Student Visa Application in U.S

1) The number of foreign students applying for visas to study in the United States has fallen sharply since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

2) U.S. policies regarding student visas were revised following the attacks. The new policies require student visa applicants overseas to agree to multiple interviews and submit to fingerprinting.

3) But U.S. officials are trying to reverse that trend by streamlining the approval process and assuring foreign students they are welcome to study here.

4) More than 350 new consular officers have been hired since 2002, and U.S. embassies and consulates have been ordered to expedite student visa applications.

5) About 560,000 applications were filed in 2004. That is down by about 100,000 from a few years ago. Officials hope efforts to improve the visa application system will result in an increase in the number of scholars from overseas.

South Korea's Economy on the Upswing

South Korea's Economy on the Upswing

Washington, D.C.
02 February 2006

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Since the early-1960s, the "Asian Tiger" has achieved record economic growth and become one of the world's leaders in high technology, but some analysts say the Asian financial crisis of the late-1990s exposed the limitations of South Korea's economic model.

When the Korean War ended in 1953, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. Its per capita gross domestic product -- the total yearly output of goods and services - was below one percent, comparable to that of poor countries in Africa and Asia. In 2004, South Korea joined the trillion-dollar club of world economies.

Three and a Half Decades of Extraordinary Economic Growth


South Korea is the world's leader in computer and Internet technology
South Korea's unprecedented growth started soon after a 1961 military coup installed General Park Chung-hee as president.

“South Korea had an extraordinary period of economic growth from roughly 1963 till it hit a financial crisis in 1997,” says Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics in Washington.

“During that period, growth averaged eight percent a year and there was only one year, 1980, after the second oil shock [in 1973] and the assassination of the leader, President Park Chung Hee [in 1979], in which they had negative growth. So this is really an unparalleled historical experience. And really, South Korea is the first country to go from developing country to developed country status,” says Noland.


South Korean automaker Hyundai has gained worldwide reputation
Today, South Korea's Samsung Electronics Company is the world's largest maker of plasma display panels [i.e., flat screen plasma TVs]. Its LG Electronics firm is Asia's second-largest mobile phone maker and Korea's Hyundai cars are gaining worldwide popularity for their affordable prices and good performance.

Clyde Prestowitz, President of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington, says few countries today can compete with South Korea's computer industry and Internet technology. “[South] Korea is clearly the leader in Internet technology and in the use of cell-phone technology, biotechnology and telecommunications technology, and semi-conductor technology. It's just light years ahead of the United States in these areas,” says Prestowitz.

The Strategy of Developmental Dictatorship

After the Korean War, South Korea began to transform itself from an agrarian to an industrial economy. It achieved rapid economic growth through a unique state-led strategy, which included tight governmental control of capital and the country's financial system, state sponsorship of selected industries, import restrictions and emphasis on science education.

Peter Beck is an expert on Korea at the International Crisis Group's office in Seoul, the South Korean capital. He says the strategy of developmental dictatorship, started under President Park, has helped fuel South Korea's rapid economic growth since the early-1960s.

“It is primarily the president who does the dictating, but he was listening to the business community and not just making decisions in the vacuum. But the fact that he was a dictator insulated him from a lot of the public pressures that a democratic leader would have faced. And so he could make tough decisions. He could keep wages low, for example, because he could resist social pressure to raise wages,” says Peter Beck.


Kim Dae-jung, South Korean President, promises more reforms
South Korea's economy flourished until the onslaught of Asia's financial crisis in the late-1990s, when growth plunged to a negative 6.9 percent. Long-time dissident and opposition leader Kim Dae-jung, who became president at the time, was able to obtain an international loan package to save the country from bankruptcy. In exchange, he pledged economic reforms, including closing bankrupt banks and opening up capital markets to allow foreign investment in South Korea. Such free-market reforms helped pull the economy out of its slump by 1999.

But some analysts, including Marcus Noland, say the crisis has exposed some of the limitations of South Korea's government-controlled economic model.

“First of all, it tends to bureaucratize the financial system. Bankers begin acting like bureaucrats instead of acting like bankers. They don't exercise much judgment in how they allocate capital. Secondly, it encourages corruption because if the government is encouraging the banks to loan to some favored groups, firms or activities capital at preferential interest rates, then, obviously, there's an incentive to bribe government officials, bankers and others in order to be able to get that preferential access for yourself,” explains Marcus Noland.

