hello and welcome. in seoul,... i'm eoh jin- joo. and i'm devin whiting. president lee myung-bak has arrived in new york... to address the un general assembly... and attend a special nuclear safety meeting. on his first day there,... the korean leader received this year's world statesman award for his contribution to world peace, democracy and human rights. arirang's yoo ji-hae , traveling with the president, reports from new york. president lee myung-bak who is in

new york to attend the un general assembly and other events... began his three-day new york trip tuesday by receiving this year's world statesman award... presented by the appeal of conscience foundation... for his contribution to world peace, democracy and human rights. previous recipients of the prestigious award include... former korean president kim dae-jung, british prime minister gordon brown... and french president nicolas sarkozy. during the awards ceremony... attended by some 350 businessmen from the us and national leaders... president lee expressed his determination to lay the groundwork to realize unification between the two koreas during the remainder of his term... while stressing that north korea's denuclearization can strengthen economic cooperation and eventually lead to a unifed korea. korean "it is extremely important to eliminate the threat against peace on the peninsula through denuclearization, and store mutual trust between south and

north korea." " , president lee also introduced korea's vision of realizing "ecosystemic development"... which demands more responsibility from large corporations and wealthy individuals to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. on wednesday, new york time, lee will attend the 66th un general assembly... where he will deliver a keynote speech... in which he is expected to reaffirm korea's commitment to support un's efforts in realizing international peace, democracy, human rights and reform of the global body. stand-up "the presidential office says... president lee's second attendance at the un general assembly... will serve as an opportunity to elevate korea's image as a mature country and boost cooperative ties with the united nations. yoo ji-hae, arirang news, new york." and, arirang tv will be bringing you a live coverage of president lee myung- bak's speech to the united nations general assembly... at half past midnight thursday,

korea time,... 3:30 p.m. wednesday, gmt and 11:30 a.m. eastern. the two koreas' efforts in beijing to create an agreeable atmosphere... to reopen the six-party nuclear talks have failed. the top negotiators, however, said they saw the discussions as positive. arirang's choi you-sun has the details. the two koreas, yet again, were unsuccessful to agree on the resumption of the six-party talks to denuclearize north korea. but the chief negotiators from both sides have called wednesday's talks in beijing "constructive" and "useful," in resolving the north's nuclear issue through the multilateral dialogue, involving the two koreas, the us, china, russia and japan. following the meeting held in bali two months ago, south korea's top nuclear envoy wi sung -lac and his north korean counterpart ri yong-ho held two rounds of discussions in beijing, where wi laid out a set of pre-dialogue conditions, endorsed

by the south, the us and japan. the trilateral demands include the north halting its uranium enrichment program, reopening its nuclear facilities to international inspectors, and declaring a moratorium on its testing of weapons of mass destruction. although the north korean envoy acknowledged the need to have bilateral and multilateral consultations that lead up to the six-nation forum, ri also expressed that pyeongyang is wishing to restart the six-way roundtable unconditionally and immediately. a high-ranking official from seoul, nevertheless, told reporters that having the two koreas discussing the nuclear issue, reflects in itself part of the joint efforts to return to the six- party framework. he added there were clarifications on each others' preconceptions and misundertandings, such as the north thinking that the south has been rejecting the six-party dialogue. when the south raised pyeongyang's military attacks on the south's warship and island last year that left a

combined death toll of 50 south koreans, the north reportedly did not respond. there, also was an exchange of views on the joint gas pipeline construction with russia. now that the two koreas have met, speculation is rising whether washington will agree to pyeongyang's proposal for a second bilateral meeting to succeed the one held in new york in july. the south korean negotiator, meanwhile, will debrief china's six -party representative, wu dawei on the inter -korean dialogue early thursday. choi you-sun, arirang the united states has reiterated that it will keep its sanctions on north korea... until pyeongyang takes concrete steps towards denuclearization. speaking on tuesday about ways to advance us interests at the united nations,... white house officials called the sanctions, including security council resolution 18- 74,... one of washington's main accomplishments. the white house pledged that the us will

