SEOUL-GIMPO INTEGRATION BILL

SEOUL-GIMPO INTEGRATION BILL

[Anchor Lead]
The ruling party, pushing for the incorporation of cities adjacent to Seoul into the capital, has yesterday submitted its first related bill to the National Assembly. This bill specifically proposes the integration of Gimpo with Seoul, initially leaving aside other cities like Guri. The next special law likely to be pursued involves the merger of Busan and the Gyeongsangnam-do Province.

[Pkg]
In earlier talks with Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon, the ruling People Power Party reaffirmed basic principles on the phased incorporation of satellite cities into capital Seoul with guarantees on their autonomous and fiscal rights. To that effect, the PPP on Thursday introduced a special bill on Gimpo-Seoul integration.

[Soundbite]
Cho Kyoung-tae (Chair, PPP’s new city special committee): The Seoul mayor expressed satisfaction over the bill while Gimpo mayor conveyed gratitude several times.

The bill calls for transitioning the currently Gyeonggi-do Province city of Gimpo into a district of Seoul. The implementation date is set for January 1, 2025, allowing a buffer period to reduce administrative and financial disadvantages for Gimpo. Meanwhile, scrapping benefits Gimpo currently enjoys in the status as a city such as special college admissions for farming and fishing community members and tax breaks for rural residents will be delayed until 2030. The latest bill does not include other cities such as Guri, whose merger with Seoul has also been mentioned before. The PPP believes each merger case is different and requires separate bills. The ruling party's next course of action is most likely a push for the administrative consolidation of Busan and Gyeongsangnam-do Province.

[Soundbite]
Cho Kyoung-tae (Chair, PPP’s new city special committee): The integration of Busan and Gyeongsangnam-do will likely be the next push. We will prepare and table a related special bill soon.

The opposition camp has slammed the PPP's move as a populist policy that hinders national development.

[Soundbite]
Kim Ga-yeong (Vice spokesperson, Justice Party): Balanced nat’l development is not about adding or removing cities but should involve comprehensive planning on jobs, infrastructure and low birthrate.

The main opposition Democratic Party said it decided not to issue any stance regarding the special bill proposed by the ruling bloc.

PENSION REFORM PROPOSALS

[Anchor Lead]
South Korea's National Pension is set for a significant overhaul as an advisory committee recommends a minimum 4 percentage points increase in pension premiums. The National Assembly's pension reform body has requested the government to detail these adjustments, focusing on the balance between contributions and benefits.

[Pkg]
Currently, Koreans pay nine percent of their monthly incomes in national pension premiums. The amount of pension benefits they receive is about 42.5 percent of their earnings. The pension premium rate remain unchanged for 25 years since 1998. A civilian advisory committee, which operates under the special parliamentary committee on pension reform, proposed two options for raising the pension premium and income replacement rates. Option 1: The pension premium rates will be raised to 13 percent and pension benefits will replace 50 percent of recipients' income. This plan aims to ensure that the pension accounts for a greater portion of recipients' income. Option 2: The pension premium rate will increase to 15 percent with the income replacement rate kept unchanged at the current 40 percent. This is to prevent the pension fund's depletion and enhance its stability.

[Soundbite]
Kim Yeon-myung (Co-chair, Civilian advisory committee): In the long term we should prioritize discussing raising the premium and income replacement rates while maintaining the boundary of reform.

Last month, the government announced a pension reform plan, saying that a premium raise is inevitable. However, the government plan was criticized as ineffective, as it failed to present detailed raise scopes. The advisory committee appears to have concluded that premium raises should be discussed first in order to reform the national pension fund. Both of its options call for a raise of at least four percentage points. The special parliamentary pension reform committee plans to collect opinions from labor and management in a meeting of the public debate committee. It asked the government to present its own proposals for raising both the premium and income replacement rates before the meeting.

[Soundbite]
Joo Ho-young (Chair, Special committee on pension reform): They should ask for our opinions after giving some outlines. It’s difficult to operate the public debate committee when nothing was proposed.