Rigid Labor Markets Stifle Growth


South Korea farmers protest liberalization of the country's rice market
But Marcus Noland says South Korea increasingly needs effective corporate and financial management. Many analysts say the country's most pressing problem is its highly unionized labor force, known for its massive strikes against the closing down of unproductive companies.

But analyst Clyde Prestowitz argues that South Korea's economic model is not rigid: “In the late-1990s and the early years of this century, [South] Korea went through pretty dramatic reform and restructuring of its industry and of its economic model. And it began to focus a bit more on consumer welfare and on promoting consumer credit and things like that. And I think it is today one of the world's strongest economies”.

South Korea's economic growth averaged a healthy four percent for the past two years and most economists say the outlook for future growth is good.

This story was first broadcast on the English news program,VOA News Now. For other Focus reports click here.

South Korea Cabinet Approves Iraq Troop Cut

South Korea Cabinet Approves Iraq Troop Cut
By VOA News
21 November 2005




Officials in Seoul say the South Korean government has approved a proposal to withdraw one-third of the country's troops from Iraq, while extending the remaining soldiers' deployment by a year.

President Roh Moo-hyun's Cabinet endorsed the withdrawal of 1,000 troops during the first half of next year. Remaining members of the 3,200-strong South Korean contingent in Iraq would remain there until December 2006.

After a review by Mr. Roh, the troop-reduction bill is expected to go before Parliament by Wednesday.

South Korea's troops have been assigned to relief and rehabilitation efforts in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil since 2004. After the United States and Britain, Seoul's troops make up the third-largest force in Iraq.

China Exports Environmental Problems

China Exports Environmental Problems
By Claudia Blume
Hong Kong
11 January 2006

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China has not only become a top exporter of toys and textiles, but also of environmental problems. Countries in the region and beyond are increasingly affected by the negative side effects of China's rapid economic growth.


An environment supervision department worker carries water samples from the Songhua River, outside Harbin
An explosion at a chemical plant in Northeast China in November not only poisoned a river that provides drinking water for millions of Chinese, but also sent a poisonous slick flowing across the border into Russia a few weeks later.

China is paying a high price for its rapid economic growth. An estimated 70 percent of the country's rivers are polluted, the air quality in its cities is among the worst in the world, and its deserts are expanding rapidly due to land abuse, industrialization and urbanization.

The country trails only the United States in its emission of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas thought to be contributing to global climate change.

Increasingly, even as it becomes one of the world's leading exporters of manufactured goods, China is also becoming a leading exporter of pollution. May Ng, director of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth in Hong Kong, puts the situation in graphic terms.

"First of all, [in] the recent years, the sand storms due to desertification from Mongolia has been affecting not only the capital Beijing, it has also blown all the way over to Japan and Korea, and there has been some real concerns from the other countries," said May Ng. "Secondly, most of the rivers are connected - for example [the] Nu Jiang from Yunnan flows down to Burma, Laos and Cambodia, and this Songhuajiang River flows from Harbin to Russia. So through rivers, upstream, downstream, there is definite impact."

Air pollution does not respect national boundaries, either. One of the region's most pressing cross-border concerns is acid rain, caused by emissions from China's coal fired power plants.

Hong Kong residents were still able to enjoy clear skies in the 1990s. Now, thanks to filthy air drifting across the border from China, the city's skyscrapers can often be seen only through a veil of smog.


Chinese Greenpeace volunteer stands under heap of e-waste group unveiled during Beijing's International High-Tech Expo
Kevin May of the environmental organization Greenpeace says that while Hong Kong is partly responsible for its own air pollution, most of the filth comes from China's neighboring Guangdong Province.

"Guangdong is the most industrialized province - the world's factory - and because the environmental standards have not been upheld, we can feel it, particularly in winter time," he explained.

China's ferocious appetite for natural resources is having a more indirect but still serious environmental effect in other parts of Asia. In the past few years, for example, the country has become the world's second largest importer of forest products.

Beijing banned most of its own logging in the late 1990s, believing growing deforestation was a key factor behind large-scale flooding in the country. At the same time, domestic demand for wood products grew as Chinese became wealthier, and sought high quality decorations for their homes and offices.

China buys most of its wood from Russia, but also buys from such countries as Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Greg Clough is a spokesperson of the Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia. He says that while China's huge demand for timber has created jobs in the region, the massive logging comes with serious social, economic and environmental costs.

