Gastronomy: Good food and good health by Woo Jae-yeon

Published: October 25 2007 05:12 Last updated: October 25 2007 05:12

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Foreigners often arrive in Seoul expecting Korean food to be somewhere between Japanese and Chinese cuisine. Apart from the staple rice, they could hardly be more wrong.

Korean food is often spicy – but not overpoweringly so, because red pepper paste can often be added according to one’s taste – and Koreans think good health and good food go together.
Authentic Korean food should use ingredients grown near home. It is low in fat and oil.

Almost all meals include a bowl of rice, accompanied by “banchan,” a generous array of side dishes, ranging from blanched mountain vegetables, soy sauce seasoned fish (often anchovies), vegetable or seafood pancakes. And no meal is complete without kimchi – the ubiquitous Korean sidedish of fermented, spicy, red-pepper-seasoned cabbage.

When you go to a local restaurant in Jeolla province, in the south west of the country, you will be overwhelmed by the number of banchans, which easily reaches a few dozen.

Along with diversity and healthiness, presentation is also important. Bibimbab, rice toppled with assorted garnishes of julienne eggs or runny sunny-side-up eggs, meatballs, wilted green vegetables, mushrooms, bean sprouts, with a dollop of sesame oil and red pepper paste, is the epitome of colourful and restorative Korean food.

Another variation of rice is youngyang dolsotbab ( which means nutritious rice served in a hot stone pot), popular with increasingly health-conscious locals, rice cooked from the beginning with a mixture of other grains, gingko nuts, mushrooms, chestnuts, sweet potatoes and spinach or bean sprouts.

Koreans are not big on desserts. A few pieces of fresh fruit, or varied traditional tasty tea made from lightly fermented rice with rice floaters, a fruit punch made with dried persimmon, cinnamon and pine nuts, or sweet and sour green plum tea, would serve as a perfect after-meal refreshment.

- Hyun Jung-taik, president of KDI (Korea Development Institute) played down possible negative impacts of rising currency and fuel prices on the economy, by saying “(the two factors) don’t pose a big threat to the economy. More worrisome is a possible price hike next year.” He predicted a rosy picture for the economic performance with a growth rate nearly reaching 5% next year.

- North Korean defectors are holding a festival in Ansan on Nov. 4, which includes making North Korean style kimchi to give out to people who participate in the event and isolated old people.

Falling savings rate

Savings rate is on the decline amid bullish stock market and an increasing trend to favor investment and consumption rather than saving. Net savings rate relative to income reached a record high with 23.9 per cent in 1988 but slid to 3.5 per cent last year.

Lee Sung-tae, governor of BOK, voiced concern over the matter, “consumption beyond one’s income will cause big burden on the country as a whole.”

Samsung feels betrayed

Samsung is seized with ‘a feeling of betrayal’ after the bombshell dropped by its former core member. One executive at the strategic management office said “regardless of the authenticity of what he said, the fact that one of the core members opened his mouth is shocking in itself. Something that can’t be possibly happening in our company culture happened.”

It is known that Samsung tried its best to stop him from revealing what he said. It went so far as to send vice CEO Lee Hak-soo and president Kim In-joo to his house to, according to the company, ‘hear what lawyer Kim wanted, not to appease him or strike any deal with him.’

Meanwhile the prosecution office said it will decide on whether to launch an investigation into Samsung’s alleged slush fund scandal after thoroughly looking into the case. But within the prosecutors, the need to probe into the matter is gaining ground.

- Investment withdrawn by foreign companies for the last two years were 3-4.65 times more than the average for the four years from 2001. According to KOTRA, the investment outflow stood at W3 trillion and W4.6 trillion in 2005 and 2006 respectively, much higher than the yearly average W1 trillion from 2001 to 2004. A survey on the foreign companies who exited Korea revealed that militant labor and strict regulations were among the biggest hurdle in doing business in Korea.

- Kim Jong-il is reported to have highly evaluate a Vietnamese way of openenig and reform.

- The FSS is found to be very restrictive to opening data for public. According to a FSS document submitted for parliamentary audit, its information closure rate for the last four years was six times higher with 47.8 per cent than the average 7.7 per cent of other government agencies.

- A North Korean defector was arrested for setting up a paper company to seize as much as hundreds of millions of won of government subsidiary earmarked for defectors.

