[321th] MBC to replace producer of singer survival program / Four N. Koreans get ready to settle in Seoul / 3 workers at Fukushima taken to hospital f

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MBC to replace producer of singer survival program

MBC said Wednesday it will replace Kim Young-hee, the veteran producer of singer survival program “I Am a Singer,” admitting that the producer’s decision to keep Kim Gun-mo -- who should have been eliminated in the first round of the competition with six other singers -- was wrong.

In each episode, seven singers are given a mission to perform in front of a 500-member audience made up of ordinary viewers. Under the program’s rules, the singer who receives the lowest score from the audience is replaced by a new singer.

However, Kim Gun-mo was given a special offer to compete in the next round in the episode that aired Sunday.

“Even though the participants and producers of the program had agreed to change the rule (to give Kim Gun-mo another chance), the elimination of the singer who gets the lowest score was a promise that we should have kept,“ MBC said in a statement.

“We will replace producer Kim Young-hee with a new producer for not abiding by the basic rule,” it said.

Singer Kim received the lowest number of votes after singing “Wearing Dark Lipstick,” originally sung by Im Joo-ri.

Producer Kim’s decision to keep the singer drew harsh criticism from viewers who expressed anger through online postings on the program’s website.

Among the criticisms was singer Kim’s unspoken pressure on six other participants who were all his junior. Kim’s music career spans nearly 20 years.

“One exception can lead to another. This can breach the ‘fundamental principle’ that is the pillar that holds up society. Accepting the viewers’ criticism, we will try harder to make the program better,” MBC said.

It has not been decided who will replace producer Kim.
The program “I Am a Singer” airs weekly on Sunday at 5 p.m.

SUMMARY

A singer survival program, ”I Am a Singer” has been under netizen’s continuous criticism. In this program, Seven singers are given a mission to perform in front of a 500-member audience made up of ordinary viewers. Under the program’s rules, the singer who receives the lowest score from the audience is replaced by a new singer. However, Kim Gun-mo was given a special offer to compete in the next round in the episode. Despite the apology, Kim Young-hee, the veteran producer, ended up being replaced.
 

QUESTION

1. Who do you think have the responsibility about this situation? Program itself or producers who proceed the program?

2. Do you think it’s understandable to replace the producer, Kim Young-hee as a settlement of the controversy?

3. What is your favorite TV program? Do you have preferring genre? Let’s talk about it.

Four N. Koreans get ready to settle in Seoul

Despite an ongoing tug of war with North Korea, South Korea has begun the process of officially accepting the four North Koreans who have expressed the wish to defect, officials in Seoul said Wednesday.

A North Korean boat carrying 31 people ― 11 men and 20 women ― drifted across the inter-Korean sea border in thick fog on Feb. 5.

Of the passengers, 27 expressed a desire to return home while four, including the ship’s captain, asked to stay.

While Seoul is firm on respecting the wishes of the four, citing international law, Pyongyang has demanded to meet them, accusing its rival of influencing the decision of its people who were kept here for investigations for nearly a month.

“It is against international practices and humanitarianism to send back people against their will. The four people will start to go through the process of defection like any other defectors beginning this week,” an official here said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Unlike the 27 North Koreans who are waiting to be accepted by Pyongyang at a military base near the border, the four are temporarily residing at a state-run center in which they will soon be interrogated as refugees.

After questioning, which could take from one to a maximum of six months, they will be sent to the Hanawon Defector Resettlement Center for language, cultural education and job training. The training at Hanawon usually takes about three months.

After leaving the training center, each North Korean defector will be given 13 million won ($11,670) for housing fees and another 6 million won to fund the basic supplies necessary to settle in. Extra money is given to elderly, disabled or unhealthy people.

While the support fund may seem moderate in the capitalist South, the money sums up to an amount that would take an ordinary worker in North Korea years of saving.

Despite harsh punishment for defection, a growing number of North Koreans have been fleeing to the wealthier South, indicating the deepening food shortages and instability in the communist state.

More than 20,000 North Koreans are said to have defected since the 1950-53 Korean War which ended in a temporary armistice.

