Anchor: A recent report says that some 30-thousand people die prematurely in South Korea and Japan every year due to fine dust particles from China. The report, published in the authoritative journal "Nature," was jointly written by researchers in China and the U.S.
Our Kim In-kyung has more.
 
Report: Fine dust particles have been blanketing Seoul and its surrounding areas at a rate of two out of every three days this month.
 
On some days, when air quality has been especially bad, experts have attributed up to 70 percent of the pollution to China.
 
A report, published in the international journal "Nature" on Thursday, said that every year some 30-thousand people in South Korea and Japan die prematurely due to fine dust from China.
 
The report, jointly written by researchers in China's Tsinghua and Peking universities and the University of California, Irvine, analyzed the path of the fine dust particle PM2.5 produced in industrial plants around the world in 2007.
 
An examination of early deaths in polluted regions due to heart, lung and blood vessel problems found that 410-thousand people died prematurely due to fine dust.
 
The researchers also found that China is the single largest producer of fine dust particles and that South Korea and Japan, where the dust blows, suffered high rates of pollution-related deaths.
 
They said some 30-thousand-900 people in the two countries died prematurely due to air pollution in 2007.
 
It is the first time that scientists have calculated the number of pollution-induced early deaths by region.
 
The research is expected to put more pressure on China to curb pollution.
Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.