local paper headlines_Oct 31

1. Chosun Ilbo

- Some people in Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling party complain that the spy incident is politicized, and the 386 generation is unfairly lumped together. One Uri representative argued that the NIS might make up the spying incident for the sake of the survival of the organization.

- US Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow said in an interview with Chosun Ilbo that some of Korean politicians had absurd misunderstanding that if Korea joined the PSI, it would lead to military conflicts with North Korea. He said so many Korean politicians basically misunderstood the PSI, which was very disappointing.

- Economic Minister Kwon O-kyu’s leadership is now being called into question as various economic policies such as a new city development plan and a pump-priming measure are not properly executed due to miscommunication between government offices. After he became the economic minister, he seldom spends time in networking and goes home around 6-7pm to read books. A government official who knows him well said “before he was very straight-talking and sometimes defiant, but now he seems to change into a ‘good boy’ who listens to what Cheong Wa Dae tells him to do.”

- It is belatedly reported that the NIS and the Ministry of Justice opposed to permit Democratic Labor party leadership to go to North Korea today, but the Unification Ministry approved the visit.

2. Maeil Business Daily

- Economic minister Kwon O-kyu said in the administration audit yesterday “we are considering to sell off a 28 per cent government-held stake in Woori Financial Group possibly within this year.” “We will take time and be very cautious when we hand over management control of the bank to a strategic investor, because it is related to structural changes of the whole financial sector,” he added.

- Lotte Shopping makes inroads into China as the first Korean department store. The company yesterday unveiled the ambitious plan of opening a department store in Beijing in early 2008 joining hands with a local Chinese company.

- Kookmin Bank posted a worse-than-expected third quarter result of a net profit of W678.1 bn, down 12.72 per cent from a quarter ago and 27.75 per cent down from a year ago. Industry experts say the disappointing performance is likely to continue into the first quarter of next year.

- Local online ad is reported to suffer from ‘click fraud,’ which occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating an improper charge per click.