on this edition of arirang news for friday, september 16th... korea's ruling party submits the long -pending free trade agreement with the us to the national assembly's trade committee. south and north korea hold separate talks with russia and agree on the overal concept of building a gas pipeline through the korean peninsula. the two koreas are showing signs of easing tensions with the south's religious groups set to visit pyeongyang next week... and with a south korean maestro

pursuing a regular inter-korean orchestra performance. and imf chief christine lagarde warns that options for a sustainable economic re korea is moving forward with its long- pending free trade agreement with the united states. the ruling party has formally introduced the korea-us free trade agreement bill to the national assembly's trade committee. after a day-long clash between the ruling and opposition parties at the trade committee on friday,... the chairman of the national assembly's trade committee, nam kyung-pil, announced that the bill is now ready for official discussions despite opposition party members strongly opposing the introduction of the bill. chairman nam stressed that his decision is only aimed at allowing formal debates to take place before the bill is sent to the assembly's plenary session for a vote. this comes three months after the government submitted the bill to the national

assembly in early june. russian energy giant gazprom held talks thursday with both south and north korea on building a gas pipeline running through the korean peninsula. the pipeline is expected to be a cost- effective way for russia to deliver its natural gas to the south, while seoul will enjoy lower gas bills and pyeongyang will benefit from the transit revenues. hwang sung-hee has the details. north and south korea held separate talks with russia on thursday... regarding the construction of a pipeline running through the korean peninsula. russian energy giant gazprom said in a statement... that its chief alexei miller met with north korea's oil minister kim hui-young and signed a memorandum of understanding... on creating a joint working group for implementing the pipeline project as well as developing other areas of cooperation. in the second round of talks, held separately between miller and visiting representative from seoul, korea gas corporation president

choo kang-soo, the two sides signed a roadmap on the project and discussed the organization of practical work about its implementation. kogas and gazprom signed their first framework pipeline agreement back in 2008, but the deal had been stalled due to the diplomatic isolation of the north. however, the prospects for the pipeline lit up following a bilateral summit between north korean leader kim jong-il and his russian counterpart dmitry medvedev in moscow last month, where kim reportedly gave it his backing. the proposed gas pipeline will deliver russia's natural gas to the south from sakhalin... via north korea. gazprom said the first part of the pipeline, connecting sakhalin, khabarovsk and vladivostok, has kicked into operation. the pipeline is estimated to lower south korea's gas bill by around 20 to 30 percent, while the north will profit from much-needed transit revenues of around 100-million dollars per year.

the first delivery of russia's natural gas to south korea may be made in 2017... with the amount expected to be around 10 billion cubic meters a year. gazprom currently ships up to 1-point-5 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year to the south, which is the world's second largest lng buyer following japan. hwang sung-hee, the heads of south korea's seven largest religious orders plan to visit the north korean capital, pyeongyang next week. according to sources in seoul,... the korean conference of religion for peace and its north korean counterpart have agreed on the group's four-day trip to pyeongyang,... which will start next wednesday. south korea's unification ministry says... it has not received an application from the religious group, but noted... it would carefully review the agenda once it is filed. world-famous south korean maestro chung myung-whun returned to seoul after

his 4-day visit to pyeongyang... a trip requested first... by north korea. upon his return, he said he had met with talented north korean musicians and that his orchestra will have a joint concert with north korean members by the year's end. our kim yeon-ji reports. maestro chung myung-whun says the seoul philharmonic orchestra will have a joint concert with north korea's top orchestra members by the year's end both in seoul and pyeongyang. at a press conference on friday in seoul, chung and the ceo of the prominent orchestra revealed what they did while in north korea and what they aspire to do in months ahead. maestro chung said it was his life-long dream to visit the north and that the trip was purely driven by his desire to meet with north korean musicians, and help discover young musical talents there. in pyeongyang, chung was introduced to the country's two orchestras.

