Sewol Crew Trial

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The first trial for the fifteen crew members of the sunken Sewol ferry was held today at the Gwangju District Court. The defendants included the ferry’s captain Lee Joon-seok, who was indicted for homicide.

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The ferry Sewol's fifteen crew members, including its captain Lee Joon-seok, were indicted last month. They are accused of abandoning the sinking vessel without helping other passengers evacuate. Six public defenders and one privately retained attorney will represent the defendants. The captain and another crew member had appointed an attorney of their own but he has resigned soon after. The defendants will be tried at a criminal courtroom of the Gwangju District Court. There used to be eight seats for defendants and their lawyers, but now there are 24. There are also more chairs on the prosecution's side, upped from four to six. Outside video feeds will bring the witnesses' testimonies, including those of Danwon High School students, so they would not have to face the defendants directly. Plus, an additional courtroom has been arranged for the general public to watch the proceedings.

[Soundbite] HAN JI-HYEONG (Spokesman, Gwangju District Court) : "Victim statement forms will be provided at the entrance, so they can submit their opinions to the judges during the trial."

Four judges - one chief judge and three associates - will preside over the trial. One more associate judge was appointed than usual, because an intense legal battle is expected to be waged over the defendants' homicide charges. The Korean Bar Association will also assist with victims' testimonies and the viewing of trial records.

[Soundbite] GUK JUNG-DON (Attorney-At-Law) : "The victims' families are likely to present such materials through the Korean Bar Association so that the truth of this case would come out completely."

The court plans to hold at least one hearing a week, since this is a high profile case. The first ruling is expected to be handed down some three months later, which will be around September.

2. Manhunt for Yoo

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For 20 days now, prosecutors and police have been hard at work to ferret out Yoo Byung-eon in the southern region of the country. Despite their efforts, they have yet to reach a breakthrough.

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Investigators stop every passing car to check the passengers and even the trunks. These inspections are aimed at finding Yoo Byung-eon, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Prosecutors and police have built up a dragnet around the Mokpo and Haenam areas to track and arrest Yoo.

[Soundbite] Ins. LEE HYEON-PIL (Mokpo Police Station) : "We are checking the area thoroughly because he can escape through ports and stow away overseas."

The authorities continue to comb farms related to Yoo's religious sect and trace its members. Police responded to a report that Yoo had been found by deploying some 100 troops to arrest him, but so far all the efforts to apprehend the fugitive have failed. Some say that it's already too late to search for Yoo because the car traced back to him was spotted in Haenam many days ago, on May 31. Prosecutors have been searching Yoo's ranch, religious facilities and rest areas in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province since May 19, but each time they were a day or two late and Yoo had already escaped. It's been postulated that members of Yoo's Salvation Sect might be fooling the prosecutors with a smokescreen strategy, as none of Yoo's fingerprints were discovered at his ranch or in his vehicles. Prosecutors continue to increase pressure on Yoo and his family by arresting those who have helped Yoo to escape and expanding the probe to his in-laws, but to no avail so far.

3. Collusive Ties

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One of the underlying causes for the April ferry tragedy was the collusive ties between maritime bureaucrats and the private shipping sector and inadequate oversight. High-ranking officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport were elected to the National Assembly with the support of ship owners – and have remained close ever since.

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In 2009 the age limit of operable passenger ships was raised from 25 years to 30 years. It was the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that made this change possible, something the shipping industry had long lobbied for. Vice Minister of Tranport Lee Jae-gyoon and maritime policy official Kim Hee-kuk, who pushed for the revision, successfully ran for the National Assembly in Busan and Daegu three years later. During their campaigning, the two officials each received roughly 4,900 U.S. dollars in political contribution from Mr. Jeong, vice chairman of the Korea Shipowners' Association. Once in the National Assembly, Lee tabled a bill to operate the National Maritime Museum in Busan as a special corporate body.

[Soundbite] Shipping Industry Official (Voice Modified) : "Positions for retired officials can be made that way. Once the museum is turned into a special corporate body, a public official could retire and work as its director."

Lee was stripped of his lawmaker status last year for violating the election laws. Nevertheless, he still maintains close ties with the shipping industry by serving as standing advisor to the Korea Shipowners' Association.

[Soundbite] Korea Shipowners’ Association Official (Voice Modified) : "Since he worked in the shipping section, we asked him to serve as advisor."

However, Lee refused to comment on his relationship with the association. Meanwhile, Kim Hee-kuk wrote that the National Assembly should defer the amendment of the Maritime Safety Act in 2011, while he was serving as Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. His opinion allowed the Korea Shipping Association to keep managing and operating seafaring vessels. Some officials of the Korea Shipping Association have been arrested for not properly conducting safety inspections of the sunken ferry.

