2012 Firsts

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With the New Year just getting under way, let’s take a look at a few firsts of 2012.



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[Soundbite] "At 12:00 a.m, 0 minutes, 0 seconds, your daughter has been born."



A new life has come into the world with the start of the New Year. The healthy baby girl weighs 3.29 kilograms and her birth heralds the arrival of the New Year. 2012 is proving more meaningful to this family, who’ve waited so long for this moment.



[Soundbite] Choe Won-geun (Father): "I was born in the year of the dragon too so it has a special meaning for me. I hope she grows up healthy."



The first to set foot in Korea on New Year’s Day was Chinese tourist Huang Yu. Huang departed from Shanghai Saturday night and arrived at Incheon International Airport ten minutes after the New Year began. Huang says he wanted to experience winter in Korea and the Korean Wave. He ended up winning a free flight and hotel accommodation.



[Soundbite] Huang Yu (Chinese Tourist): "I’m very happy and I hope the relationship between Korea and China will advance further in the year of the dragon."



Korea has also sent the New Year’s first exports. Around 1:40 a.m. Sunday, a cargo ship left for Bangkok carrying 100 tons of parts for cars and mobile phones. The first moments of 2012 have signaled a New Year filled with hope.



2. New Year’s Address



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In his New Year’s address, President Lee Myung-bak said he’s going to put all his efforts into creating more jobs and stabilizing prices.



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Through his New Year’s address, President Lee Myung-bak said that until now, the Korean people had faced much trouble due to soaring prices and poor employment, thereby pledging to put in all efforts to resolve the two matters in the New Year.



[Soundbite] Lee Myung-bak (President): "I will put all my efforts into stabilizing your jobs and your lives."



On New Year’s day, the President first visited the National Cemetery and wrote in the guest book that he will embrace the love for the nation that the former patriots had shown in order to protect his country and do his best for a prosperous future. He also talked with Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Jeong Seung-jo, GP chiefs of units in the battle front and chief of the IT unit Danbi, which is currently dispatched in Haiti. This year, Korea celebrates the 20th anniversary of friendship with China, designating 2012 as the Korea-China Friendship Exchange Year. Accordingly, the president exchanged New Year’s greetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and agreed to strengthen their relationship.



3. Budget Passes



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The National Assembly has passed the 2012 national budget just in time for the New Year. Here’s a summary of what happened in parliament as 2011 came to a close.



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[Soundbite] "It has been passed."



The main session of the National Assembly has passed the 2012 budget of around 282 billion U.S. dollars. The vote came out to 171 for, two against, and five abstentions. The main opposition Democratic Unity Party didn’t attend the vote. So just 178 members of the ruilng Grand National Party and the Future Hope Alliance participated. The ruling and opposition parties failed to reach agreement as expected due to a dispute over Lone Star Funds. The Federation of Korean Trade Unions had pressed the main opposition party to have Lone Star assessed by the Board of Audit and Inspection as a condition for passing the budget bill.



[Soundbite] Rep. Ooh Che-chang (Democratic Unity Party): "They will run with massive profits of more than four trillion won (US$3.47 billion.)."



The 2012 budget is 2.7 billion dollars more than the original amount due to more support for college tuition and employment support. Another 3.3 billion dollars was cut from the projects to build a naval base on Jeju Island and restore the country’s four major rivers. The National Assembly also raised the tax rate for top income earners to 38 percent, with both the ruling and opposition parties taking part in the voting. Parliament also confirmed the nominations of Supreme Court justices Kim Yong-deok and Park Bo-yeong after 40 days. But processing of the bill on appointing Cho Yong-hwan as a Constitutional Court justice as recommended by the main opposition party has been been put off at the party’s request.



4. FTA Reactions



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The Korea-U.S. free trade agreement will likely go into force next month at the earliest. There is a decidedly divided mixture of expectations and concerns over how the deal will affect the Korean economy.



