By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Top diplomats of South Korea and the United States Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a reciprocal student internship program aimed at helping students of the two nations better understand and learn each others' culture and language.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed the MoU in New York during a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Under the program dubbed WEST (Work, Study, Travel), agreed upon at the summit talks between the leaders of the two countries in Seoul last month, up to 5,000 South Korean university students and recent graduates can go to the United States to study English and get internships for 18 months beginning next year.
``The WEST program is an innovative exchange program that will allow up to 5,000 qualifying university students and recent university graduates from the Republic of Korea to enter the United States for a period of 18 months on J-1 exchange visitor visas that will allow them to study English, participate in internships, and travel independently,'' the State Department said in a statement.
South Korea will be the first to benefit from the WEST program. Participants are allowed to study English for five months at their own expense, work as interns for up to 12 months and travel for a month. They are required to devote at least 450 classroom hours to structured English language training and coursework focusing on American business practices and procedures, U.S. corporate culture and general official management issues, according to the statement.
Criteria for the selection of participants will include regional distribution, distribution among universities and English test scores, according to officials. The government is also considering ways to offer loans to students from low-income backgrounds.
Once selected, students have to decide where to study and work among 70 recommending educational agencies registered with the State Department. Those selected need to submit detailed plans to the U.S. Embassy when applying for visas.