other important headlines Oct 26

- The government is reported to be preparing various measures including banning a North Korea person or group who are designated by the UN committee as a subject to sanctions from coming to Korea or having financial transactions with them.

- Rep. Kang Ki-gap of Democratic Labor Party reported this morning that Nonghyup had a total of 127 financial transactions accidents (61 misappropriations, 35 regulation violations, and 30 robberies) since 2003 and the money lost amounts to W61.8 bn. But damage control was not appropriate with punishment for people involved in the cases being very mild.

- Rep. Kim Dong-churl of Uri Party argued that the central investigation division of the prosecution failed to do its job properly. He claims that the number of cases resolved by the division last year was 53, almost half of the 2003 cases of 104. He also raises a question on the division’s efficiency based on the fact that a prosecutor there handles on average 3.5 cases a year compared to 2,732 cases taken care of a prosecutor at a district prosecutor’s office.

- A singer Rain is going to meet UN secretary-general designate Ban Ki-moon at a welcoming party in Chungju this Saturday. Next day, he will attend an event held in the UN headquarters in New York as a singer representing Asia.

- It is reported that the US will open its market to all Korean products immediately without a grace period for tariff elimination.

- The KIDA (Korea Institute for Defense Analyses) predicted in its report, if the PSI starts in earnest, North Korea would suffer a yearly loss of $0.7 -1 bn from reduced earning of hard currency, which translates into 40-50 per cent of the regime’s annual dollar earning. It is assumed that the regime earns $0.4-0.5 bn by selling conventional weapons, $0.3-0.5 bn from drug and counterfeit dealings, and $0.16 bn from inter-Korean economic businesses.

- North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun argued yesterday in its editorial titled ‘two Koreas’ marching with holding hands is the way forward to peace and security,’ “security can’t achieved by depending on the outside force,” and “amid mounting war threat, you can trust only your blood-shared family.”