PRIME TIME NEWS 22:00 Rival parties divided over probe into spy agency hacking allegations

ARIRANG NEWS 22:00 Hello... and thanks for joining us for our late night newscast coming to you from Arirang′s News Center in Seoul. I′m Mark Broome. Korea reports 13th straight day with no new MERS cases Our top story tonight... Thirteen days have now passed since Korea reported its last case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome... otherwise known as MERS. The health ministry says the number of confirmed cases remains at one-hundred-86... as it has now for nearly two weeks. No MERS-related deaths have been reported over the last week either. The death toll during the outbreak is 36. Of the confirmed cases,... one-hundred-35 people have made complete recoveries. The number of patients still receiving hospital treatment for MERS is now just 15. Fewer than one-hundred people are under quarantine. Just to give you an idea of how far that figure has fallen,... it was well over six-and-a-half thousand in mid-June. S. Korea, France discuss Iran nuclear deal, N. Korea issues South Korea and France have vowed to work harder to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue in light of the historic nuclear deal between Iran and the world′s major powers. In a statement following Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se′s meeting with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Paris,... Seoul′s foreign ministry said the two diplomats saw eye-to-eye on the need for a fresh global push to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The officials said the international community′s stern and consistent message to Iran over its nuclear program was key to that deal′s success. The ministers also vowed to continue pressing North Korea to improve its dire human rights record. Rival parties divided over probe into spy agency hacking allegations Korea′s rival parties are at loggerheads over a probe into allegations the nation′s spy agency used a sophisticated hacking program to snoop on citizens. The main opposition party wants full disclosure,... but the ruling party says some data needs to remain classified for the sake of national security... and parliament should instead be focused on getting the economy back on track. Song Ji-sun reports. South Korea′s National Intelligence Service has agreed to disclose records on how it used a hacking program bought from a private firm based in Italy. The nation′s two rival political parties have different opinions about what should happen next,... considering claims the NIS could have used the program to tap smartphones in South Korea. In a statement released on Saturday,... the ruling Saenuri Party called on the main opposition party to stop pushing the spy agency to expose everything,... saying it was making the public nervous and could slow down business at the National Assembly. The ruling party urged the New Politics Alliance for Democracy to focus on passing the government′s multi-billion dollar supplementary budget plan aimed at reviving the economy... instead of hounding the NIS. It says the interference