Launch Succeeds

[Anchor Lead]

With the success of its Naro rocket, Korea has joined the world’s elite club of countries that have reached into space.

[Pkg]

The Naro rocket takes off from the Korean peninsula. 4.5 seconds after takeoff and reaching 60 meters in altitude, the rocket slants about five degrees towards the northeast direction. This is an evasive maneuver to protect the launch pad from the rocket’s flames, which exceed 2500 degrees Celsius. At 54 seconds, the rocket breaks the sound barrier at an altitude of 7.2 kilometers. At around three minutes, the rocket is too quick even for a high-tech camera to catch. This footage was taken at the same time on a nearby island with a satellite tracking device. In the video exclusively shown by KBS, the rocket passes through the atmosphere and the fairings separate. The rocket is visible until the first-stage thrust engine stops. 395 seconds after the launch, the space vehicle's upper part reaches an elevation of 303 kilometers and the second stage rocket is ignited as it heads towards its targeted orbit. At 453 seconds, it reaches the target orbit at an altitude of 304 kilometers. At nine minutes, or 540 seconds, the satellite and second stage rocket are separated and the satellite safely enters into orbit.

[Soundbite] Lee Ju-ho(Education & Science Technology Minister) : "According to the data, we can officially say that the Naro rocket has taken the Naro science satellite into the targeted orbit successfully."

After a decade of development, including two failures and being postponed six times, Korea has finally succeeded with its first domestically-made space launch vehicle.

2. Naro's Role

[Anchor Lead]

One of the main purposes of the Naro was its cargo: a scientific satellite. Here's more about its mission.

[Pkg]

The scientific satellite mounted onto the space rocket Naro measures one meter by 1.5 meters, and weighs 100 kilograms. The satellite was made from scratch over the past year and cost 1.8 million U.S. dollars to produce. Unlike its previous model, the latest model has a hexagonal shape, which is safer and more stable while flying. The mission of the Naro's scientific satellite is to conduct scientific observations, check the orbit navigation technologies, and test state-of-the-art equipment. Scientific observations are carried out with the help of the Langmuir probe installed in the scientific satellite. The device observes the movement and temperature of the sun, while its sensor measures the amount of radiation in space.

[Soundbite] Lee In(Satellite Technology Research Center) : "By measuring space ions, the satellite will check for any solar storms, communications errors and problems with semiconductor devices."

The satellite's laser retroreflector array, which is a high-tech device designed to measure the satellite's orbit, calculates the distance between the ground station and the satellite with up to a millimeter precision and sends data about its exact location in its orbit. Its optical fiber femtosecond laser will directly test the distance by means of measuring technologies that have an accuracy of up to a femto-second. Over the next year, the Naro scientific satellite will conduct radioactive observations in space and take thermal images of the Korean Peninsula. After that, its mission will be transferred to a large next-generation satellite that is expected to come out in a few years.

3. Flight Footage

[Anchor Lead]

KBS has obtained exclusive footage of the Naro’s flight that was captured by a college research team.

[Pkg]

The Naro space rocket takes off at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the Naro Space Center about 480 kilometers away from Seoul. A domestic research team filmed the liftoff on an island 20 kilometers from the space center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. The rocket soars into the atmosphere and disappears from broadcasting cameras. But Naro is still observed using a special satellite lens. The rocket passes the atmosphere at an elevation of 100 kilometers and enters space. The first-stage engine stops, following the separation of the rocket's fairings. The space rocket, which looks like a tiny flame, disappears completely from view. The video footage was taken by a Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology research team led by professor O Jun-ho. It successfully filmed Naro's flight into space by mounting a camera onto a telescope. The footage is about a minute longer than other video clips on the rocket’s launch. The remote filming was a first for Korea.

[Soundbite] Prof. O Jun-ho(KAIST) : "Advanced countries film the flights of rockets until they enter space. This data is very important."

The technology to film Naro has advanced over the course of the ten years it took to develop the space rocket.

4. Pyeongchang Focus

[Anchor Lead]

The 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games is now underway in Pyeongchang. The Global Development Summit is also being held at the same time.

