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Category Archives: In the news

A week is a long time in … Korean economics

20-Oct-08

A week is a long time in … Korean economics

By Peter Corbishley Given the present economic world order, last week was an opportune time for an update on Korean peninsular economics. First Aidan Foster Carter tells BAKS that in August President Lee Myung-bak’s military banned “Bad Samaritans,” by Chang Ha-joon, an economics professor at the University of Cambridge, for being un-Korean. Then on the same day the self-same Professor was at the LSE as part of an academic bridge-building exercise with Korean Universities, sponsored by the Korea Foundation. Well, Chang was able to give all kinds of interesting tit-bits as to how and when the ‘free market’ economy has acted as a ‘non-free market economy’ but the talk did not quite match up the billing of Korea’s response to the ...
Also filed in Business, Conference reports | | Comments (1) »

Korea Times and National Branding

14-Oct-08

Korea Times and National Branding

The Korea Times is currently running an interesting series of articles on Korea’s national brand. The paper has asked a number of foreigners – branding, business, tourism and advertising specialists – to comment on Korea’s perception overseas. Some of the writers are uniquely qualified to provide insights: Simon Anholt, for example, is the man who came up with the “Korea, Sparkling” tourism brand. He confesses, though, that it’s easier to brand a product than a whole country. David Mason focuses on the opportunities to promote religious and spiritual tourism, and advocates the creation or restoration of convenient pilgrimage trails. David Kilburn (right), whose lovingly preserved hanok in Bukcheon features in Kim Ki-duk’s 3-Iron, also provides a contribution. Some of his recommendations, ...
Also filed in Korea, Sparkling, Korean marketing | | Comments (0) »

Things that just make me so sad

04-Oct-08

Things that just make me so sad

By Saharial It is becoming increasingly obvious to me, even as a distant overseas observer of the Korean Entertainment industry, that something is going seriously wrong. This morning seemed to sum up far too many of the ills for, when I woke up, the news had broken that there had been yet another suicide, making 2008 an appalling year for the entertainment world in terms of personal tragedy and loss of talent. The victim this time was Choi Jin-shil, a well respected, versatile actress, a mother of two children and the target of false rumours and accusations which in the end proved too much to cope with. Less than a month ago, Ahn Jae-hwan, a Korean TV show presenter and businessman was ...
Also filed in Celebs | Tagged | Comments (0) »

Developed Market status and other recent business stories

21-Sep-08

Developed Market status and other recent business stories

In a week when the most developed market in the world has not particularly covered itself in glory, after years in the waiting room it was announced this week that Korea would be admitted into the FTSE club of developed markets. According to the FT (South Korea wins developed-country status, 18 Sept 2008), this could result in a net inflow of $25bn into the Korean stock market as funds which track the global developed market index rebalance their portfolios (while those that track the emerging market index sell out). The Korea Exchange has a slightly more conservative figure – $16bn (Source: Forbes.com). In the same week, it was announced that HSBC no longer wants to buy KEB - at least not at ...
Also filed in Business, KEB, Samsung | | Comments (0) »

British designer boosted by degree faker

08-Sep-07
Alexander McQueen's tops have been flying off the shelves of a trendy Apgujeong department store (at $200 a time) ever since Shin Jeong-ah was papped in JFK wearing this: McQ can be bought at HANDSOME-SPACE MUE, 93-6 Chungdam-dong, Kangnam, if you're quick. Source: Chosun Links: Alexander McQueen website Related posts:British-owned culture cafe opens in Bucheon Thanks to Peter Orange for letting me know about an...The FT’s smooth weekend in Seoul I don’t usually spend much time reading the Weekend FT’s...British veterans remember the Korean War on Radio 4 Yesterday’s edition of The Reunion had Sue MacGregor talking with... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Also filed in Business, Design, Foreigners in Korea | | Comments (0) »

