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.