Today's headlines_Dec 28

- Amid increasing uncertainty on next year ‘s economic conditions, arising from a rising won, slow domestic consumption, and worries on real estate bubble bust, companies are busy with setting out a contingency plan to deal with possible emergencies.

- President Roh said “if I have to acknowledge we have made policy mistakes, the biggest one will be real estate measures,” and “(but) I did nothing wrong except the issue and I will definitely get the problem under control lest it deteriorate.”

- Samsung Electronics said yesterday it developed one giga-bite DDR DRAM for a mobile phone, which is twice the memory storage but 20 per cent thinner and 30 per cent less power-consuming than a 512 Mb DRAM.

- Banking services of Citi Bank, disrupted by earthquakes off Taiwan, is back to normal. But HSBC is still in the process of restoring its service and not providing a normal service.

- Former and current leaders of Uri Party, Kim Geun-tae and Chung Dong-young, met yesterday to agree on the formation of a new party based on a ‘firm principle.’ They didn’t specifically mention about the president but said in a roundabout way “we will not be influenced by anyone.”

- The Seoul district prosecutor’s office indicted without detention two employees of a PR company working for Doosan on charges of spreading malicious rumors against Jinro’s Chamilseul. The rumor was Jinro was sold to Japanese Asahi Beer so drinking Jinro soju was tantamount to paying money to Japan.

- Balance of current account reached a record high in November with a surplus of $4.24 bn, up $2.48 bn from a month ago due largely to bullish exports.

- Japanese Nihon Geizai Shimbun reported today North Korea will present financial transaction documents related to the BDA and explain the 50 accounts in details to the US in the up-coming working level meeting between the two countries, slated to be held next month.

- North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun said in yesterday’s editorial that US’s announcement to exercise the Team Sprit right after the involved parties agreed to resume the 6-party talks is the same as slapping in the face of the talks and destroying ‘a peaceful course.’

- The Thai government confirmed yesterday that it imported a bunch of gold bars from North Korea.

- 840 Shinhan Bank employees have signed up for a voluntary early retirement, much higher than the bank originally expected. The bank expected about 150-300 people would do so.