[Pkg]

Roughly 300 honorary guests arrived at the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyeongchang. The guests include Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and retired Chinese professional basketball player Yao Ming. They attended the Global Development Summit, which was held on the sidelines of the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a congratulatory video message for the opening of the meeting.

[Soundbite] Ban Ki-moon(Secretary-General, U.N.)

The summit adopted the Pyeongchang Declaration. The declaration calls on the international community to offer cultural, art and educational opportunities to 20 million people with intellectual disabilities globally. The declaration also urges countries to help those with intellectual disabilities to lead their own lives by reforming systems so that they can fully integrate into their communities and promoting changes in social attitudes toward them. The Pyeongchang Declaration is said to be an international standard that will measure how the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities will have improved at future Special Olympics World Games.

5. Kim Holds On

[Anchor Lead]

Kim Yong-joon will remain chairman of the presidential transition committee after his unprecedented withdrawal from the prime minister nomination.

[Pkg]

The presidential transition committee canceled all of its schedules on Wednesday, a day after the transition committee chairman Kim Yong-joon stepped aside from his nomination as prime minister, but at two p.m. Kim arrived at the committee office.

[Soundbite] Kim Yong-joon(Chairman, Presidential Transition Committee) : "(Will you still be the transition committee chairman?) Yes, yes."

The committee resumed their work. President-elect Park Geun-hye said she will be more discreet and strict when appointing public officials.

[Soundbite] Park Geun-hye(President-elect) : "Even if 99% of public workers are clean and only 1% are corrupt, the people still won't trust any public offices."

The president-elect and her transition team will be working on a tight schedule after having to return to the starting point in selecting a new prime minister. All the minister candidates should be chosen within the next five days if the National Assembly hearing is to proceed according to schedule. But the prime minister nominee must be selected first, since he must recommend the minister candidates before the personnel hearing. A transition team official said that this time verification will be carried out thoroughly though it may cause some delay. The ruling Saenuri Party, as well as the opposition party, says the president-elect should adopt a verification method that’s more systematic for personnel selection.

6. Toxic Gas-up

[Anchor Lead]

Reports have surfaced that police officers and firefighters were waylaid by security at a Samsung Electronics plant as they rushed to respond to a toxic gas leak.

[Pkg]

Firefighters were ordered to go to a Samsung Electronics plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, at 4:19 p.m. on Monday over a leak of hydrofluoric acid. It was 27 hours after the toxic chemical leak was first detected. But it took firefighters another 30 minutes to reach the leak site from the plant’s main gate. The police said that it also took them some time to reach the site of the incident from the main gate. The responders said that reason behind their delay was because the security guards were unaware of the hydrofluoric acid leak and demanded that the firefighters and police officers go through the company’s non-emergency entrance protocols. While Samsung agrees that its security guards were not given the news about the chemical leak and failed to let the firefighters and police officers in swiftly, the company argues that the response time by the officials was exaggerated. A surveillance camera footage shows that it didn't take that long for the emergency responders to reach the site. Meanwhile, an autopsy was carried out on a worker who died in the accident at the National Forensic Service on Wednesday. The police are continuing with their investigation into the case, summoning and questioning related officials. The National Forensic Service says that the results of the autopsy, including the exact cause of death of the worker, will come out in two weeks.

7. Elderly Obstacles

[Anchor Lead]

Life is getting tougher for senior citizens in Korea, which has one of the world’s most rapidly aging populations. The divorce rate is quickly rising among the elderly and more men in their 60s are working than men in their 20s.

[Pkg]

This 62-year-old man says he wants to retire. But he has to keep working as a taxi driver since he still has a family to take care of. But many seniors are in worse situations. A large number of seniors don't have jobs or late-life measures at hand. Financial issues are not the only thing that make later years difficult for Koreans. Elderly couples who cannot put up with their spouses have been splitting up. The number of elderly divorces in Korea increased fivefold in 21 years. Accordingly, one-third of the population living alone are aged 60 or older.

