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PRIME TIME NEWS 22:00
(THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT FOR ARIRANG NEWS THAT AIRED ON 19 Aug 2013- 22:00 KST.)
Title: News Headlines
Up next in the broadcast.
After apparent moves by Pyongyang to link family reunion talks with resuming an inter-Korean
tour program. Seoul takes a cautious stance and says the two are separate issues.
South Korea and the United States begin their annual joint defense drills. However. this
year. North Korea has thus far refrained from condemning the exercise.
Egypt's military says all are welcome to live together. as long as it's done peacefully.
This weekend's call for calm comes after last week's violence killed close to 900 people.
Prime Time News begins now.
Title: Prime Time News Title
Prime Time News Title
Title: Opening
Good evening and welcome to Prime Time News. It's Monday,. August 19th here in Korea.
Live from Seoul., I'm Yoo Ji-hae. And I'm Sean Lim.
Thank you for joining us.
Title: S. Korea: Talks over family reunions, Mt. Geumgang tours to be dealt with separately
We begin with the sudden stream of offers for talks between the two Koreas.,
While North Korea has accepted Seoul's proposal for dialogue on resuming family reunions.,
the two sides have yet to decide on the location. The South also has not responded to the North's
offer for negotiations on reopening the shuttered Mount Geumgang resort to South Korean tourists.
Hwang Sung-hee has the details on the upcoming dialogue. South Korea said Monday that talks
on resuming reunions for separated families and on reopening the Mount Geumgang resort
to South Korean tourists will be dealt with as two separate issues.
"The South Korean government will deliver our stance on the issue to the public after
a thorough review of the overall situation."
On Sunday, North Korea proposed to hold fresh talks this Thursday on resuming South Korean
tours to the Mount Geumgang resort, offering to discuss Seoul's concerns like ensuring
personal safety and protecting South Korean properties.
The resort has been closed to South Koreans since 2008, after a tourist from the South
was fatally shot by a North Korean guard. And while the North accepted Seoul's offer
for Red Cross talks on resuming reunions for families separated during the Korean War on
Friday, the two are engaged in a tug-of-war on the venue of the meeting.
Pyongyang has proposed to meet at the Mount Geumgang resort, while Seoul has reiterated
that the truce village of Panmunjom is the most ideal location due to the convenience
of its location. And as part of efforts to reopen the jointly-run
Gaeseong Industrial Complex, North Korea sent on Monday evening its draft proposal for the
formation of a joint committee that will oversee the management of the factory zone.
Seoul said it will send its own draft proposal sometime this week, after reviewing the document
it received from the North. Meanwhile, a South Korean communications and
power inspection team made its second trip to Gaeseong on Monday to check up on the facilities
at the complex, which have been closed for more than four months now.
Hwang Sung-hee, Arirang News.
Title: S. Korea, U.S. kick off annual joint training exercises
While the two Koreas are making efforts to revive dialogue., South Korea and the U.S.
have started their joint training exercise,. the Ulchi Freedom Guardian.
But unlike in the past, North Korea has so far refrained from condemning the drills.
Our Kim Hyun-bin reports on Pyongyang's reserved tongue. South Korea and the U.S. have kicked
off on Monday their annual 12-day joint training exercise.
The computer simulation aided joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian drill mobilizes roughly 50-thousand
Koreans and 30-thousand U.S. troops. The main purpose of the exercise is to maintain
security on the Korean peninsula, while upholding joint defense capabilities between the two
allies. In this year's exercise, observers from the
Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, which ensures the implementation of the Korean War
Armistice agreement, along with seven countries in the United Nations Command will monitor
the drills. Along with this military exercise, Seoul has
launched its annual four-day local emergency drill to measure the government's readiness
for dealing with terrorist situations and military threats from the North.
Unlike other years in which North Korea has lashed out against the joint exercises, North
Korea has so far kept mum on the issue, with experts saying it is due to recent progress
on inter-Korean relations. Pyongyang had conventionally condemned the
joint training drills claiming they are a prelude to war, disregarding Seoul and Washington's
argument that they are for defense purposes only.
The two Koreas remain technically at war after the Korean War ended with an armistice agreement.
Kim Hyun-bin, Arirang News.
