Ship Sinks

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A Korean fishing vessel has sunk in waters off Antarctica, with five dead and 17 missing. The families of the missing crew members desperately await news of rescue, but the chance of survival in such cold water is very low.



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The fishing vessel No. 1 In Sung sank in waters off Antarctica Monday. Five of the 42 crew members died while 17 others went missing. The sinking occurred 2-thousand-500 kilometers southeast of New Zealand. The ship arrived in the area on November 27th and was preparing to leave when the accident occurred.



[Soundbite](Coast Guard Official): “It takes dozens of days to reach the area by ship. It’s an open sea. That’s rescue efforts face many obstacles.”



A rescue task force has been contacting the rescue team, but no news of additional rescues has come.



[Soundbite]Kim Chang-myeong (Insung Corporation): “We can’t reach the captain (of the rescue vessel). We’re waiting for a call from the rescue ship because search is the priority now.”



But the families of the missing crew members refuse to give up hope.



[Soundbite](Captain’s Family Member): “We hope that he’s alive. We’re very worried because many crew members are missing.”



New Zealand media have been leading the search and rescue efforts, but say the the chances of survival are very low because the temperature in the water where the ship sank is 2 degrees Celsius. Ten minutes is the longest a person can survive in those conditions. The investigation of the sinking will likely take a while as the rescued crew members will arrive in New Zealand in five days.



2. New Highway



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A new road called Geoga-daero, connecting Busan and Geoje, opened on Monday. Locals hope the new route will herald a logistics and tourism renaissance on the peninsula’s southern coast. Let’s have a look.



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A car starts from Busan heading towards the Diamond Tower. Just after a two minute drive, the car enters the Gadeok Underwater Tunnel. The tunnel built 48 meters underwater leads to a suspension bridge. Driving across the bridge, visitors can enjoy the dazzling ocean view. It takes just seven minutes to cross the Geoga-daero, measuring a total of 8.2 kilometers in length. The shortened distance and time is expected to bring a big change to local’s life styles.



[Soundbite]Yang Seong-u (Geoje Resident): “We can go shopping more often to Busan where prices are lowe and will have an end of the year party there too.”



The opening of the Geoga-dearo has begun the Renaissance of tourism for the south coastal areas.



[Soundbite]Kwon Gyeong-suk (Head, Tourism Company): “We’re planning to develop packages for relaxing trips to the region’s rich and beautiful tourist attractions.”



The road is also expected to create a synergy effect for logistics such as cutting logistics costs at the industrial complex. The government’s Sun Belt plan for the South Coast has also gone into full scale to develop the region into the logistics hub of Northeast Asia following Busan, South Gyeongsang Province and South Jeolla Province.



[Soundbite]Park Hyeon-cheol (Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs): “The bridge will help the South Coast become the economic, logistics and tourism hub and also be a big support for the sun belt plan.”



The road has kicked the era of the South Coast into full gear.



3. Bridge Tech



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The Geoga-daero is an engineering marvel; a combination of the world’s deepest underwater tunnel and a state-of-the-art bridge. A number of technological breakthroughs have been achieved in pursuing the massive project.



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The Gadeok Underwater Tunnel runs through Jinhae Bay. Gaedeok is Korea’s first underwater tunnel and the world’s deepest at 48 meters below sea level. State-of-the-art techniques and methods have helped overcome poor environmental conditions such as a weak foundation. Eighteen tunnel pieces 180 meters long and 26 meters wide each were submerged in the water and assembled. The tolerance is merely two centimeters. The project involved five international patents such as for the location control system for super-precision processes and air-injection methods for assembling the parts using the difference in water pressure. The tunnel leads to the Geoga Bridge, which is supported by a 44-story tower between the islands. The bridge forms a diamond shape with curves resembling the wings of a seagull. The three-tower bridge is Korea’s first to be built with more than one tower. All the platforms are supported with cables, another first in Korea. This is to enhance safety because the bridge is located in a windy and wavy sea.



[Soundbite]Yang Bo-hyeon (Director, Bridge Construction Team): “Different new technologies and methods from various fields like shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and IT have been applied.”



Each of the technologies adopted and applied above and under water was a challenge.



4. ID Theft



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Police have arrested a man who accessed portal sites using other people’s personal information. He had the IDs of 29 million people, which translates into three out of every five people in the nation. He says he bought users’ personal information in China.



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A 30-year-old Gang found something odd when she accessed a portal recently.



[Soundbite](Victim (Voice Modified)): “I had cyber money, but I found that only half of it was left. I clicked and found out that I had used paid services, which I didn’t.”



Someone used her ID and password to log onto a paid text messaging Website. The 43-year-old Lee has been arrested for using the personal information of other people to send spam messages. He says he bought the information in China for more than 600 dollars. Lee was found to have some 29 million IDs, which is 80 percent of the number of all Internet users in Korea. He even had the personal information of nine out of thirteen police officers investigating the case. Police urge Internet users to use different IDs on different Web sites and change their passwords on a regular basis.



5. Radiation Alert



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More people are opting for expensive medical examinations using radiation. The expectation is that the tests will detect serious diseases such as cancer early on. But studies warn of exposure to a large quantity of radiation when getting such examinations.



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Positron emission tomography-computed tomography, or PET-CT, is a full-body imaging device to detect cancer. The device can detect even the smallest cancerous cell. One examination costs 872 U.S. dollars.



[Soundbite]Song Cheol-ho (Patient): “It’s expensive, but cancer treatment will cost more. I take the examination as a precautionary measure.”



But experts warn of exposure to excessive radiation when taking expensive medical examinations. PET-CT scans the whole body and emits 180 times more radiation than an X-ray. A person is exposed to 46 millisieverts when receiving a CT scan on the chest, heart and stomach. The figure is near the annual limit of radiation exposure for medical workers of 50 millisieverts. Radiation residue is not discharged from the body. So keeping exposure to radiation to a minimum is advised.