continue to push for the sanctions to be implemented until the north makes concrete and verifiable progress on denuclearizing. a group of south korean religious leaders arrived in pyeongyang this wednesday. the religious leaders from the south are expected to hold meetings... and a rare joint religious service with their north korean counterparts during their four-day visit. arirang's kim yeon-ji tells us more. a group of south korean religious leaders and representatives arrived in pyeongyang late wednesday afternoon... via the northeastern chinese city of shenyang. while in the north, the 24 delegates from the korean conference on religion and peace,... representing seven south korean religious groups including roman catholics, protestants and buddhists..., plan to meet with their north korean counterparts... and promote peace on the divided korean peninsula. this unprecedented joint trip to the north... was approved by the south korean government..., in recognition of the religious community's contributions to inter-

korean exchanges... and its desire to strengthen inter- korean ties. they are expected to meet with north korean religious leaders in pyeongyang on thursday....followed by a joint religious service at mount baekdu on the north korea-china border on friday,... before the delegates return to seoul on saturday. kim yeon-ji, arirang news. latest data shows... that around 490-thousand more jobs were added as of august,... compared to the same month last year. officials attribute the growth to steady economic recovery,... backed by korea's solid exports and industrial activities. our hwang sung-hee has more on this. korea's jobless rate fell in august from a year earlier... as the number of newly created jobs in the country rose. statistics korea said on wednesday... that around 490- thousand new jobs were created on-year last month, raising the total number of workers in korea to some 24-million.

and backed by steady economic recovery, korea's unemployment rate dropped point-3 percentage point to three percent during the cited period, while the nation's youth jobless rate also fell from 7 percent to 6- point-3 percent. korean "the number of unemployed dropped by 69- thousand on-year last month to 762- thousand. this is because more people were employed due to the country's robust exports and increases in production and consumption." 762 69 . , , . the latest data shows that the service industry, including self -employed people, led the overall employment growth with 289- thousand new positions... while jobs were lost in a few sectors including the manufacturing industry. finance minister bahk jae-wan called last month's job growth a "big surprise," and asked related ministries to continue putting their utmost efforts into improving the nation's labor market, as creating more jobs is fundamental in stabilizing the

livelihoods of korean citizens. the ministry of strategy and finance attributed the nation's recovering labor market to a combination of government-level efforts to create more jobs as well as korea's improving service industry which triggered structural changes in employment. stand-up "the ministry says it expects to see the nation's employment rate continue to grow, as many companies are set to hire new workers in the second half of this year. but it stressed that structural efforts will be made to ensure the rate remains on its upward trend amid lingering external uncertainties. hwang sung-hee, arirang news." korea's finance minister says... next year's budget will focus on boosting economic activity, preparing for the future,... as well as creating jobs and improving welfare policy. in a weekly economic policy coordination meeting wednesday,... finance minister bahk jae-wan said... the 2012 budget proposal includes plans to help regional economies... by investing in social infrastructure projects.

the proposed budget... calls for the government to spend an estimated 283- billion dollars, or around five percent more than this year. once finalized, the proposal will be submitted to parliament for approval. the international monetary fund has released its latest world economic outlook,... and it says,... growth forecasts are pointing even lower than three months ago. the imf also says the world economy has entered period of great economic difficulty. song ji-sun reports. the international monetary fund has warned that the global economy is entering a new dangerous phase. the imf said both europe's debt woes and a painfully slow us recovery could undermine global expansion, and it warned that without action those economies could tip back into recession. it cut its 2011 and 2012 global growth forecast to 4 percent, shaving projections for almost every region of the world and saying downside risks remain.

just three months ago the imf had projected an expansion of 4- point-3 percent for 2011 and 4-point-5 percent for 2012. the top economist at the global lender singled out europe as "a major source of worry." english "policy makers are one step behind the action market and i think we are very explicit in our messages both in the eu and elsewhere in saying europe must get its acts together." the fund cut its growth forecast for the 17-nation euro zone by nearly half a percentage point to 1- point-6 percent in 2011 and said growth would likely mark just over one percent next year. forecasts for us growth dropped even lower to 1-point-5 percent for 2011 and 1 -point-8 percent for 2012. the fund trimmed its forecasts for china, japan and other asian emerging economies as well. english "so far they have been largely immune to these