Title: President Park orders Cabinet to tackle soaring "jeonse" prices
The difficulty of finding a place to live at an affordable price doesn't show any sign
of easing up here in the nation. especially for renters.
In response., President Park Geun-hye renewed her commitment to tackling skyrocketing rental
prices., and pledged to do what she can. to help solve the persistent problem.
Our presidential office correspondent Eoh Jin-joo reports. "Crazy jeonse prices."
This is how Koreans these days are describing Korea's unique housing system of lump-sum
rental deposits. The country's unstable housing market has
even forced people with enough money to buy their own homes outright to turn to long-term
leases,. pushing up the jeonse prices even higher.
The year-on-year increase in jeonse prices of apartments in the Seoul metropolitan area
has doubled since last year to 4-point-8 percent this year.
With more of a burden on the nation's middle class, commercial banks in Korea have announced
plans to raise the limit for jeonse loans in the coming days.
However,. President Park says. the measures aren't enough and will not fundamentally solve
the problem. During a Cabinet meeting Monday morning,.
President Park ordered her Cabinet members to work together with political parties. to
come up with regulations that could allow both lessors and lessees to make "reasonable
and predictable" contracts. She vowed to put top priority on the matter
during the latter half of the year.
"The president also promised to focus on revitalizing the economy and creating more jobs. In particular,
she called on the National Assembly to quickly pass the revised Foreigner Investment Promotion
bill, which would ease regulations on foreign companies."
She pointed out that more than 1-point-8 billion dollars in foreign investment has been put
on hold due to a delay in the passage of the bill, and stressed that it would be a huge
loss for the country, should the foreign companies scrap their investment plans in Korea and
take them to other countries instead. Eoh Jin-joo, Arirang News.
Title: Lawmakers question former, incumbent NIS agents
A group of current and former National Intelligence Service agents and police officers. took the
witness stand on Monday.over allegations that the nation's spy agency meddled in last year's
presidential election. Kim Yeon-ji reports from the National Assembly.
with the latest on the ongoing parliamentary probe. At Monday's hearing involving NIS agents,
a giant screen wall was set up so that their faces could not be seen.
Behind the wall were two active, and two inactive agents.
A female NIS agent, who stands accused of posting negative online comments about opposition
presidential candidates before the December election, was among them.
The agent said. she was only fulfilling her duties as an agent.
"I never received orders to meddle in the presidential election. I only did my duties
to respond to North Korea's propaganda online."
But the agent refused to answer many of the questions posed, saying she didn't want to
incriminate herself in the event she is put on trial at a later date.
Kwon Eun-hee, a police officer who led the investigation into the spy agency's scandal
at Seoul's Suseo Police Station, said she received a phone call from former Seoul Metropolitan
Police chief Kim Yong-pan on December 16th. Kwon said. that Kim told her not to file a
request for a warrant to search the apartment from where the NIS agent was found to have
posted sensitive political comments.
"What Kim Yong-pan did was unfair, because it tampered with our investigation at Suseo
station."
Kwon said she had asked the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency to analyze all files saved in
the female NIS agent's computer, including 100 keywords.
But she said the police agency cut that number down to just four. and then released the results
of the investigation at 11 p.m. on December 16th,. just three days before the election.
"Other high-ranking NIS agents at the hearing said there may be posted comments online that
others may have judged as being 'inappropriate' or 'problematic'. But they claimed they only
posted them to effectively counter North Korean propaganda in cyberspace."
Kim Yeon-ji, Arirang News.
Title: Prime Talk: Prof. Kim Eun-ki on Post-Vacation Syndrome
If you feel sluggish after coming back from your summer vacation. the cause may not just
be your wish to go back. Sleep disorders. fatigue and even indigestion
may stem from the disruption of your biological clock.
To tell us more about how our hormonal system works. and what we can do to minimize post-vacation
withdrawal or low biorhythms. we bring in Dr. Kim Eun-ki ,.Professor of Biological Engineering
at Inha University in the studio. Welcome.
Good to be here.
Professor Kim, apparently we don't have just one biological clock. but a whole network
of tiny. coordinated clocks. How does this system work?
We've all heard people complain that they wish they could be a "morning person" or say
they are a "night person." Do we all have different clock in our bodies. and can we
change it to adapt to our life's demands?
What happens when biological clocks don't function? And how serious is the condition?