he had the opportunity to conduct the musicians, playing beethoven's 9th symphony as wewell as pieces from tchaikovsky and brahms. it was a first-time experience for the orchestras...as classical music repertoires are rare in the north. chung said the musicians there boasted a high level of musical proficiency and talents, and expressed his desire to introduce them to his own orchestra members in seoul. korean "when the music started, we immediately forgot about all other matters, including political issues. the members of the orchestras and i communicated through music. and i felt assured that we must play music together." and he enthusiastically talked about his plans for holding a joint south and north korea concert in december, this year. korean "i'd like for south and north korean orchestras to perform beethoven's 9th symphony together this december... and donate concert proceeds to help the needy in the north. although my previous

efforts to do that failed because of politics, i feel that it is highly possible this time around." chung said north korean officials agreed to hold such joint concerts... and that he had not encountered any opposition from the south either. prospects of a joint concert by the year's end appear to be opening a new chapter in inter-korean relations. kim yeon-ji, arirang the two koreas are widely expected to continue talks on north korea's denuclearization in beijing sometime next week. officials in seoul say... the two sides are looking at the possibility of south korea's top nuclear negotiator wi sung-lac and his northern counterpart ri yong-ho ... carrying on talks on ways to denuclearize the north. a meeting in bali two months ago was the first inter-korean dialogue on the nuclear issue in nearly three years... after pyeongyang quit the six-party talks involving the two koreas, the us, china, russia and japan.

the united states has reiterated that... it is still waiting for a clear signal from north korea on the resumption of the six- party nuclear talks. meanwhile, washington has also expressed concern over planned joint military exercises between north korea and russia. kim na-ri reports. the ball is in north korea's court to resume the six party talks. that is according to us officials on thursday. a senior us official, speaking at a us- australia defense ministers meeting in san francisco thursday,...said that washington was not waiting for pre- conditions... but rather pre-steps to restart dialogue. the official also said... that the us clearly has laid out three issues for the north to address including nuclear weapons... missiles and relations with the south... referring to north korean first vice -foreign minister... kim kye gwan's trip to new york in july. the us, however, says

that it is still waiting for a clear signal from the north. meanwhile, the united states has expressed concern about closer military ties between north korea and russia. us state department spokesman victoria nuland told reporters thursday that washington had only learned of a plan between north korea and russia to conduct joint military exercises next year through media reports. nuland called on moscow to clearly disclose details of the planned drills. she added that any engagement with north korea should be conducted in a way that does not detract from the international community's clear message of concern about the north's weapons programs, and the necessity for pyeongyang to do what is necessary to return to the six-party nuclear talks. president lee myung-bak will hold a bilateral summit with japan's new prime minister, yoshihiko noda,... during his visit to new york next week for the un general ly.

during the meeting next wednesday... the two leaders are likely to cover a wide range of issues... including progress on a korea- japan free trade agreement, resuming the 6-party talks aimed at denuclearizing north korea and the recent proposal by korea to discuss japan's sexual enslavement of korean women during world war ii. the bilateral summit is the first since noda became prime minister early this month. president lee says the government will allocate research and development money next year for embryonic stem cell research. in a meeting on reviving stem cell r&d,... president lee said... the government is looking into a plan to financially support the newly emerging sector... adding that it has the potential to develop into a growth engine for the next generation. he said stem cell research also has commercial uses... but it is more rewarding in the sense that it could cure diseases... and ultimately lead to a great contribution to humanity. imf managing- director christine lagarde has admitted that the world economy

is in "a dangerous phase" of crisis... stressing that only through bold and collective action by the world economies... can there be a way out of the turmoil yang ji-woo reports. amid fragile market confidence and escalating debt woes in both continents across the atlantic ocean... imf chief, christine lagarde has called on world leaders to take global collective action. english "overall growth is continuing to slow down. the advanced economies in particular are facing an anemic and bumpy recovery with unacceptably high levels of unemployment. the euro area debt crisis has worsened. financial strains are rising and again without collective bold action there is a real risk that the major economies slip back instead of moving forward." speaking at the woodrow wilson center in washington dc... the former french finance minister said... advanced economies are now in a period of "weak growth and