adverse developments. however, they may face a more difficult environment if more adverse export conditions and even more volatile capitol flows." korea's economic growth for this year was reduced by half a percentage point to four percent, but the forecast for 2012 was more optimistic. song ji-sun, arirang news. the korean air force has a new addition. officials took delivery on wednesday of korea's first boeing e- 737 "peace eye,"... often called a command-and-control center in the sky. military officials say having this aerial surveillance aircraft will greatly enhance korea's ability to gather intelligence. our kim han-ul was there at the handover ceremony. the south korean air force added to its military assets on wednesday... an aircraft that is capable of independent intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, and

aerial surveillance of north korea. the plane called the "peace eye"... is the e -737 airborne early warning and control aircraft manufactured by boeing. more than 3-hundred people, including top military officials, politicians and distinguished guests attended the hand-over ceremony held at the kimhae airbase in southeastern korea on wednesday. in his congratulatory speech, korea's defense minister kim kwan-jin expressed high hopes for the new aircraft. korean "the "peace eye" will enhance our military to be fit for network- based missions and precisioned attacks. it will act as a bastion to defend the korean peninsula not only against north korea, but any forces that threaten our territorial rights." this is one out of the four "peace eyes" bought from boeing. along with the hand over ceremony, the crowd was able to cheer on a special airshow put together by the black eagles. meanwhile the air force commanding

officer in charge says that the "peace eye" will enable korea to not rely heavily on us reconnaissance aircraft anymore. korean "with the introduction of the "peace eye," we can detect the enemy faster and contribute greatly to the security of the korean peninsula." the aircraft will be a command-and- control center in the sky... which will guide tactical air force aircraft to targets at low altitudes. it is also capable of simultaneously detecting around 1- thousand enemy aircraft and is equipped with a 360 degree surveillance radar,... which will be able to detect suspicious movements both in airspace and waters near north korea. stand-up "this is one out of four peace eyes scheduled to be delivered here by 2013. the remaining aircraft will be systematically assembled in korea under boeing's management. kim han-ul, arirang news, kimhae." a report shows over the last five years,... the united states, turkey and indonesia bought the most weapons from south korea.

ammunition and trainer jets were among korea's most-exported weapons. kim nari reports. the united states was the biggest buyer of south korean arms over the last five years. a report released by korea's defense acquisition program administration wednesday shows that... korea exported arms worth some 1- point 8 billion dollars to the us over the cited period. the most exported items to washington were aircraft parts and ammunitions. turkey was the second largest buyer... purchasing 1-point 4 billion dollars worth of arms. the hottest item sold to the eurasian nation was the kt-1 trainer jet. indonesia followed in third... importing 782 million dollars worth of weapons from korea... including the supersonic t-50 trainer jet. korea's other major arms buyers included malaysia, iraq and pakistan... and other export goods included

armored vehicles, combat cars and machine guns. korea exported 253 million us dollars worth of arms in 2006, but this number jumped to 1-point 1-9 billion dollars last year... and exports in the first half of this year have already exceeded 680 million dollars. kim nari, arirang news. seoul education superintendent kwak no-hyun has been indicted on charges of bribing another candidate to drop out of last year's election for the post. kwak is under allegations of giving 200-million won,... or about 180-thousand us dollars to professor park myoung-gee at seoul national university of education earlier this year. if kwak is convicted,... he will be stripped of his post,... and also face a maximum of seven years in prison or a fine of at least four thousand dollars. along with the superintendent,... prosecuters also indicted kang kyung- sun, a professor at korea national open university,... on

charges of helping kwak in the secret financial transaction. with just a few weeks left until the by- elections,... korea's former legislation minister lee seog- yeon... and a lawyer-turned-civic activist park won- soon have declared their candidacy for seoul mayor. laah hyun-kyung tells us more. lee seog-yeon, who served as the country's legislation minister for more than two years, announced that he will run for seoul mayor in next month's by-elections. at a ceremony held on wednesday where 28 conservative civic organizations declared lee as their seoul mayoral candidate,... he said he decided to run in order to protect and revive the nation's capital. korean "i am here, once again, to fight against those agreeing to relocate the capital seoul, the symbol of korea. people's hopes to open up a new road awaits before me now." . , .

