other important headlines_September 21

- [Yonhap] China and Russia are reported not to attend the US-led ‘ten-party talk,’ which is to be held in NewYork today, on security in North East Asia.

-[JoongAng Ilbo] It is belatedly reported that North Korea has already opened four bank accounts at Woori Bank Kaesung branch. The Ministry of Unification has kept it secret and notified the bank that there was no problem with the accounts.

- [Yonhap] Former Foreign minister Han Seugn-joo said in his lecture sponsored by Korea Forum for Progress, “wartime command transfer is now an irreversible issue,” and “if we put efforts to improve our security conditions in a systematic and long-term manner based on Korea-US alliance, there will be good results.”

- [Money Today] Cheong Wa Dae underscored government’s determination to block the opening of rice market. Presidential public relations secretary Lee Baek-man said rice was the least internationally competitive item in the Korean agricultural sector.

-[Dong-a Ilbo] Korea’s world first DMB service might discontinue due to more than W100 bn losses only 7 month after the service launch. The cost for service launch was about W116.9 bn but its profit has been W109.5 bn.

- [Hankook Ilbo] Korea’s world best selling products such as LCD TVs and cars fare badly in Japan. According to a research, Samsung Electronics’ TV sale in Japan in the second quarter ranked only 14th among competitors, only taking 0.3 per cent of market share, while Sharp, the number one seller, sells 100 times that of Samsung. Hyundai Motor has started exporting cars to Japan since 2001 but its annual sale is a meager 3,000 and what’s worse the sale is dropping year by year.

-[Yonhap] The government and Uri Party will push ahead with a measure under which parents can’t divorce without legal consent on childcare and half of inherited wealth goes to a spouse.

-[Seokye Ilbo] US President Bush is said to have wished ‘good luck’ for Ban Ki-moon who is running for the top post of the UN when he met with Ban at the Korea-US summit on September 15.