other important headlines_Oct 18

- North Korea Central News Agency reported Kim Jong-il attended the army concert in his first appearance after the nuclear test. The agency didn’t reveal the date but the date is speculated to be yesterday which marked the 80th anniversary of a communist group established by Kim Il-sung.

- Lee Kyung-tae, president of Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, said if the North conducts the second test, the government should signal a clear sign to the market by introducing an aggressive macroeconomic policies such as interest rate reduction and spending expansion.

- According to local banks, private banking clients didn’t budge on the news of North Korea’s N-test and rather seemed to see the crisis as an opportunity. Some of the clients signed up for a new fund.

- US NBC News quoted an anonymous US official as saying North Korea informed China of its second test.

- There is an increasing trend that office workers turn an avid student after work to prepare for a national exam to become lawyers, accountants, or doctors. According to data, last year 23 per cent of applicants who wanted to enter a special graduate school to become a doctor were over 30 years old.

- According to the US House Intelligence Committee, Kim Jong-il’s private asset is estimated to be around $4 bn. Kim spends $0.72 m every year to buy Hennessy, a French cognac and he possesses 200 Benz S classic.

- Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation warned the management of Woori Bank for giving special ‘encouragement bonus’ to its employees on April 3 just a few days after it had sent out W47.4 bn in incentives on March 27, saying the give-out was against the MOU for management normalization. An official from the KDIC said “it shows moral hazard of Woori Bank, which had received pubic funds.”