Samsung's alleged slush funds

Samsung ran illegal slush funds under 1,000 former and sitting executives’ bank accounts, argued lawyer Kim Yong-churl who worked at Samsung’s restructuring office, now the strategic management office. He said “the strategic management office has the absolute power given by Lee Kun-hee, and the office is sometimes above law and order.”

“On the 27th floor of Samsung headquarters is a secret safe…… In the safe are there stocks and bonds, gift certificate, and gold.” “Not a single election was held without Samsung’s secret money,” he said, referring part of the secret funds were used for illegal election campaigns by politicians.

Meanwhile Samsung group flatly denied Kim’s accusation, saying there is no ‘bank accounts under the employees’ name.’ “As a global company, we receive a stringent outside audit and it is not possible to have such accounts,” said the company.

- Fund accounts owned by people under aged 18 increased year-on-year 104 per cent to W1.2 trillion as of May this year. In 10 cases, account balances are more than W1 bn.

- FSS is reported to have been investigating into an allegation that some controlling shareholders at chaebels are deeply involved in a stock price manipulation of Hyndai Merchant Marine Co., and earned profits worth several billions of won using inside information.

- Seoul is the most favored city to work, answered 68.7 per cent of job seekers living in non-metropolitan areas, followed by Ulsan (47.2%). 60.6 per cent of those in Pusan want to come to Seoul to work.

- SSCP, a mid-sized Korea IT company, is to take over German company Schramm for W91 bn. To raise the fund, the company will issue new shares, in which nine companies or institutions, including Morgan Stanley, GIC, KB Asset Management, Good Morning Shinhan Securities will participate.

- Job Korea reported that 13.6 per cent of executives at 30 big businesses went to Seoul National University, followed by foreign schools (11.7%), Korea University (8.8%) and Yonsei University (7.1%).

- Good Friend, a North Korean human rights organization, reported that North regime gave a 21 inch color TV set to children who participated in Arirang performance. Such TVs are traded at W600,000 or $200 in the country, which is equivalent to 20 years’ salary for an ordinary laborer with monthly salary of W2,500.

- Raneky, an internet ranking analyzing site, reported that only half among top 10 internet sites back in 2001 still makes to top 10. Naver is clearly leading portal sites when it overtook Daum in 2004.

Lee Myong-bak’s Tax reform policy named " tax that will save the economy and the people”

1. scrap or integrate tax items by half (from current 30 to 14: 9 national taxes and 5 provincial taxes)

2. transparent and stringent taxation

: introduce two-year-term for NTS head
: increase fines on tax delinquency from existing 40 per cent of delinquent tax to 100 per cent
: focus on preventing tax evasion
: tax probe should be executed in a fair and strict way

3. tax policy aimed to create jobs

: reduce corporate tax from the maximum 25% to 20%
: reduce tax for mid-sized firms
: expand tax base and reducing income tax rate
: give tax benefit for science and technology R&D
: eliminate or incorporate 100 various ‘quasi-taxes’

4. tax reduction to help people’s livelihood

: expand tax deduction for house buying/education cost/medical expenses
5. cut oil tax to protect people’s livelihood
: reduce oil tax by 10 per cent
: LPG tax exemption for taxi and cars owned by the disabled

6. reasonable management of property-related tax

: combine registration and acquisition taxes
: reduce property tax and transfer income tax for owners who has one house for a long period of time
: the longer people own a house, the smaller transfer income tax should become

- Korea slid 6 notches this year in a globalization index by A.T. Kearney, ranking 35th among 72 nations. Korea performed especially badly at foreign direct investment ratio against GDP.

- According to Bank of Korea, household debt owed to financial institutions (including banks and non-banking financial institutions) stood at W460 trillion as of August, up by W4.9 trillion from a month ago. The increase was the year’s highest.

- The education department of Seoul City government is believed to push ahead with ‘male teacher quota system’ again which was botched before in the face of education ministry’s opposition. As female elementary school teachers account for more than 70 per cent of total teachers, some argue the overwhelming number of female teachers set up a bad sex role model for students.

- SK C&C, an IT service affiliate of SK, strikes a contract with a ‘quick-service’ company which only hires delivery men aged over 65, in a move to ‘contribute creating jobs for old people.’

- Ground-breaking ceremony was held yesterday in Kaesung to build an apartment-style plants aimed at housing lots of small mid-sized companies at cheap lease, paving the way for them to settle in Kaesung with affordable cost rather than advancing to Vietnam or China to look for cheap labor and land.