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The Korean car part manufacturing industry is predicted to be one of largest beneficiaries from the Korea-U.S. trade pact. That is because tariffs of up to ten percent on exports will be immediately abolished with the effectuation of the trade treaty. The textile and electronics sectors will also benefit from the removal of tariffs. The government says that Korea’s annual trade surplus from the U.S. will be 140 million dollars on average after the trade deal with the U.S. takes effect.



[Soundbite] Lee Si-hyeong (Office of the Minister for Trade): "When the Korea-U.S. FTA takes effect, 35% of Korea’s trade will be done under the FTA, so the benefits will serve Korea’s interests."



However, some domestic industries will inevitably have to suffer losses due to the increased imports of low-priced U.S. agricultural products. The government says that the Korea-U.S. trade pact will cut the production of the Korean agricultural industry by more than 10 billion dollars over the next 15 years. And the production of Korean fishermen and livestock farmers will decrease by 345 million dollars and more than six billion dollars, respectively. The domestic machinery and chemical industries are expected to suffer a greater trade deficit. Korean financial companies will face fiercer competition with its U.S. rivals.



[Soundbite] Kim Hyeong-ju (LG Economic Research Institute): "It’s important that the government should secure a safety net to help them seize new opportunities and the new competition."



Some people expect that the abolishment of tariffs will bring down product prices in Korea. However, there are critics that say that only the importers and the distributors will benefit.



5. Domestic Quality



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As the enactment of the Korea-U.S. FTA looms, the debate on the import of agricultural products is heating up. But some domestic farms are leading in the competition against foreign products by producing high quality vegetables.



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This farm produces bell peppers. All of the bell peppers produced here is exported to Japan. With its great taste and high sugar content, the vegetable has won the hearts and taste buds of its Japanese consumers. It’s been just 10 years since the bell peppers began its production in Korea. But the local farms have taken over 70% of the Japanese market, beating the Dutch farmers who were the former leaders. Thanks to its high quality, the domestically-grown bell peppers see no threat from its low-priced Chinese counterparts.



Jang Yeong-gil has produced kiwis for 20 years and is the only farmer in the nation to be certified to produce golden kiwis without pesticides. Having raised the industry’s safety standards with his organic farming methods, the kiwis produced here boasts a sugar content of more than 15 brix and are sold at a price of 50% more than those produced in New Zealand. Due to farms that are highly competitive against foreign crops, the future of Korea’s agriculture looks very bright.



6. School Violence



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Bullies have claimed yet another victim in Korean schools. A middle school student in Gwangju found dead in the stairwell of his apartment building last week was said to have been bullied regularly.



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A middle school student got into the elevator of his apartment building Wednesday, but never made it home. He was found to have hanged himself on the stairs near the 17th floor. Police initially blamed grades as the cause of the suicide, but the student’s classmates gave other reasons.



[Soundbite] "He was being slapped. When he shook his hand off, he kicked him in the shin."



A probe has found that the student was repeatedly beaten in classrooms and hallways by three classmates.



[Soundbite] Sen. Supt. Ha Tae-uk (Chief, Gwangju Bukbu Police Station): "We have witnesses who have said the three assailants exercised violence, threat and extortion on 29 accounts."



Text messages demanding money were left by the assailants on the student’s cellphone. One of the three assailants has been criminally charged. An autopsy will be conducted to determine cause of death. Police will also investigate if the school began winter vacation early to hide the bullying. Police have declared war on school violence in the wake of a rash of suicides from Daegu to Gwangju. Laws have also been amended to ensure that violent students expelled from schools cannot return to the same schools as their victims.



7. Fun Donations



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Helping the underprivileged doesn’t necessary require direct visits to their homes. The ways you can contribute to charity have grown more diverse, convenient and interesting.



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Office workers with a bit of free time knit away. The male employees try knitting for the first time as well. They do so stitch by stitch until a small fur hat appears. The hats are being knitted for newborn babies in Africa. This new enterprise is aimed at saving babies suffering from hypothermia. Volunteers must pay a donation fee and buy materials with their own money. Their knitting also requires time and effort. But the number of donated fur hats is rising every year.