earlier this month, the ruling grand national party had offered lee to join the gnp and run as a ruling party candidate,... to which he made clear that he is only interested in running as a pan-ruling camp nominee. within the ruling party, lawmaker na kyung- won is widely expected to be nominated as a candidate... considering that she came in second during last year's intraparty mayoral nominee election. meanwhile, park won- soon, who is most likely to run as a pan- opposition camp candidate, also announced on wednesday he will run for seoul mayor. at a press conference, park pledged to push forward with the eco- friendly free school lunch program... and come up with measures that will create more jobs, especially for the socially neglected. korean "i will reshape seoul, which is currently overwhelmed with politics. i will lay out equal and fair policies, aimed at securing common benefits of the citizens only." . . , . in response to a question about joining the main opposition democratic party,...

park said he only aims to be a pan-opposition camp candidate at the moment. the dp will hold an intra-party election later this month, where it will narrow down its candidates to one. laah hyun-kyung, arirang news. the supreme prosecutors' office has summoned on wednesday... former presidential aide for public relations kim du-woo over corruption charges. kim is under suspicion of helping busan savings bank avoid suspension of operations by aiding the bank's key lobbyist park tae-gyu in return of 100 million won or roughly 90 thousand us dollars. prosecutors have discovered about 90 phone calls and golf rounding records... between the two since april last year,... when the savings bank was facing an operation suspension. kim resigned from his post last week but denies allegations of being involved in the the former president of afghanistan,... burhanuddin-- rabbani, who was serving as

chairman of the afghan high peace council, has been assassinated along with three members of the body at his home in kabul. local officials say... a suicide attacker posing as a taliban peace envoy... entered the late leader's house tuesday evening, local time,... before blowing himself up. the killing of rabbani, an ethnic tajik and one of the wise old men of afghan politics, may blunt efforts... to balance regional and ethnic rivalries... that help feed the taliban insurgency. president hamid karzai cut short a visit to the united nations for an emergency cabinet meeting... and called on afghans to remain unified in the face of rabbani's "martyrdom". the powerful typhoon roke has hit the pacific coast of central japan,... leaving at least five people dead and four missing. japan's meteorological agency said... that the typhoon is moving northeast at a speed of 50 kilometers an hour... after making landfall near shizuoka

prefecture wednesday afternoon. the storm is packing winds of up to 144 kilometers per hour. nhk reported that... more than 89-thousand households have lost power... and over a thousand homes have been damaged. strong winds also caused the cancelation of 6-hundred flights and disrupted service on the shinkansen bullet train. the korean non- verbal performance "nanta" has been a great success over the years. it's created a boom in shows featuring percussion and rhythmic movements... but no words. our park ji-won tells us more. this stage is full of rhythmical beats and energetic movements,... but there is no dialogue. performers are rehearsing for the korean show called "bibap." it is a performance that gathers together b -boying, beatboxing, and food! stand-up "without saying a single word, these performers are able to interact and communicate with the audience, using their

dynamic body movements." these "non-verbal" performances are enjoying an increasing popularity in korea. the massive success of the percussion- driven stage performance "nanta," which has drawn over six million spectators since its debut in the late 1990s, has contributed to the booming of these shows. the director of "bibab," jeon jun-beom, who has also directed "jump," another non- verbal performance hit, shares his thoughts on making these kinds of shows. "instead of relying on spoken language, we are creating a stage language. with this new language of gestures, we can not only communicate with the domestic audience, but also with audiences from all over the world." "karma" is another performance that unfolds its story... without words. the plot is based on korea's foundation myth, which has been adapted into a modern fantasy. without dialogues, diverse traditional

korean dance movements and martial arts are presented, ... to convey the essence of the story... and also the inner feelings of the main characters. "since we have to deliver the story without words, we have to focus on every movement very delicately." these performances well demonstrate... that sometimes words are not the only medium to deliver a story. body language and gestures... combined with delicate facial expressions and sounds... may be even more effective in creating a connection between performers and the audience. park ji-won, arirang news. taking a look at wednesday's stock market action,... the benchmark kospi ended higher despite the debt problems in the eurozone... on hopes that the federal reserve will announce measures to boost the fragile us economy. the kospi rose zero-point-9 percent,... to 18-54,... while the tech-heavy kosdaq also closed 1-point-6