Could you give our viewers some tips to avoid post-vacation syndromes and retrieve their
normal physical condition?
Professor Kim. Thanks for your insights tonight.
Thank you for having me.
Title: Dozens more killed in Egypt Monday
Turning now to the ongoing crisis in Egypt,. After last week's carnage. clashes between
security forces and protesters continued on Monday.,
Our Song Ji-sun has the latest on Egypt's unrest this week which left more than two
dozen dead. The unrest on Monday resulted in casualties on both sides of the conflict.
Egypt's state-run Nile TV reported Monday. that armed militants killed at least 25 Egyptian
soldiers execution style in the northern city of Rafah.
The suspected militants ambushed two mini-buses carrying off-duty policemen.
The incident is the latest in a series in recent days.
On Sunday, police fired tear gas to free a prison guard from rioting detainees.
Authorities say some 600 Muslim Brotherhood detainees, being transported in a truck convoy,
attempted to break out and held an officer hostage.
Rioters say 36 were killed in the ensuing assault.
The Brotherhood also canceled a planned march Sunday in Heliopolis, a suburb of Cairo, due
to concerns of snipers. In the midst of all the violence, the nation's
military chief, General Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, vowed on state TV Sunday that the military
would stand firm in the face of the rising violence, but also called for the inclusion
of Islamists in the post-Morsy political process. The army enforced a dawn-to-dusk curfew in
the Egyptian capital Cairo on Sunday with soldiers standing by in armored vehicles and
manned checkpoints. More than 850 people have been killed in Egypt
since security forces forcibly broke up two pro-Morsy protest camps in Cairo last Wednesday.
Song Ji-sun, Arirang News.
Title: Intl. community weighs options on Egypt
Staying with Egypt. In the meantime, the international community.
especially the U.S. is keeping a close eye on the bloodshed.
Park Ji-won has the details on how the recent events may shape the international response.
In the U.S.,. lawmakers continue to debate whether the U.S. should carry on sending hundreds
of millions of dollars worth of military and economic aid to Egypt.
Out of the 1-point-five-billion dollars sent to Cairo each year,. one-point-three billion
goes to the military. Egypt has been a recipient of U.S. bilateral
aid,. since 1979, when it signed a peace treaty with Israel.
"Now with the recent violent crackdown, I do not see how we can continue aid. I believe
it must be suspended, because unfortunately, I think, the military has got the impression,
that whatever they do we will continue our aid so I do support suspending aid at this
time."
Other lawmakers say the U.S. should continue its aid to Egypt,. considering its long-standing
bilateral relations with the North African country,. and its national security interests
in the region.
"One of the obvious facts of a transition from authoritarian government to a democracy.
It takes a long time and it's not a straight line. So, we have to have a policy that expresses
our outrage, really, at the military but also gives the president the tools to - we hope
- engage them,"
U.S. President Obama criticized Egypt's military-backed interim government strongly last week, following
the military's recent crackdown on pro-Morsy supporters.
He also called off a joint military exercise scheduled for later this year, but the White
House has yet to announce whether or not it will continue its bilateral aid to Egypt.
Park Ji-won, Arirang News.
Title: Stranded Korean passengers in Philippines to fly home by Tues.
Good news for the thousand or so South Korean passengers. who were left stranded in the
Philippines. after authorities there grounded all flights by budget carrier Zest Air.
They should all be back on Korean soil by this time tomorrow.
South Korean and Philippine chartered special planes to fly about half of them back on Monday,.
and all the remaining people are expected to return to Korea by Tuesday.
All Zest Air flights were grounded on Friday. due to safety concerns.
Title: Sakurajima volcano erupts in Japan
And taking you now to southern Japan., where a volcano erupted on Sunday,. shooting up
a giant plume of smoke into the air. Large amounts of volcanic ash fell in the
region,. causing delays in public transport and forcing people to take cover.
Kim Min-ji reports. An ash cloud loomed over southern Japan after Mount Sakurajima erupted
on Sunday afternoon,. blasting an ash plume of thousands of meters into the air and casting
a dark spell over the region. The 1-thousand-117 meter,. or 3-thousand-665
feet,. volcano near Kagoshima City began to erupt around 4:30 p.m. local time.
Volcanic ash swept the northern and central parts of the city,. causing a delay in train
services,. while drivers had to use their headlights in broad daylight.
