State Companies to Slash Pay of Entry-Level Workers

The government says it will slash wages of college graduate, entry-level workers at state firms by as much as 30 percent to keep the doors open for jobseekers.
On average employees who get paid around W30 million (US$1=W1,480) a year should expect their salary to drop by 16 percent to W25 million.

Out of some 300 public companies that fall under the pay cut, more than 100 will see them take effect at the earliest possible opportunity. The government plans to later expand the policy to include firms that were left out.

Arirang News

Park Ji-Sung Helps Steer Manchester United to Victory

Korean midfielder Park Ji-sung of Manchester United made his first assist of the season in Wednesday's match against Fulham.
Park covered full-time with his usual tireless play. The assist came 18 minutes into the second half to Wayne Rooney, who linked Park's cross with a left-footer to seal the game 3-0. The first two goals came in the first half by Scholes and Berbatov.

This marks the Korean player's first offensive point since scoring a goal last September.

With the win Manchester secured its poll position in the English Premier League.

Arirang News

The Legacy of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan

Has the death of a leader in recent memory reverberated as widely as that of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan? The long and passionate procession of people mourning his death at Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral reached 400,000 over the past three days. The mourning transcended age, social status and political ideology.
People gathered at the cathedral from 2 to 3 a.m., and by 6 a.m., when people were allowed in to pay their condolences, a line stretching for 3 km had already formed, while people continued to pour in until midnight when the cathedral closed its doors. Mourners had to wait three to four hours in the freezing cold, but there was no jostling, shouting or cutting in line. Rather, people yielded their spots to let the elderly go first.

We’ve all waited in long lines to buy tickets to our hometowns during holidays or to sign up for new apartment units. But never has there been a time when we formed a line for something that transcends personal gain. Cardinal Kim, who taught us the spirit of sharing through his words and actions, left us something much more valuable.

A wise society uses the deaths of great people to mark the era that preceded that event and to prepare for the next one. The 58 years that transpired from 1951, when Cardinal Kim was ordained as a priest, until his death in 2009, were a microcosm of Korea’s history of trials and accomplishments, ranging from war and devastation, the division of a nation, dictatorship, industrialization and democratization to social polarization. Cardinal Kim embraced all Koreans living in such difficult times, consistently urging us to be patient. He told us that there is an end to pain. And in doing so, he gave us both courage and hope.

The spirit embodied by people coming from all over the country to mourn his death should not simply end in their sorrow over the loss of a moral pillar. Rather, his legacy should be sublimated into efforts to find and realize a new calling that will open the next era, as Korea still faces numerous tasks that must be accomplished. We need to enhance social awareness to the levels of advanced nations, make the idea of noblesse oblige take root and work to contribute to the advancement of humanity.

Cardinal Kim requested that his grave be the same dimensions as those of ordinary clergymen and for a humble wooden coffin. After Cardinal Kim donated his eyes to two blind people, we are seeing a rise in the number of people seeking to donate their organs, something unpopular until now. We have already begun to see the unfolding of a quiet revolution that cannot be achieved by strength and numbers alone. The teachings of Cardinal Kim are reverberating with greater force through his absence. If his death can lead Korea to undergo genuine change, it would be the greatest gift he has bequeathed us.

Korean-U.S. Team in Computer Storage Breakthrough

A Korean-U.S. research team has developed technology that could increase computer storage capacity more than 10,000 times, in theory allowing 12,500 films to be stored on a single DVD.
The team of Park Soo-jin (35), a professor of nano-biochemical engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, and Thomas Russell, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, in a paper published in the Thursday issue of Science said by adopting a self-assembly method by which molecules take certain forms by themselves, they succeeded in increasing the capacity of storage media more than 10,000 times.

Storage media have micro grooves, or bits, the basic unit in information science. The more particles there are in each bit, the more information the device can carry, and the denser the grooves are, the more information can be stored.

The team says it succeeded in making the grooves denser by narrowing the space between them to 7nm (1nm = 1 billionth of a meter) using a self-assembly method by which atoms arrange themselves in grooves. But to be of practical use, a "head" or device that can read the minuscule bits is needed.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

N.Korea Says Clash 'Only a Matter of Time'

North Korea on Thursday warned a physical clash with the South is "now only a matter of time."
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said "Inter-Korean political and military tension has reached the extreme. A physical clash remains only a matter of time." It claimed South Korean and U.S. troops are "concentrating their energy on reinforcing their combat capabilities and preparing for a war against the North."

The news agency enumerated South Korean military exercises and said the "warmongers' confrontational action" had brought relations to a point "where it is difficult to save the situation or to straighten things out."

Radio Pyongyang, which broadcasts propaganda for the South, said relations "have reached the worst crisis. In regions including the West Sea where the two sides face off against each other, a dangerous situation is being created where nobody knows when a military clash will occur." The station put the blame for tensions squarely on South Korea, which it said "is heightening tension by misjudging us and taking a more provocative attitude toward us."

A government official said the saber rattling was apparently aimed at attracting U.S. attention, coinciding as it does with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's arrival in Seoul on Thursday.

The Chosun Shinbo, a Pyongyang mouthpiece published in Japan, on Feb. 14 reported on Clinton's tour of South Korea, China and Japan. It said North Korea "will watch whether her first Asian diplomatic tour will be successful or not, using a criterion between dialogue and confrontation."

But other analysts say all this is part of a routine North Korean tactic to heighten military tension as South Korea's annual joint military exercises with the U.S. approach. They are scheduled for March 9-20.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

Many People Visit Venue of Kimjongilia Festival





Pyongyang, February 19 (KCNA) -- The venue of the 13th Kimjongilia Festival, which opened on Feb. 14 on the occasion of the birthday of General Secretary Kim Jong Il, has been visited by senior party, army and state officials, officials of party, armed forces, power organs, working people's organizations, ministries and national institutions, servicepersons, working people from all walks of life, school youth and children, overseas compatriots and foreigners.

The festival venue has been crowed with visitors every day and, in particular, on February 16, the birthday of Kim Jong Il, it was busier with people praising and revering him, the great man. The number of visitors is steadily increasing, totaling to more than 200,000 as of Feb. 18.


Among the visitors were members of overseas compatriots' congratulatory groups and delegations and other compatriots, representatives of embassies of different countries and international organizations, staff members of embassies here and many other foreigners.


The visitors said that Songun Korea would register only victory and glory under the leadership of
Kim Jong Il and expressed the belief that the immortal flower would come into fuller bloom all over the world with the best wishes of all people