weak balance sheets"... which reverberate into a crisis of market confidence, and prolonged lukewarm demand and investment. at the same time... emerging markets in general... have been overheating... causing inflationary pressure and upward credit growth. under the intertwined systematic global economies.. lagarde said that, if advanced economies plunge into another recession... emerging markets will also be pulled down too. her comments are seen as a preview of the speech she will give at next week's general meeting of the imf korean banks greatly increased their r short-term foreign borrowing last month,... amid growing uncertainties in the global economy. the financial supervisory service says... 16 local banks refinanced 157-point-4 percent of their maturing short-term foreign debt in august,... up 90-point-1 percentage points from the previous month. this means the banks borrowed more foreign

currency than the amount that matures in less than a year. the august figure is the highest rate since january 2008, when the fss began recording related data,... and suggests that the local banks' funding conditions remain relatively stable. the watchdog explains that... local lenders are securing foreign currency to prepare for a possible credit crunch... amid the ongoing external uncertainties. the leaders of france and britain were cheered in libya for their support for the uprising that overthrew moammar gaddafi. meanwhile, the forces of the new government closed in on gadhafi's hometown of sirte in an effort to complete their victory. song ji-sun has the latest. libyans gave french president nicolas sarkozy and british prime minister david cameron a heroes welcome on thursday... as crowds expressed their appreciation for the two countries' role in nato operations... against former leader moammar gadhafi. sarkozy and cameron toured tripoli and benghazi... where they visited a hospital

to meet injured fighters and civilians. during the trip, cameron said... the fight wasn't finished yet and he called on gadhafi to give up. english "and the message i think to gadhafi and all those still holding arms on his behalf is it is over. give up!" sarkozy, meanwhile, stressed that... libyans should not seek vengeance and retaliation... but instead promote cooperation. he also warned gadhafi of further attacks... if the ousted leader keeps resisting. french "the joint force of nato will continue striking as long as the new libyan leadership considers that its people are in danger." both leaders also announced that they would help libya secure weapons... and build modern security and health care infrastructure. following their visit, turkish prime minister tayyip erdogan also headed to libya on friday. later on thursday, troops allied with libya's transitional government launched an "all-out" assault in sirte,... gadhafi's birthplace and one of three major cities still held by forces loyal to him. gadhafi, who is wanted by the international

criminal court... is rumored to be hiding in one of the loyalist strongholds. denmark has elected its first female prime minister who will begin with the difficult task of dealing with the country's economy. oh jee-hyun reports. denmark's center- left coalition won the country's general election. the "red bloc" of parties led by social democrat leader helle thorning-schmidt won a narrow majority in parliament ending ten years of center-right rule. thorning-schmidt will be the country's first female prime minister. danish "the road has been long. there have been hard times and we've struggled but tonight we've shown that the social democrats are still a big force holding up society." thorning-schmidt has accused the incumbent lars lokke rasmussen of failing to promote economic growth. rasmussen has admitted defeat and will step down on friday,... but warned thorning-schmidt not to get too comfortable.

danish "i will give you the keys to the state ministry and i want to say 'dear helle, take care of the keys because they're not for keeps." the danes hope thorning-schmidt can fix the economy,... as the country has seen its worst economic downturn since world war two. denmark is currently struggling with low growth, large government deficits and national debt. therefore restoring economic health and avoiding a crisis like the one in greece come first. throughout her campaign... thorning- schmidt has promised to raise taxes on denmark's banks and the wealthy,... and to increase the working day by 12 minutes. she also said she will finance an additional 4 billion us dollars to the country's welfare systems. oh jee-hyun, arirang news. with just a few weeks left until the by- elections, korea's ruling and opposition parties are trying to find their most competitive candidates for seoul mayor. their shortlists are taking shape, but there's still a lot of room for change. laah hyun-kyung fills

us in. korea's former legislation minister, lee seog-yeon, an independent, says he will run for seoul mayor in next month's by-elections as a ruling camp candidate, on condition that the ruling grand national party agrees on a single candidate. lee, who served as the country's legislation minister for more than two years, told yonhap news friday that... like the opposition camp, the ruling bloc should also agree on its most powerful candidate in order to win next month's election. however, he made it clear that he will only run as a pan-ruling camp candidate and not as a gnp nominee. the ruling party is said to be planning to hold an election early next month... where it will choose its pan-ruling camp nominee between gnp's front-runner and an outside-of-party candidate. analysts say the gnp will likely present na kyung-won as its front-runner as she came second after former seoul mayor oh se-hoon in last year's intraparty mayoral nominee election.