- Kumho Asiana reported W40.9 bn for a third quarter operating profits, up by 33.2 per cent from the same period last year.

- Hyundai Card Capital is to start its service in the US as soon as early next year.

- GNP Rep. Lee Kye-kyung pointed out that the financial authorities do not try hard enough to return W1.5 trillion of money on dormant bank accounts back to account holders. He argues rather than investing that money in micro-loan business it should be returned to people.

- Many professors at the SNU are reported to delay promotion evaluation for fear of being kicked out of the university. According to a document from the university, 67 out of 217 professors subject to the evaluation deferred it to next year.

- Two fund management companies, which manage W40 bn worth of public pension fund, are reported to have spent part of pension fund in entertaining in ‘room-salons,’ and for other unrelated purposes.

- Samsung Electronics will release a press release related to ‘Hwang’s law’ today. The law refers to the remark made by Hwang Chang-gyu, Samsung Semiconductor CEO, that semiconductor integration degree doubles every year.

- A third round of inter-Korean working-level talk is to be held in Panmunjeom on 29 for two days to discuss economic and energy cooperation.

- President Roh will address the public on the reasons why Korea needs to extend the staying of Zaitun in Iraq for another year with reduced military personnel.

- The Seoul City government embarks a campaign to operate sterilization to strayed cats amid their explosive increase. Up until now the government has put those cats to a merciful death.

- English learning craze is widespread in Pyongyang. In the “People’s Learning School” in Manmoon-dong in Pyongyang, which has individual headphones and microphones, young office workers study English very sincerely along with a teacher who speaks English only. Asked why they learn English, one says “how do you ask such a (stupid) question? Nowadays, we can’t leave without knowledge of English. We need to know the language in order to acquire technology.”

- The government finalized its plan to construct and repair roads in North Korea which will cost W72 trillion, including W440bn to repair the highway between Kaesung and Pyongyang.

- GNP issues a report named “Lost 10 Years” listing 10 ‘lost things’ during the two liberal governments’ staying in power, to counter President Roh’s recent remark of “some people say about ‘lost 10 years,’ and if there is anything lost, please report to me, I will get it back to you."

- Lotte Tour CEO Kim Ki-byong reiterated his willingness to pursue Kaesung tour program.

- Headhunters most favor Yonsei Universtiy as job applicants’ school, and Samsung as their former employer, a research on 115 headhunters shows.

- Sexual harassment in subways happens most frequently in line 2 and 4, with 490 out of the total 610 cases in these two lines. Rep. Lee Jae-chang suggests making a female-only carriage.

- Investing in North Korea will be easy as the finance ministry makes a revision to laws related to the matter to streamline investment process. For small investment, paperwork is to be reduced significantly or exempted, and the Export-Import Bank of Korea will manage all information on North Korea investment.

- Foreign investment banks rush to Korea to open their business. Merrilllynch International Bank, Lehman Brothers Bank House, and German Land Baden-Württemberg bank have all submitted to the FSS preliminary permission applications.

- 'House husband,’ who stays at home, taking care of children and doing house chores, has increased more than 40 per cent in the space of three years, reported a national statistics office. The number stood at 151,000 last year, 42 per cent up from 106,000 in 2003.

- Korea Exchange says market capitalization of LG group and SK group surged by 69 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively, while those of Samsung goup and Hyudai motors stayed below the average increase rate of 31 per cent, with 17 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

- 'Haebichi Society Contribution Committee’ celebrates its opening this morning at Hyundai Kyedong office. The foundation, comprising of seven members, will manage the donation Chung Mong-koo promised to give to ‘society.’ Haebichi means ‘sun shines.

- Korean singers such as Rain, Seven, Im Jeong-hee, G-soul, and Min, make inroads into the US market. Recent active advance of singers to the US market is largely attributed to Park Jin-young, former singer and Rain’s producer, has successfully taken roots in the US market and helped talented singers be introduced there.

- Prices of cabbages and radish has increased by 36 and 17 per cent this year, respectively, putting pressure on ordinary people who are about to prepare Kimchi for the next year. It is expected made-in-China kimchi, which amounts to 34 per cent of total kimchi consumption, to hit an all-time-high this year.

- Total amount of national debt for the participatory government is reported to more than double to W168 trillion from W74 trillion of the previous government.

- Chung Dong-young received a warm welcome when he visited Kaesung yesterday and the North allowed Chung to go sightseeing downtown Kaesung, the first move in four months.

