Brazilian stock traders negociate the future dollar prior to closing time, at the Mercantile & Futures Exchange (BM&F), in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 28 February 2007. Brazil's Sao Paulo Stocks Exchange (Bovespa) index has reached up 0.98 percent the day after its worst result since September 11 attacks, while its currency 'real' has been quoted at 2,11 reals per dollar, both of them as a consequence of the Chinese previous day's losses. AFP PHOTO


Loss of Young Man’s Dream

To serve his obligatory military service, a 27 year old young man in the flower of his youth was dispatched to Afghanistan when he volunteered and was killed by a terrorist bomb. It is the first time since the Vietnam war in 1965 when a Korean soldier was killed by an attack from either a hostile force or terror organization which was active in the dispatch area.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that a bomb exploded on February 27 at around 2:50 pm in front of the Wagram headquarters’ main gate in Afghanistan where Korean Dasan and Dong Eui troops are stationed. Sergeant Youn Jang Ho (27, interpreter) who carried out his duty outside the base belonging to the Dasan troop was killed. The attack killed Sergeant Youn, one US soldier and eighteen local people, and injured twelve others.

Youn had planned to attend graduate school after returning to Korea in April and completing his army service in June, and the fact arouses sympathy.

Youn left for the United States for overseas study when he was in middle school. He graduated from the Department of Business Administration at Indiana University and joined the army rather late in June 2005 to begin military duty while he was working at a company in the US. He was working as an interpreter soldier at the Dasan base from last September when he volunteered for Afghanistan.

The body of Sergeant Youn will be transferred to Mubarak Airport in Kuwait by a US troop transport plane on February 28 and will arrive at a Seoul airport in Seong Nam, Kyung Gi province by chartered plane from Korean Air on March 2 at around 6:00 in the morning.

Spokesman Youn Seong Yong at the presidential residence of the Republic of Korea said, “We deliver the meaning of consolation to Sergeant Youn’s family with great sorrow.”
/ 입력시간: 2007. 03.01. 08:21