Other important headlines _ September 12

- US chief FTA negotiator Wendy Cutler said in a phone interview that Korea-US FTA will be one of the top agenda of the summit meeting between the two presidents. She didn’t hide her disappointment on the third round of talk, saying “we are disappointed with Korea’s proposal on the agricultural sector,” and “we understand how sensitive the agricultural sector in Korea but there is a need to conclude a comprehensive FTA.”

- Asked on North Korea’s human rights issues, President Roh said yesterday, “Since the two Koreas are one nation and thereby being in unusual relations, the South takes a special attitude toward the matter.”

- Telecommunication spending outstripped dining expenses in overall household spending for the first time. According to BOK, national telecommunication spending in the first half of the year amounted to W1326 8, bn, taking up 7.2 per cent in household expenses, up from 3 per cent in 1997. Meanwhile the dining expenses were W12963 bn.

- The liquor industry has begun a massive ‘low-price’ marketing strategy. Last February, Doosan brought down the price of its soju from W800 to W730, and OB Beers lowered its new beer of 1.8 l to the same price of 1.6 l-beer. It is understood that OB’s drastic strategy aims at Hite Beer which far outperforms OB Beer.

-Major domestic banks are actively looking for overseas business opportunity. Kang Jung-won, President of the nation’s biggest Kookmin Bank, said the bank eyed on East Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia as a new business market. Kookmin Bank is reported to have a plan to take over several Asian banks from the end of the next year. Wooribank, Shinhan Bank, and Hanabank all jumped in the bandwagon.

- It is reported that the US has internally concluded that North Korea doesn’t have any willingness to negotiate and set to come up with comprehensive sanctions against the regime. Chief US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill is believed to convey a message to North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan to meet and talk when he was staying in China to no avail.

- It is belatedly reported that the son of Kim Shin-bae, SK Telecom chief executive, appeared on a commercial of SK Teletec’s SKY mobile phone. He, 25, is a student of a university in Korea and the commercial ran for more than two months.

- Japan’s Koizumi criticized Seoul and Beijing for their rejection to have summit meeting. He said it was not right to refuse a summit meeting just because he has a different idea on the Yasukuni Shrine and that the two countries would see later that it was wrong.