- One of the most success in ‘Kobalization(Korea+globalization)’ is Tesco Home Plus, a joint company between England Tesco and Samsung’ Home Plus. Tesco designed its malls in a Korean big mall style and adopted Korea’s IT system for product distribution and management.

- IMF expects Korea’s this year economic growth to be 4.8 per cent, up 0.4 per cent from its July prediction.

- Many business leaders are under pressure in the run up to a follow-up meeting held by Cheong Wa Dae October 23 to discuss measures for enhanced inter-Korean economic cooperation. The government is said to urge business leaders to come up with investment ideas.

- Cyworld is to start its service in Germany after four month of veta-version operation.

- The education ministry announced that the total number of law school students will be 1,500 in 2009 and the number will gradually increase to 2,000 by 2013, a number far below universities expected. As a result, about two thirds of them can’t get the permission to establish such schools from the ministry.

- The finance ministry expects a growth rate for the second half of this year to be around 5 per cent, putting the annual growth rate at 4.8-9 per cent, higher than previous prediction of 4.6 per cent. Separately, it said it is necessary for the time being to keep the law which prevents conglomerates from owning financial institutions.

- Public pension funds in arrear hit a record high with W7.27 trillion as of July this year.

- Chung Dong-yong said in an interview, “I have long thought of visiting the US upon becoming a presidential candidate, but the plan was screwed up because of MB (myung-bak).” “because of MB’s disastrous diplomacy…I might have to seek a compensation from him.”

- A professor at Chungbuk Science university says Kim Jong-il’s heart seems to be in a better condition than 2000. He analyzed kim’s voice through a specific medical science to predict Kim’s heart condition.

- The government is said to positively considering casting a blank ballot in the UN human rights resolution vote slated to be held next month.

- The Seoul City government mulls over creating a medical and tourist special zone within the city to encourage more foreigners to visit Seoul.

- The Commerce ministry reported there have been 97 cases of industrial technology leakage to overseas for the past three years, damaging the country more than W119 trillion.

- Korea sends the South 29 times more freight through sea than the South does to the North. The fishery ministry said most of shipping from the North is sand.

- GNP Rep. Lee Byung-seok predicts electricity transmission will cost Seoul W19 trillion over the coming 30 years. South Korea proposed in 2005 it provide the North with electricity amounting to 200kw.

- Chung Dong-young will visit Kaesung today and announce a vision for a peaceful peninsula.

- Korea slid to 39th in Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007 by RSF (reporters sans frontiers), from 31st last year.

- Labor party rep. Shim Sang-jung revealed a Samsung internal document made in May 2005, which details how to eventually own a’ Samsung Bank.’ The document suggests five goals for that matter; having logical response to the government’s policy to separate industry from bank; introducing non-banking financial institution; encouraging the creation of financial laws that considers the particularity of bank, securities, and insurance works; seeking a way to allow non-banking financial institutions to do banking business; and encouraging a ‘right’ opinion on ‘wealth concentration.’

liberal presidential candidate Chung Dong-young's election pledges

1. Environment policy called “New Millennium Mountain and river policy”

-> No More Wetland Destruction!
-> Make greener environment
-> Initiating tree planting campaign in North Korea

2. Space development

-> Advancing Korea the 7th largest country in the field of space development
-> making Korea the hub for mid-sized airplanes
-> doing moon exploration on our own

3. Opening a new era of '40m middle class people'

-> the core of creating a middle class society is mediocrity
-> when working hard enough, you can become middle class within 10 years
-> making a society where mid-sized company can do business
-> creating more than 100,000 jobs every year
-> equal opportunity and strengthening competitiveness
-> enhancing public education and ensuring life-long education
-> nurturing “information-innovation” mid-sized companies
-> nurturing a new industry as an economic growth engine
-> better social welfare ( policies put priority on people without their own house)
-> stronger social responsibility for patients with chronic and hereditary illnesses

