than 30 seconds. Here's how they did it.

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At dawn, the glass door to a mobile phone store is shattered, and four men dressed in black rush in. They snatch new cell phones out of the shop’s display counter and put them into their sacks. It only took the crooks 27 seconds to steal 27 cell phones, amassing loot worth around 18,000 US dollars. A private security guard arrives at the scene two minutes after the break in, but the thieves had already taken off in their car.

[Soundbite] Park Seon-yong (Store Owner) : "We have three exits. When we close, we lock them and turn on the security system. But it’s no use when buglers break the window to get in. "

The burglars were former employees at cell phone stores and were aware of the fact that the newly opened mobile phone stores have only the newest and most expensive models on display. The police arrested four men, including a 34 year old man identified as Im, for larceny and are still looking for three others who were involved in the break in, including a 29 year old man identified as Jo.

5. Single Parents

[Anchor Lead]

The number of single-parent families has been surging in Korea recently. Many suffer from financial problems, as the government provides little support.

[Pkg]

This welfare facility for single mothers is home to 20 women who are raising their children on their own. This woman has been living here with her five-year-old son ever since she got a divorce. She gets only 360 U.S. dollars a month from the government, which is her sole income. Finding a job is also a challenge since no one can take care of her child.

[Soundbite] Divorced Woman (Voice Modified) : "I have to take care of my child around the clock, which I can't do if I’m working. It’s such a burden. I cry outside every night."

A survey on around 2500 single-parent households by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family shows that 62 percent of them have financial difficulties. Their financial issues even outweighed the burden of child-raising. Most of the single parents were found to have temporary, low-paying jobs, and only five percent of them received child support from their ex-spouses. Even though such families are entitled to basic living and education subsidies, they are only able to receive around 60 U.S. dollars a month due to lack of funding. The survey also found that single parents are twice as likely to be depressed, but more than half never seek professional help. More efforts will be needed to help those in such dire conditions.

6. Medical Battles

[Anchor Lead]

In six out of every 10 medical disputes that were arbitrated by the Korea Consumer Agency in the first quarter of this year, the hospitals were found to be to blame for medical errors.

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Gwon O-hyeok's father ended up with brain damage while receiving treatment for a cerebral hemorrhage three years ago. His brain was damaged about 20 minutes after a tube that was inserted in his throat was replaced. The hospital admitted that the patient's brain damage was due to the medical staff's carelessness. The patient's family received about 60,000 U.S. dollars in compensation, but the suffering continues to this day.

[Soundbite] Gwon O-hyeok (Victim’s Family Member) : "I wanted to resolve this as soon as possible because my father was suffering."

Hospitals were found to be guilty in 58 percent of the medical disputes that were arbitrated by the Korea Consumer Agency during the first quarter of the year. In 83 percent of the cases, hospitals failed to perform their duty to care for the patients properly, which they're obligated to do to prevent any mistakes from occurring. Another 17 percent of the medical errors happened because the doctors failed to explain to the patients how they could be treated and what complications they might develop. Patients were found to have the most complaints about insufficient explanations that they receive at the offices of plastic surgeons and dentists. Over the past three years, the number of medical disputes surged eight-fold. The patients have the right to demand a sufficient explanation before receiving medical services.

[Soundbite] Dr. Park Gyeong-won (Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery) : "This is a once-in-a-lifetime procedure. From a patient's standpoint, they have to know what kind of surgery they’re getting and what materials will be used."

Experts also advise that patients record all of the symptoms that they develop after any medical procedure so that they can use their records as evidence in the event a dispute arises.

7. Growth Treatment

[Anchor Lead]

If your child seems to be smaller than his or her peers, you may consider growth hormone treatment. It used to be prohibitively expensive, but a team of Korean scientists has found a way to cut costs.

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The financial burden is large for parents of children and teenagers who get growth hormone treatment.

[Soundbite] "Without medical insurance, it costs 600,000 won (US$539) a month. It’s a big financial burden."

Korean scientists have discovered a new way of extracting growth hormones. In the past, they were cultivated using colon bacteria. But too much insoluble protein would form allowing for only 10 percent of the growth hormones to be extracted.

[Soundbite] Kim Min-ji (Student, Univ. of Science & Technology) : "I wondered if we could make it soluble and tried adjusting the conditions for refinement and expression and then optimized them."

The test results using cells were satisfying. It showed that the growth hormone produced using the new procedure was as effective as the hormone medication made using the former method.