Residents of Kagoshima and tourists used handkerchiefs to cover their mouths and wore masks for protection,.
while others shielded themselves with umbrellas. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
The plume of smoke reached a spectacular height of 5-thousand meters,. the highest record
since data was complied in 1955. The Japanese meteorological observatory also
reported a pyroclastic flow -- a current of gas and rock -- discovered roughly one kilometer
southeast down the slope of the volcano. Sunday's eruption of Mount Sakurajima was
the 5-hundredth this year,. which is about 950 kilometers southwest of Tokyo.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.
Title: Sports News Title
Sports News Title
Title: Pro-Am Basketball Championships enter 8th round
The Pro-Amateur Basketball Championships entered the Round of Eight today in Seoul.
And, we have Steven Choi in the sports center to tell us how the amateurs are holding up
against the pros. Steven? Hey guys,. the Pro-Amateur event may only
be an exhibition, but the players are definitely taking it seriously, with their pride on the
line. And, just like last year, the amateur teams are making a stand.
In the Round of Eight today,. the SK Knights, defeated fellow pro team, the ET Land Elephants,.
SIXTY-SIX to FIFTY-FOUR, thanks to a double-double by SK's Kim Min-soo, who put up 16 points
and 13 rebounds. Meanwhile,. Korea University took down their
second pro team, the KT Sonicboom by a huge margin,. SEVENTY-FOUR to FIFTY-THREE.
Korea U is feeling super-confident,. and will face either KGC or the army team, Sang-moo
in the Final Four on Wednesday.
Title: Athletics: Bolt closes out IAAF Worlds in record fashion
And, off to track and field,. the IAAF World Championships in Moscow have come to a close,
crowning many champions along the way. But, none are as successful,. or as fast,. as Jamaica's
Usain Bolt. The Lightning, Usain Bolt brought the THUNDER,
winning the gold medal with his team in the 4-by-100 meter relay,. and becoming the most
successful athlete in World Championships' history,. with a total eight golds and two
silvers. Meanwhile, South Korean runners set a Korean
record in the 4-by-100, with a time of 39 seconds flat,. although they didn't make it
to the final heat.
Title: KBO Standings
And, now its time to talk baseball Well, no games were played today, so let's go to the
standings
The Samsung Lions remain on top, despite winning only two of six games this week.
The LG Twins are nipping at their heels. They're zero games back, but down only by win percentage.
The Doosan Bears went on a tear and now sit just two games behind LG,. while the Nexen
Heroes fell deeper into fourth place.
On to the bottom half of the standings,. Lotte continues to stay in the mix at fifth place,.
while SK overtakes freefalling KIA, at sixth place.
NC went on a late season run, winning four matchups last week,. while Hanwha remains
at the bottom of the order.
That does it for me in the sports center. This has been Steven Choi . Check back at
midnight for
the latest in the world of sports
Title: bridge
SUMMER SPLASH Han River Swimming Pool, Yeouido
Title: Weather Title
Weather Title
Title: Heat goes on, chance of showers Tuesday
Let's now go over to our Kwon Soa for the latest weather forecast Hi, there
Hi, guys Although we had a little bit of rain yesterday night through the morning, it didn't
help cool things off that much.
I've got the feeling that this week won't be much different from the previous ones.
It's true that things won't change drastically. But there are a couple of factors that'll
make the heat feel better.
Which are?
First off, the humidity levels have dropped a lot recently. Also, tropical nights are
going to decrease bit by bit.
For a look at tomorrow's weather, we'll have pretty cloudy skies at times, for we will
be at the edge of the high pressure system located in northeast China. In the east coast
regions, meanwhile, we expect some rain to begin at night.
In inland regions of the southern provinces, there are chances of showers in the latter
half of the day due to instability in the atmosphere, which could be accompanied by
thunder activity.
Temperature-wise, no big change from today. Seoul and Daegu reach 33 degrees, Gwangju
a blistering 36, Busan 31.
Daejeon and Jeju both hit 34 degrees, Dokdo and Mt. Geumgang 27 and 21 respectively.
That's it for now, but see you back after midnight
Title: Closing
Well. that's our broadcast on this Monday night.
I'm Yoo Ji-hae in Seoul. And I'm Sean Lim.
Thanks for joining us.