S. KOREA'S BUSAN FEARS DEMOGRAPHIC DISASTER

Welcome to Press Perspective.

It's Friday February 21st here in Seoul.

I'm Min Sunhee.

It's time for our weekly coverage of the various stories about Korea that made international headlines in recent times.

For this I have Kelly Kasulis Cho with The Washington Post.

Kelly welcome back.

I also have writer Colin Marshall with the pundit's take on the media coverage today.

Colin it's good to have you here.

1) Kelly, a British daily recently published a piece on the demographic decline in South Korea's second largest city, Busan.

2) Colin, concerns have been raised about urban centralization in Seoul being especially severe.

3) Kelly, amid efforts here to tackle rural decline, what can you tell us about similar campaigns elsewhere to keep rural communities alive and thriving?

4) And Colin, what do you propose to keep some of Korea's smaller communities on the map?

5) Kelly, moving forward, one German media outlet recently applauded Korea's adoption of an AI-based call service for regular checks on senior citizens living alone.

6) Colin, staying with the German media.

7) And again Kelly, going back to our earlier discussion about centralization here in the capital city, why do you believe most foreign travelers to Korea do not seek to travel beyond the boundaries of Seoul?

8) Meanwhile Colin, on a more solemn note.

All right.