meanwhile, the most likely potential candidate of the pan- opposition camp, park won-soon, has said that he has no intention of joining the main opposition democratic party at the moment... but added that if all goes well in next month's by- election, he will be more than glad to work with the dp in next year's general and presidential elections. the dp will hold an intra-party election later this month, where it will narrow down its candidates to one from the current four that have registered to run. the list includes the party's policy committee chairperson park young-sun , former lawmaker shin geh-ryeun , supreme council member chun jung-bae and the national assembly's health and welfare committee member choo mi-ae . laah hyun-kyung, arirang news. saturday marks the 20th anniversary of both south and north korea's admission to the united nations. our choi you-sun met with seoul's former un ambassador to talk about the south's past achievements and its

future plans. on september 17th, 1991 the two koreas simultaneously became full members at the united nations. after nearly half a century of being isolated from the un during the cold war period, south korea began establishing diplomatic relations with north korea's traditional allies, the former soviet union and china in the 1990s, both veto-wielding permanent members of the un security council. and that ultimately helped the south garner the much- needed support for an admission to the un, and led the north to also join the organization. two decades later, south korea boasts a list of major accomplishments, including a two-year nonpermanent security council membership in 1996, presidency at the general assembly in 2001, and producing a secretary-general in 2006, who was recently reelected. sun joun-yung, the south's former un ambassador says the environment has

undoubtedly changed for korean diplomats in new york. english "when i started my diplomatic career in the early 1960s in the international stage, let alone the united nations, where korea was an observer state, nobody seemed to pay attention to korean diplomats. but nowadays, wherever you go, whatever you say, people pay attention. this is a sense of great achievement. so i can tell you that it is a very emotional thing as a diplomat." the career diplomat adds that the south now hopes to have its voice heard louder and clearer by aiming for another nonpermanent entry at the council. seoul's power gain could also allow the south to urge its northern neighbor recommit to denuclearization and become a responsible member within the

international community. with its rise in status, south korea, an aid recipient-turned-donor, has significantly increased its financial contributions to rank as the 11th largest contributor of the un budget and the 10th concerning peacekeeping operations. english "in comparison to korea's increasing contribution to the united nations, i think we have to bring more and more korean nationals to the united nations civil service. dissolve this is one of the things which must be achieved by the korean government and the korean society as a whole in the few years to come." and in order for south korea to continue advancing its position in the international arena, the general consensus among diplomatic circles is that the nation should direct its focus beyond its borders to address a wide range of global issues. choi you-sun, arirang

also called "the children's president,"... the animated character pororo has been named the country's most creative product. the ranking... by the national library also highlights... some other clever korean. hwang ji-hye tells us more. animated character pororo was selected as korea's most creative product this year. the national library of korea said,... that the korean penguin character topped the ranking in its power creative 2011 survey conducted online from september 5th to 14th. over 57-thousand people and a hundred selected experts took part,... choosing the top 10 creativity boosting products. the so called potongryeong ,... an abbreviation of korean "president pororo",... for its hold over children in korea,... won 24 percent of the vote. pororo-related products have brought in profits of 5-hundred billion won,... or 450- million us dollars. k-pop that plays a leading role in the korean wave followed pororo,... taking the 2nd place with 20

percent. mobile messenger kakao talk,... which boosts over 23 million users,... was third,... recording 18-point-2 percent. other nominees on top 10 list included,... bibimbap as in-flight meal, and the busan international film festival. the library says that most of the top ranked products were those that infused korean culture with competitive global technology. based on the result of the survey,... the library will launch a project named "voyage of knowledge",... and open lectures with the creators of korea's most creative products. hwang ji-hye, arirang a special photo exhibition in gyeonggi province is displaying the works of korea's top photographers. park ji-won tells us about how the artists have captured the essence of korean beauty. a rare photo exhibition is currently underway here at the aram art gallery of goyang aram nuri arts center... under the title of "korean spirit: six photographers." stand-up "six of

