Tag: Seoul

Iran could join NPT, Seoul urges North to abandon nuclear for investment

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Iran could possibly become a full member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“The agreements reached on November 24, 2013, in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program opens the actual perspective that by November of this year an exit [from the issue] and a long-term and reliable settlement of this issue will be found. Regardless of the difficult approach during the negotiation process, there is a possibility that Iran [could receive] its full capacity of rights as an NPT member state, including the right to enrich uranium and canceling the sanction regime [against the country],” the ministry said on its website.

“We hope that all the parties taking part in the consultations will show the political will in order to proceed with the final, mutually acceptable agreements, which will enable to re-establish trust of the international society for the peaceful nature of the Nuclear program of Iran. This could have a positive impact on the situation in the Middle East and lead to a creation of a zone, free of mass destruction weapons,” the statement said.

The fifth round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program was held in Vienna in July.

Meanwhile South Korea is ready to help its northern neighbor attract international investment, if it gives up its nuclear ambitions, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday citing the country’s finance minister, Choi Kyung-hwan.

“If North Korea decides to abandon its nuclear weapons, we will cooperate with Northeast Asian countries to actively support North Korea’s accession to international financial organizations and its attraction of international investment,” the agency reported Choi as saying during a speech at a forum on Asian economic cooperation.

The official also promised to facilitate the establishment of a development bank for Northeast Asian countries, which would help North Korea build infrastructure to help its poor citizens.

Digital dementia

digitaldementiaDoctors in South Korea are reporting a surge in “digital dementia” among young people who have become so reliant on electronic devices that they can no longer remember everyday details like their phone numbers.

South Korea is one of the most digitally connected nations in the world and the problem of internet addiction among both adults and children was recognised as far back as the late 1990s.

That is now developing into the early onset of digital dementia – a term coined in South Korea – meaning a deterioration in cognitive abilities that is more commonly seen in people who have suffered a head injury or psychiatric illness.

“Over-use of smartphones and game devices hampers the balanced development of the brain,” Byun Gi-won, a doctor at the Balance Brain Centre in Seoul, told the JoongAng Daily newspaper.

“Heavy users are likely to develop the left side of their brains, leaving the right side untapped or underdeveloped,” he said.

The right side of the brain is linked with concentration and its failure to develop will affect attention and memory span, which could in as many as 15 per cent of cases lead to the early onset of dementia.

Sufferers are also reported to suffer emotional underdevelopment, with children more at risk than adults because their brains are still growing.

The situation appears to be worsening, doctors report, with the percentage of people aged between 10 and 19 who use their smartphones for more than seven hours every day leaping to 18.4 per cent, an increase of seven per cent from last year.

More than 67 per cent of South Koreans have a smartphone, the highest in the world, with that figure standing at more than 64 per cent in teenagers, up from 21.4 per cent in 2011, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

Dr Manfred Spitzer, a German neuroscientist, published a book titled “Digital Dementia” in 2012 that warned parents and teachers of the dangers of allowing children to spend too much time on a laptop, mobile phone or other electronic devices.

Dr Spitzer warned that the deficits in brain development are irreversible and called for digital media to be banned from German classrooms before children become “addicted.” – The Telegraph