[Soundbite]Prof. Lee Ik-jae (Gangnam Severance Hospital): “There is a possibility that radiation changes genes and causes cancer. It is better for people to limit their radiation exposure to the minimum.”



More people are taking expensive radiation-based health tests, but such examinations are instead a health hazard themselves.



6. Teacher Training



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Teachers who receive poor evaluations for two years in a row must now undergo additional training and will be temporarily banned from teaching. The regulation has sparked concerns over the possible damage to teachers’ reputations.



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The first teachers’ evaluation was conducted in 11,403 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide. More than a thousand teachers scored below the average of 2.5 points on the scale of one to five. They must undergo an intensive training course next year. They account for 0.28 percent of all evaluated teachers. If they get low scores at the next-year evaluation as well, they will be suspended from teaching.



[Soundbite]Seol Dong-geun (Ministry of Education, Science & Tech): “Teachers will be required to receive long-term training before they resume teaching.”



The Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations says the mandatory training for teachers with poor performances may ruin their reputation and that schools must be allowed to train their teachers with their own curriculum. The Korean Teachers & Educational Workers’ Union has also criticized mandatory training.



[Soundbite]Eom Min-yong (Teachers & Education Workers Union): “If teachers are banned from teaching, serious conflicts will occur at schools next year.”



The Education Ministry says the results of the evaluations will not be reflected in teachers’ careers immediately and that it will legislate teachers’ evaluations next year after making revisions.



7. Best Actress



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Veteran Korean actress Kim Hye-ja has received a prestigious American honor for her performance in the film "Mother." The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has given her its best actress award.



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Actress Kim Hye-ja is known in Korea as "the people’s mother" for her portrayals of mothers. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has given her the best actress award. Kim appeared in last year’s hit film "Mother" after a 10-year hiatus. She played a woman who fights for her son, who is wrongfully accused of murder.



[Soundbite]Kim Hye-ja (Actress): “I’m very grateful for this unexpected award. I’ll think of it as my Christmas gift.”



The Los Angeles association’s award is one of the most prestigious in U.S. films on par with the Golden Globe and Oscar. Kim is the first Korean to receive the honor in the award’s 35-year history. "Mother" was released in six U.S. theaters in March this year. The movie was also runner-up for the L.A. association’s best foreign-language film award.



[Soundbite]Kang Yu-jeong (Film Critic): “Her portrayal of an over-protective mother who is obsessed with her son deeply moved American theatergoers.”



The 70-year-old Kim was also named best actress at the Asian Film Awards in March this year. She will receive the award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association next month. The honor is expected to help promote Korean cinema to the world.



8. Star Donations



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Celebrities are donating their talents for charity. Their return of the love from their fans is playing a big role in public interest efforts.



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Korean hip hop group DJ DOC won this year’s Golden Disk Main Award. They’re now well-known for their charity works after joining a baseball team in a TV show. The Cheonhamujeok baseball team members have begun helping out amateur baseball clubs. The team members starred together in a TV commercial for free to collect money to build a baseball stadium for the players. After each broadcast, five percent of profits is put aside for building a stadium.



[Soundbite]Lee Ha-neul (DJ DOC): “We didn’t get paid personally but it was a good chance to know how good it feels to help others.”



Actors and filmmakers have also gathered for a similar purpose. Their goal is to build a theater for screening classic movies not available in commercial movie theaters. Some 11 figures including director Lee Jun-ik and actor Song Seung-heon and Ju Jin-mo have made an appearance in a TV commercial and donated all the money they’ve earned from it.



[Soundbite]Lee Jun-ik (Director): “People can better enjoy contemporary movies at the cinema-tech by learning and experiencing the film culture.”



Stars returning the love and support they’ve received from fans are playing a major role in promoting the practice of giving and sharing.



9. Year End Shows



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A series of large-scale performances are beginning ahead of the holiday season. One of the just-released musicals depicts the life of the Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun. Here’s more.



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The new version of the original musical "Hero," which is about famed independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun, has a tightly woven plot that’s full of suspense. The musical features new choreography, extravagant video images and enchanting music. "Hero" will begin its overseas tour next year, starting with Los Angeles in May.



A blonde girl from a rich family enrolls in law school to try to break the stereotypes about blondes. The musical "Legally Blonde" is based on the movie of the same title. It grabbed the spotlight for its pink sets, beautiful costumes, and funny plot. The singing and acting skills of the main character have been impressing audiences.



This musical is about the Korean theater Bumingwan, which was established during the Japanese colonial period. A ghost tries to get on stage and the actors try to conceal it from the audience. The musical features an unpredictable plot that’s designed to amuse. The director of the musical, Lee Hae-je, says he wanted to explore humanism and communication.



This original opera is based on the "Legend of Arang," which originated in Milyang, South Gyeongsang Province. The 16-year-old Arang is killed, but her spirit avenges her death with the help of a wise magistrate. The opera features diverse traditional elements combined with orchestral and traditional music. The opera will soon be made into a large-scale production and will debut overseas.



The face of this Buddha is peaceful and kind. It’s made of leather and conveys the Buddhist meaning of death. These two pandas made from stainless steel symbolize harmony. This work was made with the wooden door of an old house. It bears the traces of history. These are the works of Chinese artist Zhang Huan, who is known for his unique artistic touch.



Structures and apartment buildings mushroom in a city. This massive shipyard is awe-inspiring. This pier is full of countless containers. These are the results of technological civilization and human desire. The works were created by German photographer Thomas Struth, who has put on display 15 photos showing Korea’s industrialization.