[Soundbite] Choe Jun-hyeok (Korea Research Inst. of Standards & Science) : "We found a way to mass produce it in soluble form without changing the protein structure."

The study has been published in PLOS ONE, a scientific journal by the Public Library of Science in the U.S.

8. Han River Wildlife

[Anchor Lead]

The number of migrant bird species on the Han River's Bamseom Islets has increased recently, and the wetland downstream is now home to more animals and plants. But the number of spotted seals has dwindled significantly.

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For the summer, migrant birds have already arrived on Bamseom Islet, which is located in the heart of Seoul. A flock of great egrets has gathered to breed. Gray herons are busy fetching twigs for their nests. Right next to them, you can see mallards, the winter migrant birds. But the island's vegetation is in trouble because of bur cucumber, a weed that wrecks ecosystems. Each year, its seeds, which hide in the ground or flow in from upstream, cover the island.

[Soundbite] Yun Seok-min (Min. of Environment) : "It can grow to be 10 meters to 20 meters tall, so it can cover any tree."

The ecosystem of the Han River's downstream, especially in the Janghang wetlands, has been found to be much healthier now. Last year, more than 600 species of animals and plants were found in the area, marking a 40 percent jump from the year before. Spotted seals, which are an endangered species, can now be found in the Gimpo and Goyang areas. But only a few of them can be seen on Baekryeong Island, which is their original home. Their count has decreased from 182 in 2011 to just 42 last year, and there are no cubs at all. The decrease in the population of spotted seals stems from the lack of food due to illegal fishing by Chinese fishing vessels. The Environment Ministry will devise measures to protect the ecosystems of the sea and the Han River's downstream area after monitoring changes.

9. Fermented Grains

[Anchor Lead]

The health benefits of mixed grains are frequently touted in the media these days, but cooking them can be a bit of a hassle because you have to soak them in advance. Today we're taking a look at easier-to-prepare fermented grains that contain lots of lactic acid bacteria and are easy to digest.

[Pkg]

Fermented foods are a major staple in Korea. That includes not only traditional fermented bean pastes like doenjang and cheonggukjang, and of course kimchi, but also Western foods like cheese and yogurt. Recently, fermented mixed grains are also getting a lot of attention. Unlike regular mixed grains, fermented grains are easy to digest. They contain lots of lactic acid bacteria and microorganisms. The bacteria remain alive even after cooking because they're highly resistant to heat. On of the biggest advantages of fermented grains is their digestibility.

[Soundbite] Kim Yeong-uk (Fermented Grain Researcher) : "To absorb the nutrients contained in mixed grains, the pericarp on the outside and the embryo buds should be decomposed while being kept alive. They’d be taken apart. By decomposing it, the grains become easier to digest and absorb without chewing them many times."

During fermentation, the texture becomes softer. The amount of active substances also increases significantly.

[Soundbite] "During the fermentation process the grains come to contain not just calories, but also metabolites, nutrients, antibiotic substances, amino acids and vitamins B."

We visited a factory to find out more about how fermented grains are produced. First, a fermented liquor is sprinkled over the grains. Then they're fermented for one day at 36 degrees Celsius.

[Soundbite] "Microorganisms are most active at 36-37 degrees Celsius. The fermented brown rice becomes better during metabolism."

At a glance, this brown rice looks quite ordinary. But if you look at it through a microscope, you see that it contains live, moving lactic acid bacteria. This rice is also softer and you don't need to soak it before cooking. It remains soft even when cooked. Beans can also be fermented to improve their taste and quality. Mixed grains can be used in all kinds of dishes. This is a traditional Italian rice dish.

[Soundbite] Tony Oh (Culinary Expert) : "Italian rice dishes are usually made by frying raw rice, which takes a while. When fermented grains are used, the cooking time can be cut significantly."

You can add a twist by mixing it with fried fermented mixed grains.

[Soundbite] "When fermented grains are used, their rough texture becomes softer, making them an ideal ingredient for Italian rice dishes."

If you still find fermented grains hard to eat, you can enjoy them as a drink. First, soak the grains for about half a day in water, grind them and cook a porridge. Make sure to add some malted rice to make the porridge sweet enough. Ferment the porridge in a rice cooker for five or six hours in the "keep warm" mode. Then grind everything in a mixer to make a unique grain drink.

[Soundbite] Choe Han-seok (Researcher, Rural Development Administration) : "The mixed grain drink that we developed this time has a skin whitening effect thanks to substances contained in malted rice. It’s been found to help break up blood clots and lower blood pressure."

Adding fermented grains to your diet is a great way of staying healthy.