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North and South Korea Allow Family Reunions; John Brennan`s CIA Security Clearance Revoked; CNN`s Positive Athlete Nominations; Cheese Curd Eating Contest

Aired August 20, 2018 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: A big hello and a warm welcome to everyone watching CNN 10. We`re starting the second week of our news season and

we`re thankful you`re watching. I`m Carl Azuz. Today`s down the middle coverage starts with an explanation of reunions on the Korean Peninsula.

For the first time in almost 70 years, some civilians separated by the Korean War are set to see their families again. In April, North Korea and

South Korea made a historic agreement to formally end the Korean War. As part of that agreement, 57,000 people who were separated from their

families in the war became eligible to participate in reunions.

What`s set to take place in North Korea today won`t include all of those people. Just 89 of them from the North and South are making the journey to

see their loved ones. The lady you see here, Lee Kum Sum (ph) is one of them. She`s now 92 years old and she`s ready to see her 72 year old son

for the first time since he was four and the two became separated while trying to flee the fighting. Those likely who wound up in the South

weren`t allow to see their relatives who wound up in the North. Now, they`ll have 3 days to reunite with their families.

Reunions like this have taken place before but more than 75,000 Koreans died before they saw their loved ones again. As we mentioned, today`s

event is part of a bigger agreement between the two countries to move toward peace. The guns might have fallen silent in 1953 but much of the

division has remained.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: North and South Korea have pledged to officially end the Korean War. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his North Korean

counterpart Kim Jong-un announced the historic accord while standing the demilitarized zone. The heavily fortified 2 1/2 mile wide strip of land

has split the countries for more than six decades. After World War II, two super powers divided the Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel. The

Soviet Union occupied the North and the United States the South.

This resulted in the creation of two separate states. The Republic of Korea or South Korea and the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea or North

Korea. Most historians say the North invaded the South on June 25th, 1950 when the Korean War began. The North tells it`s citizens that South Korea

and America actually started the war. Over the next three years, more than 2 million Koreans died in the fighting including an estimated 600,000 North

Korean civilians and 1 million South Korean civilians. Active hostilities ended in 1953 but technically the war is still ongoing because no peace

treaty was ever signed. Since then North Korea`s founder President Kim Il- Song, his son General Kim Jong-Il and grandson Marshal Kim Jong-un have all dialed up the rhetoric. But with the historic summit and new accord, the

65 year old war may finally come to an end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARL AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which U.S. government agency was created by President Harry Truman in 1947? Federal Highway Administration, U.S.

Department of Agriculture, Army Corps of Engineers, or Central Intelligence Agency. The answer here is the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA which

focuses on gathering information outside the United States. A former Director of the CIA has lost his Security Clearance. To help us explain

what exactly happened and the controversy surrounding it, here`s CNN`s Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More precisely are security clearances and where do they come from? Security clearances are issued by many government

agencies and can come in several different levels offering different access to sensitive or classified material. And even if you have the highest

level of clearance, that`s not an invitation to plunder all files. You will likely see only materials you need to know about. Who gets security

clearances? As a practical matter, they go to people who are intimately involved in the safety and defense of the United States and its allies.

Now this is not all military business. For example, there could be economic information or infrastructure details or negotiations with other

countries which might considered highly sensitive and fall under this umbrella. But all this has to do with active government service so why

should anyone who`s left the government retain his or her security clearance? Former employees of an agency have experience. They have

institutional knowledge and the people who take over for them may need that. Say you worked on some classified matter involving another country

and a new team comes in, they need to know what you did. This would assist the new team to be able to talk to you about the current situation as well.

In addition, some private industries, defense contractors for example, do work that requires private citizens to deal with sensitive government

matters. So having a security clearance outside the government can also be useful. So why would anyone lose or have their security clearance revoked.

Usually that happens because they truly no longer need it or some conflict has arisen. For example, they start working for a foreign hostile

government or they just get into trouble. They commit a crime or their linked to some illicit or risky activity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: U.S. President Donald Trump took away the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan last week. Brennan served in the CIA

under the Obama Administration. In recent years, he`s very critical online and on TV of President Trump. Following his decision to revoke Brennan`s

security clearance, the President said Brennan made mistakes as CIA Director and that he`s using his status as a former high ranking official

to make quote "unfounded and outrageous allegations about the Trump Administration".

Former Director Brennan says President Trump is abusing his power and punishing his critics. And more than 12 other former intelligence

officials called the move an attempt to stifle free speech. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell says Donald Trump has the authority to revoke

security clearances. And officials say the President`s reviewing the clearances of other people who served in the Obama Administration.

Next today positive athlete isn`t just a generic term for someone who plays sports and smiles. It`s a CNN program that searches across the country for

high school student athletes who`ve over come the odds or gone out of their way to help others. You can nominated someone you know at cnn.com/positive

athlete. A great example is Lexi Shutsman (ph) from Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know if she even sees people as having disabilities. She just has always see who isn`t included and looked for

ways to include them.

(LEXI SHUTSMAN): I am the President of Best Buddies which is a club that included kids with and without disabilities and activities that they might

not be able to do without given the opportunity. And I`m also a peer helper within the life skills classroom. While I have students that have

significant intellectual disabilities and I teach them everything that they would need for life after high school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it`s just a natural passion for her. She just naturally befriended the students in my classroom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She goes out with the students and assists students as a peer rather than an adult helping them grocery shop, learn how to give

change, go through the counters, make sure they get everything on their list as an equal. I think valuing their abilities and not having pity and

seeing that they can do the same things she can do as a person without a disability.

(LEXI SHUTSMAN): Had a meeting with Special Olympics and making us a first Special Olympics Team which was unified bocce. And it was really cool, all

of the kids loved it. A lot of them don`t get to play on sports teams in the school so this is a team that includes kids with disabilities and kids

without disabilities in a unified way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she got to the high school and she really loves soccer so much. And approached her coach and asked the coach to have the

students that were her friends, that had more significant disabilities and couldn`t play soccer to be ball boys and girls on the team.

(LEXI SHUTSMAN): I thought it would be really cool to include them as a part of the soccer team. So they come to all of our home games and they

get to warm up with us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lexi is just someone who never gives up and always encourages others.

(LEXI SHUTSMAN): Everything that I`ve done through my middle school and high school career has just made me grow so closer to the idea of being a

Special Education teacher. And just the thought of leaving high school and never really doing anything again, I just couldn`t imagine it. It`s just

what - - it`s always what I wanted to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Today I learned that cheese curds, chunks of curdled milk that are often fried are also known as "squeaky cheese". I also learned there`s a

competition to see who can eat the most cheese curds in six minutes. And wouldn`t you know it, it was held at the Wisconsin State Fair. The winner

who surprisingly was not this guy was able to stomach more than five pounds of cheese curds. So the only thing between him and a $2,000 first prize

were the curds and the whey. Like little Miss Muffet, he was able to tough it out the competition to make sure history occurred. I`m Carl Azuz for

CNN 10. Nothing (inaudible) who our news and cheesy puns and we "ricotta" more for you tomorrow. Hope you think it`s "gouda" even if you`re watching

all "provolone".

END