"This demand is encouraging corruption, for example, illegal logging," he said. "It is undermining good governance, costing countries billions of dollars in lost tax revenue. And of course the loss of the world's tropical forests does have severe environmental costs, for example the loss of rare species."

May Ng of Friends of the Earth says environmental issues are a time bomb that could lead to conflicts between China and its neighbors. She says Beijing has not yet sufficiently realized how important environmental conflict can be in international relations.

"I think China is now so bad that it is more worried about cross-provincial or cross-township pollution, without even sparing time to look [at] cross-border neighborhood countries' pollution," she said.

Ng believes political stability in the region is dependent on ecological stability. She says Asian governments need to join forces to prevent environmental hazards - similar to the joint efforts being used to combat bird flu.

South Korean Speedskater Kim Hyo-Jung Glides into New Life in US

South Korean Speedskater Kim Hyo-Jung Glides into New Life in US
By Steve Schy
Washington
17 January 2006

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Kim Hyo-Jung
Kim Hyo-Jung, 17, left her native South Korea and family two years ago to get a fresh start in speedskating, after what she describes as bad experiences with the South Korean short track team. Kim battled through homesickness and language barriers to secure a spot on the United States team getting ready to compete in next month's Turin Olympics.

Kim Hyo-Jung's parents came to the United States on business in 1979 and lived in the Los Angeles area for 12 years. She was born and raised in Seoul but holds dual South Korean and U.S. citizenship because her father became an American citizen during his years in California.

Speedskating is very popular in South Korea and Kim Hyo-Jung got her start on the ice during elementary school physical education classes. But as she progressed, she became disenchanted with the rigorous training regimen of her South Korean club team. Kim trained six days a week, skating two hours in the morning, doing dry land training consisting of running and stretching in the middle of the day, then skating another two hours in the evening.

And while she enjoyed it at first, Kim says she could not spend enough time on her studies because there were too many practices. She began having trouble with her coach, and things went downhill from there.

"I really don't want to train with Korean [team], because I did not really have a good experience over there," she said. "I am not saying the Korean club is bad. I do not want to say what exactly, [but] I did not really have a good experience. It is really hard to say [talk about] the Korean club, because that is not like every club - only my club. And I think they like their club [laughs]. I do not want Americans to think the Korean club is bad."

The Kim chose her words very carefully when talking about the problems with her coach, whom she refused to identify.


Kim Hyo-Jung
"I do not like to keep in my mind bad experiences," she added. "He taught me a lot, so that is why I do not want to say bad things about him, because he taught me for four or five years. He just did not teach me honestly."

Asked why she did not just quit because of all the problems, Kim Hyo-Jung had a simple answer.

"Because I love skating… I love skating," she explained.

Kim left her country and family in January of 2004 to move to the United States and follow her Olympic dream. But things at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado were difficult at first. She did not speak English, had no close friends and was homesick. She strongly disliked American food.

Because of her talent, Kim's arrival meant she would probably beat out one of her teammates for a spot on the squad. But rather than resenting her, the other American speedskaters have helped her adjust to her new life.

Her teammates, who call Kim by her adopted name "Halie," have become like a family of big sisters and brothers. They help her with homework and have taken her on numerous excursions, including canoeing, water skiing and a trip to the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Halie says she likes American style and freedom, and enjoys taking more responsibility for her training.

"Well, when I was in Korea, the coach pressured me," she recalled. "I did not really have to think I have to do this or that because the coach pressured me. But here I have to think about everything - technique, or skating or even training. That is what I like here."

Halie's goal of making it to the Olympics has been her big motivation on the ice. She gets through hard practices by reminding herself that she has to work as hard as she can to reach her goal. And that hard work has paid off. Kim won in all of the distances of her races at last month's U.S. championships in Marquette, Michigan.

Her dominant performance earned her the overall title and a berth on the U.S. Olympic Team. She will compete in the 500, 1000 and 1,500 meter races in Turin. Halie is philosophical about her expectations.

"If I do my best, any color will be fine. But of course I want a gold medal," she added.

U.S. speedskating president Andy Gabel calls Kim "remarkable" and says she is so young and has such "amazing potential" that she is the type of skater they can build a team around. And "Halie" Kim will try to fulfill her potential by making it to the Olympic podium in Turin.