korea's most highly acclaimed photographers, who are in the prime of careers, are presenting 90 photos that portray korea's unique beauty and spirit." the leading photographers' perspectives on korean tradition, scenery, and people are reflected through these pictures. koo bohn-chang,... one of korea's most renowned photographers, shows classic beauty of traditional korean jars and porcelains. white and empty.. but light from within shines through the picture. kim dae-soo's works focuses on bamboo trees. the straight and solid trees reflect the soul of the korean spirit. and kim jung-man, widely known for his fashion photography and pictures on africa... showcases his works on the images of korea... for the first time to the public korean "with the global popularity of korean dramas and pop music, we wanted to delve into the deep root of korean identity. i think these works do a good job to show that identity.

works of min byung-hun are expressed in a gray color,... conjuring images of oriental paintings... by the photos' calmness and simplicity. lee gap-chul's works are estimated to be most korean... with its unique composition and subjects. kim yong-ho tries to capture the essence of korea's cultural power through portrait photography of korea's leading artists. korean "the korean wave was possible... with the contribution of korea's earlier artists who have pioneered their way. my photographs are on these artists, such as video artist paik nam- june, and conductor chung myung-whun. we should be thankful to these artists." visitors to the art gallery also gain thought-provoking insight about the unique features of korean beauty. korean "i liked it a lot, because i found unexpected features of korean beauty. i thought it had something like the charm of curve lines... but here i see the

beauty of straight lines, and vivid expressions of lively people." the exhibition runs through october 16th. as i mentioned yesterday, we do have some precipitation for some regions on saturday but the amount of the rain will be minimal. first of all, gangwon's yeongdong region and the eastern coastal regions of north gyeongsang province will receive some showers on and off throughout the day, under the influence of inrtheasterly wiwiwiwiwiwiwiwiw surrounding gyeonggi province and gangwon's yeongseo region as well... later in the evening. but other than that... we're mostly going to stay dry during the day, so no worries for spending time outdoors. sunday... we're all going to stay nice and dry except gangwon's yeongdong region with a chance for some more showers. temperatures for saturday will still remain pretty hot... seoul will top out at 30

degrees. daegu and busan will be one degree lower at 29 degrees. and gwangju is going to be the hottest city tomorrow at 32 degrees. daejeon will be at 30 degrees, and jeju will be a couple degrees lower at 28. meanwhile dokdo will drop to 24 and mt. geumgang to only 18 degrees. taking a look at the international weather... tropical storm sonca is currently out in the pacific heading towards southern tokyo, and this will bring some wet weather into most of japan this weekend, so be aware. the northern parts of thailand have been seeing some particularly heavy rain over the past few days, and the main concentration of the downpours will be in vietnam and cambodia which will even extend into singapore and malaysia in the next couple of days. down under... a big dome of high pressure will keep most of australia nice and warm with plenty of sunshine. and this time melbourne and victoria are no exceptions. and down in new zealand... saturday's

looking mostly dry but another round of rain will be coming in for sunday. into north america... nice and dry conditions are expected across most of the northeast and the midwest throughout the weekend, but due to a cold front... temperatures are definitely fall like... with highs mostly in the low 20s. in the meantime... there's a low pressure system coming into the midsouth which will bring some scattered showers. but far across the west, it's nice and quiet... with mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies. down in south america... many cities are returning to their typical sunshine on saturday, rio de janeiro and sao paulo will peak at around 22 to 23 degrees. santiago's looking similar... with 21 degrees as well as for buenos aires but you guys have chance for some morning sprinkles. into europe... moscow and london will continue to see overcast skies with a good chance for some showers. paris will see a partly cloudy day as well... but you're rainfree as well as for the rest of europe. lastly in africa...

tripoli and cairo will be coming down to the low to mid 30s on saturday. meanwhile... steady light rain will continue in addis ababa, as usual. cape town... will be partly cloudy with a high of around 22 degrees. that's all for today's weather. have a great weekend and here's a look at your next 3 day forecast.