4. Making the economy that centers around mid-sized companies

-> review 5,000 existing policies that is supposed to help the business of mid-sized companies and introducing a new set of comprehensive and innovative policies
-> renovate current workforce supplying chain : changing the current high school designed to nurture industrial workforce into “Information Industry Special high school” in order to effectively supplying more special workforce
-> offer dramatic incentives for talents who graduate from such special-purposed high school and work in mid-sized companies, such as replacing working there with the mandatory military service
-> put great emphasis on industrial workers and provide them with various job as well as school education opportunities
-> These measures will gradually solve ‘depolarization(양극화)’problems
-> offering mid-sized companies various incentives for tax, marketing, and finances
-> Technology should be the main factor when loans are given to such companies
-> for that matter, a government agency designed to evaluate mid-sized companies’ technology and competitiveness should be established
- the current government agencies related to the support for those companies should be run by private hands in order to ensure effectiveness and autonomy
-> it is necessary to reduce inheritance taxes of mid-sized companies which has been operating more than 10 years
-> give more power to provincial governments in encouraging local companies

5. “119 Financial Program for Ordinary People” aimed at restore middle class

-> the program is basically to help financially struggling ordinary people get back on their feet again.
-> stringent management of non-registered private loan providers
-> easy and speedy process for people who filed a personal bankruptcy to ensure they quickly go about their everyday life
-> set up a financial institution tailored for poor people to help them take out low-interest loans and give them financial advice
-> it is necessary to reduce oil tax by 20 per cent and distribution channel for oil should be improved for reasonable and stable oil prices
-> reduce mobile phone charges and general medicine prices

6. Inter-Korean policy

è three pledges regarding inter-Korean relations
è 1. absolute settlement of NK nukes
è 2. signing a peace accord and establishing a peace regime
è 3. entering ‘a united nation’

Five businesses regarding inter-Korean relations

: ‘peace and economic special zone’ connecting Seoul, Incheon, and Kaesung
: connecting railroad between Seoul and Pyongyang and eventually to Paris
: Northeast Asia Energy network via North Korea
: West Sea as a ‘peace sea’
: DMZ as a ‘peace zone’

Kaesung is the future

Kaesung is ‘a plant making peace, a melting furnace of peacemaking and unification, and an exit for future of the Korean peninsula.” The first stage of development has been a success, so the next stages should be swiftly implemented

The next government should focus on the completion of “9.19 joint declaration” and North Korea’s nuclear problems can be solved not by ‘pre-abandonment’ of nukes but by a comprehensive approach to the problem.

7. Job is key revive middle class

-> nurturing innovative mid and small ized companies in order to cut a vicious cycle of ‘jobless growth’
-> more focus on information industry and domestic consumption
-> “Korean Peninsula U-Turn project” via strengthening inter-Korean economic cooperation (which means he will come up with economic policies aimed at turning companies which outsource works to countries like China and Vietnam back to Korea to do more business here, thus creating more jobs)
-> coming up with job long-term policies with emphasis on the young, the elderly, female, and irregular workers
-> developing high-value adding, labor-intensive space industry
-> building more ‘kaesung-type of industrial complexes’ for job creation
-> introducing a tax policy that exempts massive job creating companies part of corporate taxes
-> dispatching ‘silver police(the elderly who work at school as janitor or gatekeeper)’ to 10,000 elementary/middle/high schools, thus creating 40,000 job for old people
-> extending retirement age to 70 by 2020
-> giving tax incentives to companies which introduce a ‘salary peak’ system
-> dispatching 16,000 counselors to local towns to give mothers childcare advice and help them bring up children
-> setting up after-school programs in 6,300 elementary schools which will make additional jobs

-> providing incentives to companies which turn irregular workers to regular ones

8. Education

-> Free high school education and subsidizing all school meals by 2009

Goals for ‘lively students and active schools’
1. the establishment of ‘an educational committee for national future strategy’ and conclusion of a grand social education agreement
2. nurturing universities that rank within the top five in 20 fields
3. extending tuition loans without interests
4. free child up-bringing and education (free education from 0-18 years old)
5. increasing the number of teachers and professors by 5,000
6. opening ‘all-day schools’ and ‘all-day library’ in 5,658 elementary schools
7. increasing opportunities to learn foreign languages

9. “Culturally strong Korea”

-> increasing workforce in the cultural industry to 980,000 in 2012 from 460,000 in 2005
-> increasing cultural exports to $7.8bn from $1.2bn during the above period
-> emphasizing the strategic importance of a cultural industry and making it as a new national growth driver
-> minimizing ‘Culture Divide’ between regions or wealth
-> creating 1,000 ‘culture and art centers’ nationwide

‘Creative Korea 7 Projects’

1. increasing workforce in the cultural industry to 980,000 in 2012 from 460,000 in 2005
2. establishing a foundation to export local culture
3. creating ‘a cultural contents development funds’ worth W500bn
4. establishing Global Contents Agency that will support cultural contents exporting
5. training professionals in the industry through university support system
6. increasing more opportunity for those companies to work at Kaesung Industrial complex
7. creating 1,000 ‘culture and art centers’ nationwide

- Finance minister Kwon O-kyu made a “dangerous” joke when he was tasting wines offered by Kim Jong-il during a luncheon on October 4. Kwon said to Kim, “I worked at the OECD and knows a little bit about wine, but this wine is the same level of Makgulri(막걸리).” Kim, however, didn’t seem to be offended by it and said “as for Makgulri, one from Pocheon is good.”