The ball is back in the government's court. The special parliamentary committee's operations ends next May. All eyes are on whether the advisory panel's proposals will be able to ignite discussions.

YOON'S MOTHER-IN-LAW IMPRISONED

[Anchor Lead]
In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld a one-year prison sentence for Choi Eun-soon, the mother-in-law of President Yoon Suk Yeol, on charges of forging a bank balance certificate. Previously detained in July, Choi’s request for bail has also been denied, ensuring her continued incarceration until July next year.

[Pkg]
Choi Eun-soon, President Yoon Suk Yeol's mother-in-law, was sentenced to a year in prison for forging a bank balance certificate in the first and appeals trials.

[Soundbite]
Choi Eun-soon (Pres. Yoon’s Mother-in-law (July)): (Didn’t you know that forged document was submitted as evidence?) ... (Do you admit to buying Dochon-dong land under a fake name?) ...

Choi proclaimed her innocence, even going as far as to say she would take poison and die before the eyes of God. But the appeals court placed her under court custody because the nature of her crime is harmful and there is a risk of repeated offense and flight. The Supreme Court said that the original ruling wasn't wrong and confirmed the 1-year sentence. Choi was charged with submitting to the court a balance statement forged to look like she had 34.9 billion won in the bank when she purchased land in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do Province in 2013. She was also accused of signing the real estate deal and registering the property under someone else's name. The Supreme Court also denied her bail request, so she will be locked up until July 2024. The Democratic Party demanded that President Yoon apologize to the public for his mother-in-law's crime, but the Office of the President countered that the President cannot comment on the judiciary branch's decision.

SCAMMED MONEY CAN BE RETRIEVED

[Anchor Lead]
In a significant development against voice phishing crimes, where perpetrators impersonate officials to deceive and defraud victims, a notable shift has been observed in their tactics. About two-thirds of these crimes now involve direct, face-to-face money collection from victims. Previously, these victims struggled to get redress. However, starting today, new legislation allows them to seek reimbursement for their losses.

[Pkg]
It began with a phone call.

[Soundbite]
(Actual Call by Phone Scam Ring): I’m Son Seong-gyu from the Seoul Central Dist. Prosecutors’ Office. An illegal bank account has been opened in your name.

The voice phishing ring talked a fifty-something man surnamed Kim into taking out a loan if he wanted to prove that he was a victim. Kim took out a loan of 100 million won from a bank and a credit card company, and then handed the money over to the phone scammer in person.

[Soundbite]
Kim (Phone Scam Victim (VOICE MODIFIED)): They designated only the places without surveillance cameras. A clean-cut young man showed up.

The police caught only a part of the fraud ring, but Kim's money could not be traced, leaving him with a big debt.

[Soundbite]
Kim (Phone Scam Victim (VOICE MODIFIED)): The bank didn’t have any measure to retrieve my money or a person in charge of scam cases.

When a victim personally hands over the money, it's hard to trace exactly where the money went. Even when the swindler is caught and confesses which account the money was deposited into, payment from the said account cannot be stopped because the financial fraud didn't occur electronically. But starting Friday, the changed law includes such in-person frauds in electronic financial crimes. The police can now identify defrauded accounts and amounts when scammers are arrested and ask the financial institution to stop payment and retrieve the lost money. However, such damage relief is possible only when scammers are caught and even when an account has been identified, it wouldn't do any good if the money has already been withdrawn. Also, damage relief cannot be retroacted to the time prior to the enforcement of the revised law.

[Soundbite]
Ahn Yong-seop (Director, Korea Research Institute for Financial Inclusion): It takes months before victims get money back. Financial institutions don’t demand cash from fraud victims. Hang up. Don’t open suspicious links.

Last year alone, roughly 14,000 cases of in-person fraud crimes were reported, accounting for 64% of all phone scams.

NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]
President Yoon Suk Yeol has nominated Daejeon High Court chief justice Cheong Hyung-sik as a candidate for a new Constitutional Court justice. Making the announcement, presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki said the nominee is known for his unwavering legal principles and fair trials and is a most fitting candidate for the job. A graduate of Seoul National University, Cheong passed the bar exam in 1985 and served at the Seoul District Court as well as a researcher at the Supreme Court and senior judge at the Seoul High Court.
A former director of the House of Sharing, a residence for victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery, has been convicted of embezzlement. The man surnamed Ahn was referred to trial on charges of diverting subsidies meant for support groups of the victims. The Supreme Court finalized a two-year prison sentence for Ahn accused of personally pocketing some 18 million won by conspiring with a former House of Sharing executive. He is also charged with receiving 700 million won in illegal construction subsidies from a provincial government using forged documents.

ROBOTS GET PEDESTRIAN STATUS

[Anchor Lead]
From today, bumping into robots on the streets may become a common sight, as they are now granted pedestrian status. This allows them to cross roads and perform tasks like deliveries, ushering in a new era of robotics and prompting important societal discussions about coexisting with these machines in our daily lives.

[Pkg]
A box of ordered take-out coffee is handed to a robot. The robot immediately sets out to deliver the drinks. It briefly stops at a crosswalk. It then effortlessly dodges people or obstacles and completes its delivery task successfully. Under a revision to the Intelligent Robots Act, these working robots are given the same status of pedestrian as humans. However, it is in the initial stages of the introduction so strict preconditions must be met to operate robots on the streets. Robots' safety must be verified in 16 categories, including crosswalk passing. In preparation for possible accidents, owners must also insure their robots. The robots must weigh under 500 kilograms and not exceed 80 centimeters in width. They are allowed to travel up to a maximum speed of 15 kilometers per hour. With the legal grounds established, the industry express expectations that robots can be used for various purposes such as deliveries. One delivery platform has decided to expand its use of robots to a larger area. Starting next week, another company will employ robots to deliver food. Citizens expressed both hopes and concerns simultaneously.

[Soundbite]
Park Jin-hong (Seoul resident): I expect that delivery fees could go down a bit.

[Soundbite]
Goh Keon-yong (Incheon resident): The streets are already crowded, including means of transportation. It can pose a risk of collision.

There are also opinions that discussions are needed to explore ways to address possible problems caused by greater use of robots, such as depletion of jobs or wages for human workers.

[Soundbite]
Prof. Han Jea-kweon (Hanyang University): The task is how to adjust to the culture of robot use while overcoming negative effects and resistance to new technologies.

The government plans to improve the related system after observing if robots pose no risk of accidents.

SLEEP DISORDER PATIENTS SURGE

[Anchor Lead]
The number of patients with sleep disorders, marked by trouble falling asleep or frequent night awakenings, has risen by 30% in the last five years. This increase is most significant in individuals in their 60s, likely due to stress from aging and retirement-related life changes.

[Pkg]
Last year, there were 1.1 million people suffering from sleep disorders in Korea. The figure jumped nearly 30 percent over five years. According to the National Health Insurance Service' analysis, the number of patients with sleep disorders increased 28.5 percent from 855,000 in 2018 to over 1.09 million last year. Sleep disorders include obstructive sleep apnea, sleep-related movement disorders and hypersomnia as well as insomnia. By age, those in their 60s account for the largest portion of 23 percent among sleep disorder patients, followed by those in their 50s and 70s. This is because those in their 60s experience significant physical and mental changes. They are often under stress for physiological and lifestyle changes due to aging and retirement. It was found that when they near their 60s, people usually take longer to fall asleep and experience more interruptions during sleep, in addition to shorter sleep time. In order to help prevent sleep disorders, it is most important to go to bed and wake up at a regularly scheduled time. Napping, watching TV and using smartphones before bedtime should be avoided. Experts advise sleep disorder patients to avoid smoking or consuming alcohol and caffeine, as they disrupt sleep.