4. International Court

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Tokyo has moved to present the dispute over the Dokdo Islets to the International Court of Justice. However, this may not even be possible with the unveiling of a classified document dating back 50 years in which the Japanese government said Dokdo was not subject to the international court.

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This classified report on the Dokdo islets was drafted in 1962 by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was disclosed to the public recently for the first time. The report says that Dokdo cannot be subject to international lawsuits because it is not included in the category of international disputes. Two reasons are given. The first is an issue of time. Only matters that arise after the announcement of compulsory jurisdiction can be defined as international territorial disputes. Therefore, the Dokdo issue cannot be classified as an international territorial dispute because it arose before Japan announced its compulsory jurisdiction in 1958. Also, trials involving territorial disputes are only conducted among countries that have announced their compulsory jurisdictions. Korea has never announced one, and therefore is not subject to such trials.

[Soundbite] LEE YANG-SU (Member, Civic Group) : "This does mean that the Dokdo issue can’t be a matter of dispute. In other words, Japan knew that it had no legal grounds to bring it up."

Eight months later, in October 1962 another classified document was drafted. It contained information on a meeting between then-chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency Kim Jong-pil and then-Japanese Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda that was held behind closed doors. At the meeting Ikeda offered to leave the issue of the Dokdo islets, which were under the effective control of Korea, as it was. Japan refuses to disclose all of the documents stipulating agreements between Korea and Japan on the Dokdo issue because it is fully aware that Dokdo is not subject to international judgement.

5. Pyongyang Trip Memoir

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Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote a detailed account of her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s visit to North Korea in 2009 in her newly released memoir. Here’s more.

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In her newly released memoir "Hard Choices," former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described in detail the tough negotiation process between Washington and Pyongyang in 2009. Two female American reporters, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, were being detained in North Korea at the time. The North Korean regime demanded that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, visit the North as a special envoy to negotiate for the release of the two journalists. She wrote that some White House advisers were against this, saying that such actions would only reward North Korea's bad behaviors and cause concern for U.S. allies. However, Hillary Clinton thought that bringing those reporters back was the most important goal and talked to President Obama to have her husband go to North Korea to bring them home. She wrote that a regime with nuclear ambitions like North Korea could respond positively if the U.S. presented appropriate incentives. Her book also included a photo of the determined-looking Secretary taken at the demilitarized zone. Considered a heavy favorite in the next presidential race, Hillary Clinton showed her interest in the North Korean and Asian issues by talking about them in the front half of the book.

6. Online Toy Prices

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Online toy shops have been caught red-handed lying about the discounts they offer. The retailers have inflated their actual discount rates to make consumers think that their products are being offered at rock-bottom prices.

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The Consumers Union of Korea recently conducted two surveys on the prices of popular toys at six online shopping malls. They found that two of the malls cheated consumers by falsely indicating the discount rates they offered. In the first survey, a shopping mall informed the union that it sold a toy for approximately 60 U.S. dollars, which was 18 percent off the original price of around 74 dollars. But in the second survey, the consumers' union found that although the discount remained at 18 percent, the shopping mall unfairly earned over three dollars more in profit by inflating the original price to over 78 dollars. The union plans to report the two shopping malls to the Fair Trade Commission for their unfair pricing policies.

7. Living Arrangements

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Students in Korea have a hard time finding an affordable place to live thanks to sky-high rent prices. But here’s an interesting way some college students are saving on their living costs, with the help of their elders.

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This young man and an elderly woman look like a grandson and a grandmother, but in fact they are a tenant and a landlord. The young man is a college student who lives in one of the rooms in the elderly woman's apartment. Since her own children grew up and moved out, she has had a vacant room in her home. This kind of lease is called "room sharing." There's no deposit, because the deal is guaranteed by the local ward office. Moreover, the monthly rent is less than 200 dollars, which is only half the standard monthly rent in the neighborhood.

[Soundbite] JANG TAE-JONG (Nowon District Official) : "Sixteen college students and 13 households participated in the program. They are all satisfied."

Thanks to the low rental fees, college students can find a nice place to live. Senior residents also like the idea because now they have someone to keep them company.

[Soundbite] IM SUN-BIN (Room Sharing Landlord) : "When I was living alone, I felt lonesome because there was nobody in the room. But now that there are shoes - man's shoes - here, I feel safe. I like it."

One civic group has set up a room-sharing cooperative. The cooperative uses its funds to rent rooms for ten years and lease them to students who are members of the cooperative for monthly rents that are 20 percent cheaper than the market price. Home owners are also satisfied with such deals, because they can lease vacant rooms in their homes for long periods of time without having to pay commissions to the realtor.