- Hana Financial Group is to buy a 37.5 per cent stake of Commonwealth Business Bank, which is located in LA and owned by a Korean American, for $21.5 per share.

- "Daejangkeum (A pearl in the palace),” a hit drama in Korea as well as around Asia, has made inroads into Africa. It has been broadcast in Tanzania since October, and is soon to be aired in Zimbabwe and Kenya.

- According to the document submitted by the construction ministry to the National assembly for audit, a total of 199 construction companies went bust as of September this year.

- The new pension system for the poor elderly aged over 70 will weigh heavily on local governments as they have to burden over one fourth of the money, which translates into W600bn next year.

- The daily number of airport express train users stands at 12,700, which falls far short of 161,300 predicted by the construction ministry. The ministry has to compensate W95.5 bn to Airport Railroad Co. according to the contract.

- Samsung Group accepted a resignation by Lee Woo-hee, CEO of S1, the security company, who is replaced by Roh In-sik, vice-president of Samsung Group’s strategic management team.

- Land compensation money for residents in the metropolitan areas amounts to W38.8 trillion.

- Cho Young-joo, president of KTF said of lowering mobile phone charge, “we will not disappoint users,” hinting that he considers a dramatic cut. SK Telecom lowered the charge by 50 per cent between its subscribers, and LG made it free for users who pay an additional W2,500 per month.

- Korean B-Boy team T.I.P won 2007 UK B-Boy Championship held in Brixton Academy in London. The 15-strong team was formed in 1996, the first B-Boy team in Korea.

Unification Minster Lee Jae-joung talked at Kwanhun Club

In a debate held by Kwanhun club, the unification minister said “North Korea’s human rights issue is directly related to North Korea’s politics and regime,” and “human rights issue can’t be interpreted only from a moral and ethical perspective.”

Asked on the issues of South Korean soldiers and abductees held by North Korea, he said “it is safe to say those matters weren’t talked about during the summit.” “3,400, or 87 per cent of the total 3,900 “victims” came back and the problem is the remaining people,” and “It is unfair to say the government hasn’t done anything to solve the issue,” he said.

On the Kaesung Industrial Complex, he said “it is not aimed for changing or opening North Korea, but rather is the process where inter-Korean cooperation is tested.”

- Cargill, an international food company, chose Kim Ki-yong as CEO in its animal nutrition division who was the president of Purina, a Korean pet food company that it incorporated.

- Defense minister Kim Jang-soo is told to have conveyed his strong willingness to “continue to protect the NLL according to my conviction.”

- According to the Korean food Research Institute, the level of spiciness of Kimchi has become stronger by 2-3 times compared to years earlier.

- Lee Myung-bak called for an establishment of an agency within the party to ensure “clean” election campaign.

- Labor minister Lee Sang-soo denied media reports that he would step down as minister next month to come back to politics.

- Soribada, a music file sharing site, is to appeal against a court decision to order it to stop service for reasons of copyright infringement.

- Within Samsung Electronics, expectations are very high for the mobile phone business while worries are increasing for the semiconductor.

- Doosan launches a soju(120ml) sized a third its existing one(360ml), aimed at light drinkers.

- It is reported North Korea has encroached on the NLL 135 times since 2001, 65 times by security ships and 37 by fishery ships.

- A college-graduated Chinese becomes popular with well-off Koreans as a language tutor as well as a maid, amid an increasing number of children to go to China to learn the language. Their average monthly salary is believed to be around 1.3-1.8m.

- North Korea is reported to levy W0.8m on every flight flying over its land. Korean air companies have paid North Korea over W9bn in passing the sky over North Korea for the last 8 years.

- A survey reveals 43 per cent of office workers have received a job offer from company competitors and 28.5 per cent among them were asked to give company’s confidential to them.

