What's up Korea?_Jan. 29

-Senior employees of Mittal, the world’s number one steelmaker, will visit Korea on February 1 to meet Lee Ku-taek, CEO of POSCO. Mittal is said to be very interested in POSCO and believed to have said POSCO stocks are undervalued and thus is a very attractive target of M&A.

- According to Korea Exchange, KOSPI slid by 4.4 per cent in the year to January 26, ranking the lowest among 44 WFE (World Federation of Exchanges) member countries, despite stock experts’ rosy expectations for a bullish stock market.

- A mobile phone with AM OLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) will be launched in the Japanese market by Samsung SDI in association with a Japanese mobile phone maker as early as the end of February. The technology allows five times brighter screen and more natural color than LCD provides.

- Amid the increasing number of cases of a Korean company going insolvent in China, the government is working on a master plan to help medium-sized companies make successful inroads into the Chinese market.

- Lee Byung-wan, the presidential secretary, and Park Jae-wan of GNP will have a working level talks on the livelihood issues today on the condition that they would not talk about the constitutional revision.

- Four taboos for Samsung directors, if they want to be further promoted, are extramarital affairs, gambling, short-term stock investment, and golf.

- Medical law revisions, scheduled to be announced today by the Health Ministry, are postponed due to fierce opposition from Korean Medical Association. The delayed announcement came after Yoo Si-min met this morning KMA president Jang Dong-ik who is said to have asked the minister more time to take care of a few unresolved issues within the association.

- A government source said North Korea and the US have exchanged questions regarding North Korea’s BDA bank accounts in the run up to the working-level talks on the BDA issues slated to be held on January 30.

- Daily NK reported that there are infectious diseases sweeping through North Korea due to dirty water and poor sanitary conditions. North Korea aid civic groups shipped the regime $5 m worth of medicine on January 10. The North authorities denied the report of infectious diseases.