[Soundbite] Jo Gyeong-ae(Korea Legal Aid Center for Family Relations) : "After people get older, they think it's better to divorce and live happily than stay in an unhappy marriage."

Many Korean seniors are having tough lives after facing the shock from divorcing at a late age as well as from loneliness and financial problems.

8. Crime-Stopping CCTV

[Anchor Lead]

Surveillance cameras are a big help in catching criminals these days and the technology continues to evolve.

[Pkg]

A policeman chasing a burglar by car calls for help. Right away, real-time scenes taken by surveillance cameras along the route the suspect is likely to run come up on a large screen in the police situation room. The suspect is tracked down after searching all of the surveillance camera feed along all of the possible routes. This is a radar tracking system that was recently developed. When the crime site is located, all of the surveillance cameras within a certain radius are automatically scanned. Jungnang-gu district in Seoul is planning to use this system from mid February to track down criminals. This latest surveillance camera is awaiting commercialization. The camera automatically spins towards the clapping sounds. The camera’s special feature is that it has a sound detector. It can detect screams and even the sound of a crashing car so that police can rush to the scene immediately.

[Soundbite] Gwon Hyu-sang(Korea Research Inst. of Standards & Science) : "We hope it can capture all crime scenes and emergency situations more accurately."

There are around 58,000 surveillance cameras operating in Korea. With the use of these smarter cameras, the police will be able to better help prevent and tackle crimes and emergencies.

9. Dealing With Death

[Anchor Lead]

Many people are concerned with their health these days, and put a lot of time and effort into living well. Now, dying well is also becoming a focus.

[Pkg]

It’s tough to get the people getting their photos taken here to smile for the photographer. These are no ordinary photo sessions.

[Soundbite] "It's your last photo so give me a nice smile."

This is a place where you come to experience what it's like to die. First participant get changed into the outfit people are traditionally buried in in Korea. Then they spend some time looking at their last photographs and preparing to greet death. They write letters to their families as if it were the last time. Their wrists and ankles are bound and they lie down in coffins. They spend some time in the darkness and then finally re-emerge into the world of the living. Though they spent only 20 minutes in the coffins, they say the world looks completely different when they come out.

[Soundbite] Lee Ha-dong(Participant, Death Experience) : "When I thought it was the last moment of my life, lots of things crossed my mind. I just think I should live well."

Like these people, many people are dealing with death differently from in the past.

[Soundbite] "It's an advance health care directive form."

An advance health care directive or living will is a set of instructions about how much medical treatment you want to receive if you fall ill and can no longer give directions yourself.

[Soundbite] Park Yeong-ho(Advance Health Care Directive Promotion Campaign) : "Even people in their 30s are applying. Usually most are in their 60s but I see some people in their 40s and 50s."

A campaign promoting living wills was launched two years ago in Korea. So far, more than 7,000 people have filled out the form.

[Soundbite] Prof. Son Myeong-se(Yonsei University) : "You design it in advance and decide how you want to greet death. It's saying that you won’t be taken by death but that you will greet death."

These people are also preparing for the end of their lives. They're the cast of a play called "Picnic Day" that deals with late-life suicide. The actors are all certified instructors in dying well.

[Soundbite] Hwang Eun-sik(Well-Dying Drama Company) : "In order to prepare for a beautiful death we’re showing the ways how to look back on our lives before death."

Choe Myeong-hwan, the leader of the so-called Well-Dying Drama Company, says he realized how important the end of your life is after getting three cancer surgeries. The unexpected cancer diagnosis was a big shock to both him and h
is family.

[Soundbite] Choe Myeong-hwan(Leader, Well-Dying Drama Company) : "I realized that I was given only one life to live and I should live it more meaningfully and make it worthwhile."

The play is aimed at showing the importance of dying well.

[Soundbite] "I began writing my bucket list last year. Staging a play 100 times is on it."

[Soundbite] "Dying well is living well."

[Soundbite] "Looking at myself from the other side of death. That's dying well."

[Soundbite] "A happy life! A beautiful end!"

These days, people aren’t just concerned with living a good life but are also accepting death as an important part of it.