SUMMARY

4 of the 31 people who drifted across the inter-Korean sea border express the wish to defect. While Seoul is firm on respecting the wishes of the four, citing international law, Pyongyang has demanded to meet them, accusing its rival of influencing the decision of its people who were kept here for investigations for nearly a month.

QUESTION

1. The stable political relation between South and North Korea or Individual human right, which side do you support in this situation? Do you think the government makes a wise decision?

2. In North Korea, huge numbers of people suffer inadequate nutrition and poor health condition. Do you think South Korea and International community need to give assistance to North Korea in spite of their selfish and assertive attitude?

3. The government provides defectors social, financial and cultural aids etc. Do you think it’s quite sufficient aids to help them adapt to new surroundings? If no, let’s share diverse ways we can think about.

3 workers at Fukushima taken to hospital for radiation

2011-03-24 15:50

TOKYO (Reuters) ― Radiation danger from Japan’s tsunami-smashed nuclear plant loomed Wednesday with water in Tokyo showing hazardous levels for infants and the United States becoming the first nation to block food imports.

Tokyo authorities said water at a purification plant for the capital of 13 million people had 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine ― more than twice the safety level for infants.

Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, however, said the radiation level posed no immediate health risk and water could still be used.

“But for infants under age one, I would like them to refrain from using tap water to dilute baby formula,” he said.

Crystallizing international concern, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was stopping imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in Japan’s crisis-hit northeast. South Korea may be next to ban Japanese food after the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
At the six-reactor Fukushima plant, crippled by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami, engineers are battling to cool reactors to contain further contamination and avert a meltdown.

In a rapidly widening problem, Japan said above-safety radiation levels had been discovered in 11 types of vegetables from the area, in addition to milk and water.

Officials still insisted, however, that there was no major danger to humans and urged the world not to over react.

“We will explain to countries the facts and we hope they will take logical measures based on them,” Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano, who has been the government’s public face during the disaster, told a news conference.

The Asian nation’s worst crisis since World War Two may have caused $300 billion damage, sent shock waves through global financial markets, and left nearly 23,000 people dead or missing, mostly from flattened coastal towns. More than a quarter of a million people are living in shelters.

Worsened by widespread ignorance of the technicalities of radiation, public concern is rising around the world and radioactive particles have been found as far away as Iceland.

Japan has already halted shipment of some food from the area and told people there to stop eating leafy vegetables.

Asian neighbors are inspecting imports for contamination, and Taiwan advised boats to stop fishing in Japanese waters.

Although there has been progress in restoring power to the Fukushima site 13 days after the accident, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it needed more time before it could say the reactors were stabilized.

Technicians working inside an evacuation zone around the plant have successfully attached power cables to all six reactors and started a pump at one to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods.
As well as having its workers on the front line in highly dangerous circumstances, TEPCO is also facing accusations of a slow disaster response and questions over why it originally stored more uranium at the plant than it was designed to hold.

“We continue to see radiation coming from the site ... and the question is where exactly is that coming from?” said a senior IAEA official, James Lyons.

Experts said tiny traces of radioactive particles, measured by a network of monitoring stations as they spread eastwards from Japan across the Pacific, North America, the Atlantic and to Europe, were far too low to cause any harm to humans.

“It’s only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere,” said Andreas Stohl, a senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research
The Japan crisis has dealt a blow to the nuclear power industry around the world.

SUMMARY

Three workers at reactor number three of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were taken to hospital after being exposed to radiation. Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, however, said the radiation level posed no immediate health risk and water could still be used.

QUESTION

1.The Japan government insists that there was no major danger to humans and urged the world not to over react. Do you think the exposure of radiation has no hazardous effect on other countries around Japan? Can we guess what will happen in a serious situation?

2.The terrible situation happened in Japan has raised concern to the safety of nuclear power plant which is now operating in Korea. The problem is that there have been several earthquakes in Korea these days. What is your opinion about extending foundation of nuclear power plant in Korea?

3. According to experts, tiny traces of radioactive particles disperse from body to body. There are lots of people fleeing from Japan and the government install facility for checking radiation at the airport and harbor. But, there is no facility installed yet at Chungju airport. Do you think it’s enough to prevent the spread of radioactive contamination?