percent higher,... at 4- 77. on the fx counter,... the korean currency weakened by 1-and-a- half won... to close at 11-50 against the us dollar. the south korean national football team beat oman tonight 2-1 in the final round of qualifying for the 2012 olympics. that puts south korea in a strong position to make it to london. jimmy yu has more sports updates. hello, i'm jimmy yu and welcome to world sports. michael owen struck twice in his first game of the season as manchester united thrashed bitter rivals leeds united 3-0 in a league cup third- round tie on tuesday. korean park ji-sung gave a nice swift pass to owen 15 minutes in the match, who managed to scuff one in that trickled in off the far post. owen then grabbed his

second goal in the 32nd minute with a superb right-foot strike from just inside the area. and continuing his consistent form, park then gave an assist to ryan giggs who made it 3-0 just before the break when he cut in from the left and slid one in with the outside of his left foot. meanwhile...in other cup action tuesday, korean striker park chu-young made his arsenal debut helping the gunners to a 3-1 win over shrewsbury in london. arsenal avoided a humiliating exit as the troubled gunners came from behind with goals from kieran gibbs, alex oxlade- chamberlain, and yossi benayoun. and over in japan...ko wrapping up with golf...australia's geoff ogilvy has secured the last automatic place in the international team for the presidents cup after finishing third at the bmw championship in chicago on monday. the 34-year-old ensured his attendance at the event which taking place at the royal melbourne golf club in november. australia's adam scott and jason day will also join the 2006 u.s. open champion in the international team which is being

captained by greg norman. south korea will also be a promient presence on the team, as three golfers -- choi kyung- ju, kim kyung-tae and yang yong-eun are guaranteed spots. meanwhile, norman will name his two captain's picks on september 27th. well, that's it for sports. next up is your weather update. hello, i'm yang un- jung with your weather forecast. we'll continue to be under the influence of the continental high pressure from northern china, which means... clear blue skies for the time being. and even better news is that we have no reports of rain at least until early next week, so hope you enjoy these nice and dry conditions. however, for the eastern coastal regions... you guys will be indirectly affected by the tropical storm roke, so high surf and waves are expected in these areas, so watch out if you're there. temperatures for thursday will be... seoul will start off with 12 in the morning then reach 25 in the

afternoon. daegu and gwangju have the same range...12 to 25 degrees busan will be a degree or two warmer... 14 to 26 degrees. daejeon will wake up to the coolest morning tomorrow... with 10 degrees then peak a daytime high of 24. jeju has a range of 15 to 25. dokdo has 17 to 20, and mt. geumgang has 7 to 15 degrees. taking a look at the international weather... tropical storm roke will continue to bring some very wet and windy weather to parts of japan, most of them will be concentrated in tokyo and sapporo on thursday, so watch out if you're in these areas. meanwhile... northeastern china will stay fine and dry as well as for the eastern coastal regions. further south... more heavy downpours to come for vietnam, cambodia, and thailand. down under... a big dome of high pressure in northern australia will protect most regions from any other weather fronts, so nice and dry conditions will prevail

from far north to the southeast. new zealand downsouth will see relatively quiet weather as well... with partly cloudy skies. into north america... another cold front will approach the northeastern u.s on thursday with showers and thunderstorms mostly targeting the mid-atlantic and upstate new york. meanwhile... most of the midwest will enjoy another dry day with partly cloudy skies. at the same time, above average temperatures will still be dominating the west coast. down in south america... southeastern brazil is expecting some evening showers on thursday with highs around 23 degrees. buenos aires and santiago... will be looking at mostly to partly cloudy skies as well. into europe... light rain will pass through moscow sometime during thursday. london, berlin and rome have partly cloudy skies instore. but paris and madrid... will stay under clear skies with abundant sunshine. lastly in africa... dakar finally has some beautiful weather in the

picture, you'll get to enjoy some spectacular sunshine on thursday, so enjoy it while you can. but light rain is still ongoing in addis ababa. other than that... most of the continent will enjoy the usual sunny weather. that's all for today's weather. have a great evening and i'll see you back here tomorrow.