other important headlines_Nov 14

- The US expressed its disappointment, in a roundabout way, with Korea’s decision not to further participate in the PSI by saying it would welcome when Korea fully joins the initiative. Sean McCormack, spokesman of State Department, said Korea has kept changing its stance on the PSI and the US would welcome when Korea decides to join the PSI one day.

- In a press release, John Grayken of Lone Star countered the argument that executives of the company were resisting investigation by the Korean prosecution by saying their argument was wrong and inflammatory. He said Ellis Short and Thompson revealed their willingness to get investigation if the prosecution guaranteed the leaving date but the Korean prosecutors were only seeking to arrest them.

- Unification minister Lee Jong-seok suddenly canceled his planned visit to Kumkang Mountain for unspecified reason. The visit was planned as the last big schedule as unification minister. Amid wild speculation on the reason for the cancellation, Lee said “nobody pressed me not to go.”

- Chun Young-woo, Korea’s point man in charge of six party negotiations, said this morning that he expected the talk to be held by mid-December. As for the PSI, he opened the possibility for Korea to join the initiative on a case-by-case basis.

- A poll by Woori Home-shopping shows that 37 per cent of housewives in their 20s don’t know how to make Kimchi, while 56 per cent of them say they will make Kimchi by themselves for the coming winter. The reason for buying kimchi instead of making, 61.5 per cent say buying one is much more convenient, 26 per cent say the don’t know how to make it, and 7.9 per cent points to efficiency of buying. 72 per cent of respondents store Kimchi in the kimchi fridge.

- Choo Byung-jik said this morning he would not resign immediately even though he was feeling responsible for the real estate policy failure. He said “despite rising house prices, I don’t think the real estate policy is a failure,” and “the prices will stabilize in the near future, and the policy will ultimately succeed.”

- The prosecution found the lead that billions of money suspected of former president Chun Doo-hwan’s slush fund flew to the bank account of his grandson. If the money is confirmed to be part of the slush fund, the prosecution will seek to seize all the money. Chun was ordered to pay back an astronomical amount of money of W220.5 bn on February 1997, but he has paid only W53.2 bn, 24 per cent, up to now.