Seoul's Today Headlines_Feb 20

- Amid big companies increasing hiring of awardees from ‘industrial skills contests,’ many industrial high school students are working hard to polish their skills to join various contests. Samsung Electronics last year struck a deal with the labor ministry to employ all awardees from the national industrial skills contest.

- Despite government’s encouragement to use credit card, the government itself does not accept card payment for various taxes. Credit card payment is only possible for only 10 among about 30 taxes.

- The ruling and opposition parties agreed to revive the interest ceiling law which went abolished in 1998, in order to stop outrageous interest rates by some usurious moneylenders.

- A survey by the paper shows the presidents of the four big banks including KB, Shinhan, Woori, and Hana expect the property market to stabilize within this year.

- Hyundai Motor is to build a plant in Brazil, the first such move made by a local carmaker, to make inroads into the South American market.

- The Government has introduced property cooling measures 12 times since February 2003 but the overall housing prices studied by Kookmin Bank shows prices has gone up 20.8% nationwide during the period.

- Three main determinants of the next president of the Federation of Korean will be ‘Kyunggi High School alumni,’ ‘Lee Kun-hee’s opinion,’ and ‘this year’s presidential election.’
- The Fair Trade Commission is to launch an investigation, possibly within next month, into unfair business practices of big internet portal sites using their market controlling positions.

- National Intelligence Service is believed to have reported to the National Assembly that it concluded the leaked document regarding the Korea-US FTA negotiations belongs to Rep. Choi Jae-chun, who has recently left the Uri Party.

- The International Red Cross revealed that about 3,000 North Koreans have caught the measles since last November and four died of the disease.

Korea Today_Headlines Feb. 7

- Kang Shin-ho, Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries, rejected to assume the chairman post, without giving specific reasons for the turnaround.

- Local steelmakers are set to increase output by building more plants, causing concerns for oversupply.

- The National Tax Office announced yesterday the number of people who earn more than W100m a year increased 29 per cent to 53,000 in 2005 from a year ago.

- Lee Ku-taek was reelected as POSCO CEO.

- Samsung Electronics introduced into the market a new 2007 version of its popular premium LCD TV Bordeaux.

- Seven former Uri party representatives including Chun Jung-bae revealed this morning in a press conference they launched a “livelihood politics preparation committee” but said they would not grow the committee into a parliamentary negotiation bloc.

- Yoon Jeung-Hyun, Chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, warned listed companies to correct deceptive accounting practices, if any, before the end of March.

- Leading presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak revealed the so-called “MB Doctrine” which includes his plan to help, if elected, boost North Korea’s GDP per capita from the current $900 to $3,000 in ten years. Separately, he met Christopher Hill on February 4 in Lotte Hotel for about an hour but didn’t reveal what was discussed during the meeting.

- Hyundai Asan is to overhaul its structure in order to strengthen its North Korean businesses and boost earnings growth.

- Since government’s January 11 real estate cooling measures, the overall transaction has been very bearish. The price of reconstruction apartments in Kangnam area dropped by as much as W200m.

- A research paper by Dankook University shows fierce protests against the US army relocation to Pyongtaek cost Korea W53 bn in social expenses excluding the cost arising from delayed construction.

- Kim Jong-il has been on tour to inspect companies and power plants in Hamkyungbukdo since February 5 amid intensified policing in the area after a group of patrolling soldiers in Heoryong was reported to have defected the regime en masse.

- Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday that North Korea earned W21 bn from exports of frozen fishes to Thailand. The export volume is 18 times that of 2005.

- Kookmin Bank is filed a W445.8 bn worth of lawsuit against by Korea Lottery Service for not paying commissions on lottery sales.

- The Daily NK reported yesterday 120 inmates escaped from a political detention center housing 10,000 political criminals in Hwasung, Hamkyungbukdo on December 20 last year.

What's happening in Seoul_Feb 6

-Despite strong opposition from the medical circle, the government abruptly announced the revision of medical laws yesterday while the consultation with doctors was going on.

- The government is to inform the national tax office of the list of people who have received land compensation money since last January in order to block the money from being used for speculative purposes.

- Household saving ratio has been on the steady decline after reaching a record high of 23.2 per cent in 1998 and was reported to be a meager 2 per cent last year.

- Amid government’s warning against an overheated Vietnamese stock market, Mirae Asset Group said it will not issue new Vietnamese Funds for a time being.

- Twenty-three Uri party members including floor leader Kim Han-gill announced this morning that they deserted the party to form a new one. The mass defection slashes the number of Uri parliamentary seats to 110 and makes the GNP the majority party.

- Kim Jong-nam visited Macao about 10 times a year for the past three years and a Macao official said in an interview with TBS that Kim Jong-nam’s moves are considered diplomatic so the Chinese government is closely monitoring them.

- Since the US-led financial sanctions were imposed, the once cosy relations between North Korea and Macao have been sour. The local police said there are only 14-15 North Koreans living in the country now, which presents a striking contrast to the past when more than 400 North Koreans lived in the country.

- The National Tax Office is believed to launch soon a tax probe into Glovis on allegation of serving a slush fund channel for Hyundai Motor.

