Other interesting headlines_September 1

- Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said of wartime control transfer, “(we are discussing) the transfer based on four elements, and the US fully agreed on it.” The four elements refer to continuing: ROK-US Mutual Defense; US army station in Korea and more dispatch in emergency; US intelligence assistance; and war deterrent power on the Korean peninsula and mutual preparation.

- All elementary and middle schools in Seoul will have a native English teacher as late as September 2006.

- “The accomplishment of Son Gi Jeong, I think, was a result of Japanese modernization, but Koreans don’t even try to acknowledge such an objective historic view,” said Katsuhiro Kuroda, Seoul bureau chief for Sankei Shimbun and an extreme right-winger. Son was a Berlin Olympics marathon gold medalist but recorded Japanese in the Olympics history since Korea was at that time under Japanese colonization.

- A survey on 1,128 office workers by Scout, job portal site, shows that 59.4 per cent of respondents say they don’t have any plan to have a baby even with government support. The biggest reason was high child care spending (46.6 %) and lower-than-expected government support (29%).

- The prosecution found solid evidence that a Uri party lawmaker received kickback of W80 m for favors in the selection of gift certificate issuer. But the lawmaker flatly denied the allegation.

- In the marriage market, the popularity of ‘Gold Mr.’ is skyrocketing as the number of 30-something single woman is increasing. ‘Gold Mr.’ refers to an eligible bachelor in his 30s with ‘not bad’ looking and good job. 30-something women are looking for a man with similar age while single women in her 20s also want 30-something man for financial stability.

- North Korea urged Japan to give back the remains of Megumi as early as possible, saying “we did our utmost to solve the abduction issue by giving the remains and revealing the reason for her death, but the Japanese only politically exploits ‘Megumi issue.’

- According to a survey by Job portal site Career, the most popular foreign company in Korea among job seekers is reported to be P&G Korea, followed by IBM (5.8%), Nike Sports (5%), HSBC (4.8%), and Google (4.7). Reasons behind the preference for P&G are company welfare system (51.9%), company image (20.5%), and salary (11.3%).