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The Korea Times
Health Minister Takes Office Despite Objections
By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
03-13-2008 19:55
Minister of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs Kim Soung-yee took office Thursday, despite objections from opposition parties for his alleged illicit real estate trading and misappropriation of public funds.
President Lee Myung-bak gave a letter of appointment to Kim, 62, at Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential office announced.

The New York Times
November 7, 2007
A History of Neglect
In Foster Care Review, Vows of Help and Vigilance
By LESLIE KAUFAM and BENJAMIN WEISER
John B. Mattingly became New York City’s child welfare commissioner aiming to bring accountability to the dozens of private agencies the city paid hundreds of millions of dollars each year to care for foster children.
Mr. Mattingly also brought to the job a long history as an ardent supporter of the idea that endangered children would fare best if the people in the neighborhoods they came from were involved in their care and protection.

The New York Times
November 6, 2007
A History of Neglect
City Slow to Act as Hope for Foster Children Fails
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Taken as a young child from her drug-abusing mother, the girl had lived in one foster home after another. Now, at 16, she saw the day approaching when she would become an adult and be sent off to make a life on her own.
She desperately wanted to be ready, and one last bit of help seemed to be at hand. New York City had paid her foster care agency, a sprawling organization called Miracle Makers, hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for workshops in which trained professionals would teach teenagers like her — who often end up jobless, homeless or in jail — the practical skills they needed to survive.

The New York Times
November 5, 2007
A History of Neglect
Foster Children at Risk, and an Opportunity Lost
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
Two decades ago, New York City embarked on an experiment aimed at better assisting and protecting its most vulnerable black and Latino children. At its heart, the effort involved creating and supporting foster care agencies that would, at long last, be run by men and women of color.
The city and state opened their wallets. Child welfare experts embraced the concept. There was the sense among some that a kind of racial justice was about to be won.

JoongAng Daily
Big families make bank as fertility rate climbs
At 1.26 births per woman, experts say it may be too soon to declare an end to the country’s ‘baby strike.’
March 10, 2008
A frugal family in Korea’s southwestern village of Gurim has become known among neighbors as the “wealthy Kims,” a nickname earned after a fifth child was born into the family last April.
“The name serves us well,” said 42-year-old Kim Doo-man, his hearty laugh ringing through the telephone receiver. “After all, we are living in an era in which babies make money.”
Kim’s family was recently able to move to a larger rental house, because the local government provides two-thirds of the rental fee for couples with five or more children, a policy designed to raise the low birthrate. Kim’s youngest son also earned the family 5 million won ($5,277) in a government subsidy, as well as monthly cash support of 500,000 won for a year.

The Hankyoreh
Birth rate rises, but upward trend may not last
Economic recovery, favorable governmental policies and rise in number of marriages contributed to increase
The number of newborn babies has increased for two years in a row. The year 2006 was known as “ssangchun,” or “double spring,” year, a year in which the lunar calendar has two days to mark the beginning of spring and which many considered to have been an auspicious year for marriage. Last year was known as the “year of the golden pig.” Babies born in that year were thought to have had a good chance of being wealthy. However, the nation’s birth rate in 2007 was still the lowest in the world.
According to data announced by the National Statistics Office on February 26, the number of babies born in 2007 was approximately 497,000, an increase of 45,000 from the previous year.
The number of newborns was approximately 729,000 in 1994, but since then that number has continued to drop. The figure rose temporarily in 2000 due to what has been called the “millennium baby boom,” but decreased through 2005. The crude birth rate, or the number of births per 1,000 people per year, was 10.1 last year, exceeding 10.0 for the first time in four years after having been at 10.2 in 2003.
The nation’s overall fertility rate - the average number of babies a woman gives birth to during her lifetime - also increased to 1.26 last year. That figure rose for two consecutive years from its record-low rate of 1.08 in 2005.

The Chosun Ilbo
USFK Commander Gets Korean Granddaughter
Updated Mar.3,2008 06:01 KST
Gen. Burwell B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea and the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, now has a Korean granddaughter. According to the USFK, Bell's son Burwell Baxter Bell IV, 36, and his wife have adopted an eight-month-old Korean girl through an adoption agency.
Unable to have children of their own, the younger Bell and his wife reportedly began looking to adopt a few years ago. A USFK officer said the couple has named the girl Jin-hee Bell, using her original Korean name.
Gen. Bell reportedly told acquaintances that he had not discussed the adoption of a Korean baby with his son, meaning the younger Bell and his wife made the decision on their own.
The new father is the vice president of a security firm in Tampa, Florida, where his wife teaches at a high school. She plans to take a year off from work to raise her new daughter.

The New York Times
Life as a Repast, Not Yet Complete
By MIMI READ
February 20, 2008
IT was two days after Fat Tuesday, and this city had begun the annual jag of repentance known as Lent. But Kim Sunée, a Korean-born writer, was experiencing powerful food lusts, as she often does. These cravings propelled her out of her hotel room and into Rio Mar, an unassuming fish house in the warehouse district that feels like some dim, delicious corner of Spain.
Ms. Sunée, 37, was back in the town where she was raised, on a whirlwind tour for her first book, a compelling, confessional memoir entitled ''Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home'' (Grand Central). Wearing a fitted brown velvet coat with a confetti of appliqués, she looked more Paris than Big Easy. She settled into a dark corner, gracefully slipped off her very high heels and, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, ordered roughly half the menu.
Boquerones, or grilled white anchovies in vinegar. Drum seviche with habanero peppers. The burnished half-moon of a tuna empanada in an almond-rich romesco sauce. Crispy rouget fillets crowned with caper-tomato-shallot confit. Enormous garlicky shrimp, octopus with paprika, a pair of nearly black blood sausages.

The International Herald Tribune
Baby buying concerns in Vietnam bring heartache for U.S. parents
By Elizabeth Olson
Monday, February 11, 2008
WASHINGTON: Eyes like black pearls, the softest skin and little tufts of hair made it totally easy to fall in love at first sight. And that is what Julie Carroll - and Jewel McRoberts and Tommi-Lynn Sawyer - did when they saw the three tiny girls at a Vietnamese orphanage.
They adopted the babies after months of waiting and then had to leave them behind because they could not obtain entry visas to bring them back to the United States.
That was almost four months ago, and the families last week began a public campaign to press the State Department to let them bring Madelyn Grace, Eden and Anabelle to the United States.

JoongAng Daily
Fertility rate climbs, but it may be fleeting
By Limb Jae-eun Staff Reporter
February 27, 2008
Despite her own expectations, Choi Yu-jeong, 34, is due next month to deliver her second child.
Choi and her husband have a 4-year-old son, but she didn’t want to have another child because that would mean giving up her career.
Now, however, her first child is old enough to go to nursery school this year and her mother-in-law has agreed to care for the new baby.