This mobile game requires players to fertilize and water soil to grow baby plants. A so-called SNS donation project gives a real tree to charity when the virtual tree is fully grown. More players of the game means more tress that are planted. This encourages participants to keep playing the game.



[Soundbite] Kim Hyeong-su (CEO, Mobile Game Company): "We had people donate their time. So playing the game leads to donations."



100,000 people have participated in the game, resulting in 20,000 trees planted in Mongolia. Korea’s donation culture keeps evolving in new and better ways.



8. Jeju’s Plan



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After being chosen as one of the seven new wonders of nature, Jeju Island has big hopes for 2012. It plans to attract 10 million visitors this year alone.



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It’s early morning on the first day of the new year at Jeju International Airport. Tourists arrive, one by one, in high spirits. This is the first tourist to arrive in Jeju in 2012. Many gifts are distributed, from flowers to hotel vouchers.



[Soundbite] "This is my fourth time to Jeju and it gets better every time. I’d like to go up Mt. Halla this time."



Jeju hopes to attract 10 million tourists this year. This target number of visitors is 1.3 million more than that of last year. Jeju hopes that by being chosen as one of the new seven wonders of nature last year and by holding the world’s largest conference on nature preservation in September will help it achieve its goal.



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Kim Chang-hyo (Jeju Provincial Tourism Association): We will take on new projects aimed at adding value to Jeju by attracting honeymoon tours and relating M.I.C.E.’s.



But the island is already saturated with domestic tourists. With international tourists accounting for only 10%, attracting more foreign tourists is key to achieving its goal. More tourism packages and improvements, such as better accommodation and more directs flights to and from Jeju Island, should be created in order to draw the attention of the Chinese and Japanese tourists.



9. Coming Home



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Korea is infamous for sending scores of abandoned babies overseas for adoption. More than 200 thousand babies have been sent abroad over the past 50 years. Recently, some adoptees with disabilities visited their home country in search of their roots.



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Many children from Korea are adopted by foreigners every year. Some of them visited their home country recently. They’re 14 adoptees with disabilities and their families.



[Soundbite] Pace (U.S. Adoptee)



The guests visit the welfare center that took care of them before their adoption. Social workers are surprised and happy to see Guus. Guus and his family tour the facility and recall the time when he was adopted.



[Soundbite] Jason (Gus’s Father)



The visitors also take part in events during their stay in Korea. This place offers adoptees and their families a chance to try their hand at cooking Korean dishes.



[Soundbite] Emily (Gus’s Mother)



It was a valuable opportunity to sample Korean cuisine and culture. So, how does it taste?



[Soundbite]…





For Lana, it’s finally the moment she’s been waiting for. She reunites with her foster mother.



[Soundbite] "You are my gift. I don’t need any other things."



Lana’s foster mother still remembers that she liked rice cookies as a child. So she brought some for her today.



[Soundbite] Lana (U.S. Adoptee)



David, who was also adopted overseas, looks through his adoption papers hoping to find his biological roots. 29-year-old was abandoned by his biological parents because he had developmental disorders dwarfism and a heart disease. His Korean name is Sin Dae-cheol. During his visit to Korea, he reunited with his foster mother, who took care of him 25 years ago.



[Soundbite] "Oh my god! You’re all grown up."



David’s foster mother is happy to see him looking healthy and happy thanks to his new family. They look at the photos showing David at the time of his adoption and chat. Unfortunately, David failed to find his biological mother this time.



[Soundbite] David (U.S. Adoptee)



It’s already time to leave. The adoptees had a chance to learn more about their home country during their stay. They say they hope to come back someday.



[Soundbite] Park Myeong-ui (Foster Mother): "I’m so gland that Eun-na (Lana) and her family will visit Korea again. I’m so happy because it’s not as heartbreaking this time as it was when we sent her for adoption."



Hopefully, many Korean adoptees will remember their home country not as a place of painful memories but as a country of warmhearted people.