[Soundbite] GWON JI-UNG (Head, Minsnail Union) : "If we operate this in the form of a cooperative, we can significantly reduce the number of vacant rooms and cut management costs and commissions. This, in turn, enables us to lease rooms for a cheaper price."

Thanks to this innovative idea college students can concentrate on studying without worrying about high rents.

8. PSY Returns

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Korea’s iconic rapper PSY is at it again, with the release of a new music video that’s already attracting millions of views on YouTube. Let’s take a look at the collaboration with rapping legend Snoop Dogg.

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South Korean singer PSY revealed the music video for his new song "Hangover" on Monday, with powerful beats and an addictive refrain. As the title indicates, the music video is a hilarious description of Korea's unique drinking culture, and the unfortunate side effects that follow. The video offers glimpses into heavy and competitive drinking, as well as everyday settings in Korea like convenience stores, karaoke rooms and billiard halls. The song features American rap legend Snoop Dogg. While some Korean does pop up, most of the lyrics are sung in English. The Korean singer chose the hip-hop style judging it to be the most trendy genre in the global pop music market.

[Soundbite] IM JIN-MO (Pop Music Critic) : "It shows his will to enter the global pop music market in earnest. He is determined to compete with foreign artists, American ones in particular."

Korean music fans offered mixed responses to PSY's new hip-hop song, but its hits on YouTube are soaring, and Billboard gave a positive review. Already, it's showing the potential to become another global phenomenon.

9. Offbeat Certifications

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Certificates are not just for high-profile occupations. You can also earn certificates as a baby massage therapist or even as a magician. One thing that makes these certificates stand out is that studying to earn them can be fun.

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This academy in the city of Gwangju trains magicians. A seasoned magician is putting up an enthralling show.

[Soundbite] "If you blow on it, it'll disappear."

The spectators include adults of various age groups. They are riveted by the magic show. What's more, they are trying the magic tricks firsthand as if they were getting ready to debut as magicians themselves. These people come here once a week to learn the art of magic.

[Soundbite] PARK SIN-HUI (Aspiring Magician) : "I’m studying for magician’s certificate here."

Magic classes are very popular as an after-school activity among elementary schoolchildren. To become a magic teacher, you must earn a certificate from the Korea Association of Magic. All these people are aspiring magic teachers who want to earn the certificate.

[Soundbite] "It's always fun and I can learn faster here. "

It's finally the big day. Only those who take a ten-week course and pass the performance test can acquire the certificate of a magic instructor.

[Soundbite] JEONG HYEON-JIN (Magic Instructor) : "I evaluate the applicants based on how easy their magic tricks are to understand for children and how educational they are. "

The first applicant starts showing the skills that he has honed so far. But he ends up making a mistake. It looks like passing the test will not be easy for him.

[Soundbite] HONG GYEONG-SEON (Aspiring Magician) : "I think I've failed because I made a mistake. I'll try my best not to make any mistakes next time and pass the test."

The certificate of a magic instructor can bring you various career opportunities. Finding a new job is a bit like magic. Many young parents these days want to earn a certificate to become a baby massage therapist. This kind of certificate is popular not only among kindergarten teachers and physical therapists, but also among ordinary people.

[Soundbite] YUN HYE-JIN (Aspiring Baby Massage Therapist) : "I came here to acquire the certificate because after learning this I can give a massage to my own child and work as a therapist as well."

Baby massage and yoga are known to promote growth in children and have an emotionally calming effect. This certificate is especially popular among young mothers because giving baby massages help them bond with their babies. The aspiring baby massage therapists include many young fathers as well. Their numbers soared after famous fighter Chu Sung-hoon, who has a young daughter, said on a television show that he's a certified baby massage therapist.

[Soundbite] LEE SEON-YONG (Aspiring Baby Massage Therapist) : "I want to learn this in advance because someday I'll become a father. Also, this can come in handy for me as a teacher who teaches young children."

Massaging gently is the main point of a baby massage. The students keep practicing to improve their skills.

[Soundbite] "Massage the muscles harder, but be easy on the joints."

Those who pass baby massage and yoga tests and a written exam and get enough attendance points can also earn the certificate of an infant growth tutor, which can come in handy when raising your own kid as well as when trying to start a career as a therapist.

[Soundbite] KIM RI-JA (CEO, Baby Yoga & Massage Association): "Massaging babies gives you confidence and helps you bond with children. If you also take expert courses after earning the certificate, you can become an instructor, like me. "

Acquiring these certificates can be fun, because in addition to making your job as a parent easier, they can also help you earn money.