S. Korean President Warns of 'Friction' with US over North

S. Korean President Warns of 'Friction' with US over North
By Heda Bayron
Hong Kong
25 January 2006

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South Korea's president has warned of "friction" with the United States if Washington continues to pursue forceful measures against North Korea. President Roh Moo-hyun made the comments a day after U.S. Treasury officials sought - but apparently failed to get - Seoul's support in punishing North Korea for alleged financial crimes.

President Roh said he opposes what he called "some forces" in the United States that favor putting pressure on North Korea to force the collapse of its communist regime. Mr. Roh says such action would result only in "friction and disagreement" between South Korea and the United States.

But he emphasized that for now, Seoul and Washington are united in seeking a peaceful resolution of the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Seoul also said Wednesday that talk of differences between Seoul and Washington over North Korea is "an exaggeration."

Diplomatic efforts to convince North Korea to voluntarily abandon its nuclear programs have been stalled since November. Pyongyang Wednesday reiterated its demand that the U.S. lift sanctions imposed in September because of the North's alleged money-laundering and counterfeiting activities.

The North Koreans say they will continue to boycott six-nation nuclear disarmament talks while the sanctions are in place. Washington says the financial crimes issue is separate from the nuclear dispute.

South Korea, which follows a so-called "Sunshine Policy" of engagement and cooperation with the North, has at times differed with the more aggressive policies of the Bush Administration.

Differences emerged again Tuesday after a senior U.S. Treasury delegation briefed South Korean officials on North Korea's alleged financial crimes and the sanctions. The U.S. said in a statement that it had urged Seoul to take what it called "similar steps."

But while Seoul says it will cooperate with international efforts to fight financial crimes, it appeared to distance itself from its ally's punitive action against the North.

On Wednesday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry denied that the U.S. delegation had asked South Korea to act on the issue. But the U.S. Embassy in Seoul says it stands by its statement.

Mr. Roh declined to comment on whether South Korea believes U.S. assertions that Pyongyang is involved in money laundering and the counterfeiting of U.S. currency. He said only that officials must investigate the matter.

Also Wednesday, Mr. Roh said South Korea would seek talks aimed at reaching a formal peace agreement with the North, to replace the ceasefire that ended the Korean War in 1953 and is still in place. Without a peace pact, the two Koreas remain technically at war.

Mr. Roh also told reporters he would seek an agreement this year with the U.S. to allow Seoul to take over command of its own troops during wartime.

Under arrangements established during the Korean War, the U.S. military would have wartime control over all troops in South Korea, including the South Korean military. The United States currently has some 30,000 troops deployed in the country.

S. Korean Court Orders US Companies to Pay Damages for Agent Orange Use

S. Korean Court Orders US Companies to Pay Damages for Agent Orange Use
By Heda Bayron
Hong Kong
26 January 2006

A South Korean court Thursday ordered two U.S. chemical companies to pay tens of millions of dollars to a group of South Korean veterans of the Vietnam War to compensate for the effects of the Agent Orange. The herbicide was used to strip away foliage during the conflict.

Thursday's decision marked the first time a South Korean court ruled in favor of victims of Agent Orange, a harmful herbicide widely used during the Vietnam War.

The South Korean High Court ordered the U.S. manufacturers - Dow Chemical and Monsanto - to pay nearly seven thousand veterans and their families between $6,000 to $47,000 each in damages. The court ruled that the companies were at fault because they used more toxic dioxins in making Agent Orange than was standard.

Between 1961 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed more than 72 million liters of herbicides in Vietnam, much of that Agent Orange, to remove vegetation that provided cover for North Vietnamese forces. The chemical, named after the orange stripes on its container, has been blamed for cancer, birth defects and nervous disorders in those who came in contact with it.

A lawyer for Dow Chemical in Seoul, Park Sang-il, declined to comment on the decision.

"We don't have details of the reasoning of the court," he said. "So we cannot make any comment about the decision yet. But most probably our client will appeal to the Korean Supreme Court."

South Korea sent some 300,000 troops to Vietnam to fight alongside the U.S. military. About 20,000 South Koreans filed lawsuits against the two companies in 1999.

Manufacturers of Agent Orange, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto, paid 180 million dollars in 1984 to a fund for U.S. veterans after a lawsuit.

Since that case, U.S., Vietnamese and South Korean veterans and civilians have continued to sue the companies for compensation. Last year a U.S. court dismissed a case filed by a group of Vietnamese plaintiffs.