local paper headlines_Oct 24

1. Chosun Ilbo

- As the government doesn’t budge on the controversial issue of wartime command transfer despite North Korea’s N-test, experts point out that security uncertainty on the Korean peninsula is becoming very worrisome. They say the country needs some ‘extra measure’ to fill the ‘security vacuum.’

- Chinese media reported that its police arrested two Chinese men in a hotel in Beijing who tried to sell 1kg of enriched uranium. According to the police, the two men turned out to be ethnic Koreans. The police assumed the final destination of the uranium would be Russia but didn’t rule out a possibility of North Korea.

- The Ministry of Construction and Transportation decided to build a Bundang-like new city in the Metropolitan area in order to solve housing shortage and stave off rises in house price. The Ministry will announce a blueprint for construction as early as the end of this month.

- Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee came back to Korea last night after a 40-day overseas staying. Asked what he would do if summoned by the prosecution, he replied after seconds of silence, “I will follow the laws of nature.”

- Hyundai Motor will move its production facility of a small-sized sedan ‘Click’ to India by the end of next year due to worsened profitability over high labor cost and frequent production disruption by militant unions.

2. Maeil Business Daily

- According to the national statistical office, the number of part-timers totals at 1.13m as of August this year, up by 0.32m or 40.64% from 0.87m in 2002. A job portal site ‘Incruit’ found out that 59.8 per cent of 1,028 part-timers say they work on a casual basis since they couldn’t find a regular job.

- National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Committee received a document from Bank of Korea which revealed that about $13m have been wired to an account of Banco Delta Asia since 2001. The committee asked the bank to submit detailed information but the bank rejected the request saying it was illegal to open such information.

- On the first day of the fourth round of Korea-US FTA negotiation, the two countries had difficulties in finding a consensus especially on the date for tariff elimination for products.

- Hana Financial Group CEO Kim Seung-yu said of various M&A rumors surrounding the company as ‘groundless.’ When meeting with reporters yesterday, he said “market always changes so we open the possibility for M&A but there is no on-going plan.”