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South Korean President praises Psy for copyright nod

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye called Thursday for a "paradigm shift" to a creative economy and hailed "Gangnam Style" star Psy for honouring a copyright on his latest dance moves.

In a meeting with policymakers, Park said the nation needed to shift its reliance on big manufacturers like Hyundai or Samsung to IT and software industries to create more jobs and sustain growth.

"Growth led by a few big firms and the government are bound to be limited... we need a healthy ecosystem of creative entrepreneurs," she said, citing late Apple founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft's Bill Gates as examples.

"One of the reasons our economy is in a difficult situation... is growth without jobs. New industries to tackle this issue have not been created yet and we need a paradigm shift to overcome such a crisis," Park said.

Rampant piracy in IT and cultural products needs to be curbed to encourage more creation of software, she added, praising Psy for paying to borrow a dance move from another K-pop act for his latest song "Gentleman".

The South Korean singer last week unveiled "Gentleman" -- the long-awaited follow-up to his global hit "Gangnam Style."

The music video to the new single featured a hip-swinging dance originally performed in 2009 by popular girlband Brown Eyed Girls for their hit "Abracadabra".

In order to incorporate the dance moves in his "Gentleman" video, Psy paid an unspecified fee to the team of choreographers who created them.

"This recognition of the value of other people's creativity is a very exemplary case," Park said.

The latest Psy video has shattered YouTube records by garnering more than 130 million views since it was posted on the video-sharing site on Saturday.

It was the video of "Gangnam Style", and in particular Psy's signature horse-riding dance, that pushed him to global stardom last year after it was posted on YouTube and turned into a viral sensation.

A satire on the luxury lifestyle of Seoul's upscale Gangnam district, it has become the most-watched YouTube video of all time, registering more than 1.5 billion views since it debuted last July.

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