- The US government is considering setting up a Representative Office in Pyongyang,
RFA(Radio Free Asia) quoted a US government official as saying.

- The Bank of Korea faces criticism that it is spending too much on employee’s welfare amid increasing budget deficit. It has spent W2.27 bn as of August this year in employees’ welfare, up 82.5 per cent from W1.24 bn, the last year’s total welfare budget.

- The competition among applicants to enter Samsung Group reach a record high with an average ratio of 9.9 to 1 this year. The ratio for Everland is the highest with 40 to 1.

- The unification ministry belatedly ordered to take back to Korea some ‘strategic products’ from Kaesung Industrial complex, for they could be converted to be used in military purposes, in its first such move since the complex was established.

- Thaehaksa, a publisher, said the National Institute of Korean Language called it to ask whether it is possible to recall its Korean dictionary containing new terms and coined words after it received a complaint from Cheong Wa Dae for including “놈현스럽다(노무현-스럽다 : like Roh Moo-hyun)” in the new book. It means “not up to expectation and disappointing.” The NIKL later withdrew the request.

- After asking Roh Moo-hyun “do you nap?” at the summit, Kim Jong-il said “I have never had a nap in my forty-year working life.”

Interesting start-up, UCC Community

UCC Community (www.uccc.co.kr), based in Pusan and up and running from this February, is one of the biggest UCC sites in Korea. It has been growing at an explosive rate reaching 3M daily visitors and 10M daily search hits within the first six months of launching the service.

Kim Jong-man, the company CEO, gives credit to the innovative marketing strategy for the success. Users can get W1 for each view by other users of the UCC they scrapped from the company site to their blogs or other sites. The company monthly spends W100 m in marketing, and expects to make profits from October or November by advertising.

Some users actually make money by scrapping UCCs from the site and uploading them on big portals sites where the number of viewers are great. The company revealed the activity is very popular among students and housewives and some monthly earn more than W5m.

According to Albaro, an arbeit site, the number of UCC-related moonlightings was 12 in the first half of last year, but soared to 102 during the same period this year.

The popularity of the site comes partly from the fact that users can safely view video clips without downloading and installing ‘Active X,’ a software that users usually bother to install in order to watch video clips and a channel often blamed for viruses.

The company has been recently chosen as one of 100 most promising star-ups in Asia by Red Herring ( http://herringevents.com/asia07/redherring100.html). It is in talks with a Japanese venture capital to receive $100 bn in investment.

Inter-Korean Summit related headlines

- Viewing ratings of summit-related breaking news from three major news chaneels yesterday added up to 14.5 per cent, down by 5.8 per cent from 20.3 per cent in 2000.

- Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo didn’t shake hands with Kim Jong-il in a customary Korean way. He, relatively tall among entourage, neither lowered his back nor bowed, which is interpreted by some as an act to boost morale of Korean soldiers.

- Orchestrated North Koreans didn’t chant “Roh Moo-hyun,” in contrast to the first summit when some people shouted “welcome Kim Dae-jung.” This time around, people in Pyongyang streets seem a little bit relaxed, naturally waving hands to the car parade.

- North Korean bodyguards caught attention with a whole different Western-style outfits and new equipment such as earphone. In 2000, they wore military uniforms with guns to their waist.

- North Korean leadership accompanying Kim Jong-il seemed younger, twice as many from 2000. Jang Seok-taek attended as well.

- A play titled “Oknyu (옥녀)” is reported very popular among North Koreans, which was played in a theater just before Roh’s visit to Pyongyang. It depicts a South Korean woman who feels sudden labor pangs while watching Arirang performance and gives birth in a Pyongyang hospital, and Kim Jong Il, who hears about the news, specially allows the woman to go back to South Korea by land, citing taking a flight might not be good for the health of the woman and her baby.

summit related opinion poll

1. poll by Real Meter

Q : Which political topic did you mostly talk about with your family during Chuseok holiday?