- A North Korean expert in Seoul say Kim Jong-nam seems to be assigned to report on the situations of South Korea and the US to his father and he is given a green light to freely contact government officials from the US, Korea, Japan, and China. Yang Mu-jin, professor of Kyungnam University, said Kim Jong-il put his son under a “test.” Some say Kim’s mission is to earn hard currency. Lee Ki-dong of Natioanl Security Strategy Research Institute said “he knows what his father wants and tries to earn his trust by getting him more dollars.”

- Hynix is considering setting up a plant in China if its effort to build the plant in Icheon fails. China is reported to have offered the company a free lease of 170,000-pyong of plant site for 50 years.

Today's Seoul_Feb. 5

- Four Korean cities including Daegu, Incheon, Pyongchang, and Yeosu, are competing against other international cities for a venue of global sports events and festival which are scheduled to be held within the timeframe from 2011 to 2014.

- A small town of Jeju is unearthed which was buried 5,000 years ago under volcanic ashes.

- GNP representative Kim Tae-hwan argued telecommunication companies are running a “location track-downing service” against the relevant law which stipulates the companies should inform people of the fact that they are track-downed.

- The government is working on a piece of legislation as part of the second phase of ‘balanced development scheme’ under which companies moving from the metropolitan area to a provincial area can receive a 10 per cent of corporate tax reduction for 10 years, doubling the amount that companies can currently receive.

- Lee Seok-haeng, the head of KCTU, indicates a turnaround in the way the organization is run by saying “it is ill-advised bravery to stick to the old-style labor movement.”

- The FSC (Financail Supervisory Commission)warned a danger of excessive investments into the Vietnamese market. A high-ranking FSC official said yesterday “we consider the Vietnamese stock market overheated now so we will strengthen consumer protecting measures by re-examining existing Vietnam funds and beefing up the approval process of new funds.”

- Local construction companies are looking for a breakthrough in the sluggish construction market. They especially set their eye on the mega construction projects worth trillion wons in the pipeline.

- Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook will announce this afternoon so-called “Vision 2030 National Human Resources Usage Measures” which include a new set of military service law revisions.

- Market reaction is rather calm after the court verdict on Chung Mong-koo was out this morning, indicating a general expectation that he is likely to go on probation when he appeals. Hyundai Motor shares dropped 1.58 per cent from a day earlier to W68,700 per share as of 11:57 am.

- GNP rep. Chung Hyung-keun argued that Kim Jong-nam is frequently staying in a five-star hotel which costs him $460 a night, and owning two up-scale villas in Macao ten years ago where he lives with his wife and son.

- The North authorities are said to have launched an active crack-down on North Koreans who are living in the Heoryong region of Hamkyungbukdo, which borders China, and trying to fly the country. The news is quickly spreading among brokers who help North Koreans fly the regime.

- The number of Cyworld’s Korean users passed 20m after 7 years and half month of service opening. Service users aged more than 50s amount to 1 m.

- Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook said this morning the property market enters a ‘stabilizing phase’ due to a set of cooling measures by government.

- Presidential hopefuls set to capitalize on the buzz of UCC (User Created Contents) in the December election. According to Pandora TV, the nation’s largest video clip provider, presidential hopefuls signed up for an internet channel platform.

- The Unification Ministry is believed to discuss with North Korea the introduction of an incentive system into Kaesung Industrial Complex as early as this year, a suggestion that has been consistently rejected by the regime.

- Hyundai Motor will launch a low-priced car of around W4.5-5 m in China in 2010.

- The KCGF (Korea Corporate Governance Fund), widely known as Jang Ha-sung Fund, is reported to have bought more than 5 per cent of Byucksan Construction Co., under the name of corporate structure improvement.

- The Daily NK reported North Korean soldiers belonging to a border patrolling division defected en masse to China and the North regime dispatched a team to China to arrest them.

Korea's February 1 headlines

- In the weekly briefing, Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said the government’s goal in the upcoming multinational talks is not to turn the situation back to before 2002, but to scrap North Korea’s all nuclear programs.

- Samsung Electronics’ export volume passed $50bn last year for the first time as a Korean company.

- The government announced another sets of real estate measures which include expanding the number of long-term leased public apartment to 3.4m by 2017 and establishing W90 tr worth of fund by 2019.

- The six party talks scheduled to be held next week will run for 3-4 days.

- Online frauds using bank accounts under other people’s name are reported to be increasing.

- A Seoul high court ruled for the first time that illegally staying foreign workers should be allowed to form a labor union.

- GNP representative Chung Hyung-keun argued that “as far as I know, President Roh, despite his denial, is in talks with the North regarding a summit meeting possibly to hold on August 15.” He added he heard the intelligence from a “credible source.”

- The RFA reported that human trafficking victims in China are in most cases found to be North Korean women.

- Hallyu, Korean Wave, is said to be sweeping through North Korea as well, which causes a headache to the regime. A South Korean government official said “there are increasing testimonies from North Korean defectors that amid mounting South Korean dramas coming to the North, young people who don’t watch them are often ‘ostracized’ by their peers” The North regime is said to be pains at fending off ‘outside culture.’

- A recent poll by the paper shows Lee Myung-bak(46.4%) to lead with a wide margin in the popularity rating among presidential hopefuls, followed by Park Geun-hye (20%), and Shon Hak-kyu (5.8%).