Byeon Yang-koon scandal : 40.2%
President’s performance 15.2%
Lee Myong bak : 15.1%
UNDP primary : 7.9%
Court-Prosecution battle : 3.8%
Summit : 2.9 %

2. poll by Korea Society Opinion Institute commissioned by Munhwa Ilbo

Agree with the summit : 62.1%
Disagree : 33.8%

Expect the summit : 51.6%
Do not expect : 47.8%

3. poll by Joongang Ilbo

The summit is a good thing : 80.5%
The summit is a wrong choice : 14.9%

The timing is inappropriate / agree : 53.3% / disagree : 44.4%

The summit place is inappropriate / agree: 55.5% / disagree : 43.3%

4. poll by Chosun Ilbo with Gallup

Agree with the summit : 75.6%
The summit will not bear a fruit : 58.7%
The summit can’t change North Korea : 69.2%

[Summit related headlines]

- Live TV shows Kim Jong Il himself came out to meet President Roh, as he did with former President Kim Dae-jung.

- Internet portal site DAUM will deliver live footages of important parts of inter-Korean summit on its webpage for the coming three days.

- The government set a special stone carved with “Road to cement peace, road to go toward prosperity,” on the South Korean part of the road where President Roh walked. President Roh and first lady Kwon wear a Made-in-Kaesung Romanson watch worth W198,000.

- According to the government, Seoul will propose establishing inter-Korean agriculture development zone in Kaesung and Mt. Kumkang areas.

- According to the ministry of culture, the number of people exchanges between the South and the North in 2006 fell 13.5 per cent to 688,006 from 822,173 in 2005. Foreigners are only 0.8 per cent of the number. North Korean visitors to the South last year number only 496, who came mostly for official government missions.

- The ministry of construction predicts South Korea will need 730,000 houses for North Koreans coming south looking for jobs when and if the two Koreas unite.

- Real estate sources near the border areas such as Yeonchen, Churlwon and Paju say they receive a barrage of inquiries on property investment opportunities around the area.

- The number of foreign reporters registered at Seoul Press Center to cover the second summit fell sharply to 300 from 500 in 2000. A reporter from the FT asked Lee Jae-joung what Seoul would get after giving lots of things to North Korea.

Seoul has sent about 20 loads of trucks carrying equipment, presents, and food etc, more than twice as much from the first summit.

[other headlines]

- Top internet portal sites changes its practice of hiring experienced workers, amid increasingly lack of talents, to employing fresh college students whom they will educate and nurture into professional software developers.

- Prosecutors seized W4-5 bn from the house of Park Moon-soon, the wife of former Ssangyong chairman and head of Seongkok art center, where Shin Jung-a used to work, on suspicion that the money might be parts of slush funds related to Ssangyong.

- Korean Air and Asiana Air is set to cooperate with each other in maximizing their profitability by readjusting their routes. They will increase money-making routes and remove unprofitable ones.

- Mirae Asset is to launch Korea’s first hedge fund called ‘Mirae Asset Challenger Alpha Fund’ early October, which produces an yearly returns of around 8 per cent regardless of market conditions.

- Jung Jae-eun, Shinsegye’s honorary CEO, will tomorrow deliver a closed in-house lecture to employees including top executives from the company affiliates. He paid an astronomical donation tax of W350 bn last year for giving his children all of his company shares of 7.83 per cent worth W700 bn.

- In an effort to promote unsold apartments in non-metropolitan areas, construction companies produce various incentives to lure prospective house-buyers by easing payment schedules or offering cars to buyers.

- Excessive regulations(36.5%)’ is voted as the biggest hurdle facing Korea’s financial industry, followed by ‘weak products competitiveness (25.5%),’ ‘poor quality of financial services (21.5%),’ and ‘lack of experts (15.7%),’ shows a poll on financial managers from 500 manufacturing companies by Korea Chamber of Commerce.

- Pusan’s local beverage ‘Cheoneon Yaksok (promise for a thousand year)’ has been chosen for official toast before formal dinner on October 3 at the inter-Korean summit.

- North Korea is reported to have made changes to the contents of Arirang performance on news that President Roh would attend the show. They replaced the scenes showing North Korean army titled ‘People’s Army’ with Taekwondo performance titled ‘Spirit of Arirang People.’

- The speculation that Samsung Group might carry out a ‘personnel typhoon’ is backed by the following facts: December 1 marks the 20th anniversary of Lee Kun-hee’s chairmanship; most of Samsung affiliates move to so-called ‘Samsung Town’ in Kangnam next May; Samsung electronics has been showing disappointing performances and reduced the volume of new employment for the first time since the Asian financial crisis.


- Yahoo put a story on its front page on September 29 about Kim Jong-il being a big fan of top Korean actress Lee Young-ae along with their pictures. Rumor has it that Ms. Lee secretly went to Pyongyang brokered by Seoul to meet Kim.