The $54 million pair of pants

24-Aug-07
He's been christened "Pants man", he's had vilification heaped on him, and may even lose his job, but still he battles on. He's Washington judge Roy Pearson who's been suing Custom Cleaners, owned by Korean immigrants Ki, Jin and Soo Chung, for rather a large sum of money for allegedly losing his trousers. He clearly has a good acting coach: The D.C. judge who sued his dry cleaners for $65 million in damages broke down in tears yesterday while testifying about the emotional pain of losing his suit pants. reports the Wall Street Journal Law Blog on June 14. Only in America. Read on in the articles below for the full story. Links: Korean immigrants sued for $67 million for missing pants? WTF?: Marmot's Hole, ...
Also filed in ...blow by blow | | Comments (0) »

KEB blow by blow

23-Aug-07
Reports of HSBC's renewed interest in KEB have given me the impetus to resurrect a post which has been work-in-progress for a while. I've been periodically trying to google back in time to reconstruct the whole KEB saga, and yesterday's FT coverage gave a very useful framework on which to build. So here is another of my collections of links around a particular story, which I'll update as and when I come across more. The chronology and narrative is from the FT. The links are mine, many of them via Tom Coyner. August 2003 Lone Star agrees to pay Won1,400bn ($1.5bn) to take control of ailing Korea Exchange Bank. Lone Star to purchase Korean bank today, JoongAng Daily, 27 August 2003 New player in ...
Also filed in ...blow by blow, Business, KEB | Tagged | Comments (0) »

Sorok Island joined to the mainland

12-Aug-07

Sorok Island joined to the mainland

Yi Chong-jun's (이청준) novel on the subject is called Your Paradise. Looking at the beach above you see maybe one reason. But Sorok Island (소록도) is Korea's best known leper colony. As Brother Anthony explains, in Yi's book, the subject is the relation between the individual and the collective. The setting is the remote leper colony on Sorok Island, where a clinic has been set up for the lepers. Cho Paekkŏn is the well-meaning head of the clinic who seeks to make his dream -- 'this paradise of yours,' for the victims of leprosy -- into a reality. The patients, however, remain skeptical of any notion of a paradise built as 'yours' rather than 'ours,' and do not give Dr. Cho their ...
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Britain, Korea linked in airline “price fixing”

03-Aug-07
Both BA and KAL get multi-million fines, while equally guilty sneaks Virgin and Lufthansa escape punishment. Whatever, I'll still fly Virgin in preference to BA whenever I can. Links: British Airways and Korean Air Lines fined by regulators for price-fixing, International Herald Tribune, 1 August 2007 Related posts:New record price for Korean painting Every few months there’s another news item in the Korean...Namdaemun Gate There are some current events which are so unexpected and...Pastor Bae Hyun-kyu Just received from a reader On behaf of Avaaz.org, I... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Also filed in Business | | Comments (1) »

New Labour Britain: North Korean policies, South Korean branding

28-Jul-07
July has seen two dramatic changes in Britain. A new regime in Westminster and the implementation of a draconian measure in the name of public health. On the latter point, England is catching up with Scotland, who implemented a smoking ban last year. And also with North Korea: The North Korean capital, Pyongyang, has reportedly become the latest city to impose a smoking ban. However, rather than being for the good of the general public, it is all about the country's leader Kim Jong-il. The move comes after doctors advised Mr Kim to stop smoking and drinking after a recent heart operation, reports say. "Kim's home, office and all other places he goes to have been designated as non-smoking areas," a former South Korean lawmaker ...
Also filed in DPRK | | Comments (2) »

Fakes and curruption in art and academia

22-Jul-07
There has been a number of stories of fakes recently. Here's a brief round-up of links 1 Shin Jeong-ah. Dongguk University Fires Bogus Professor, Korea Times, 20 July Stroke of luck, raw talent fueled Shin's ascent, JoongAng Daily, 14 July. Some selected extracts: Shin Jeong-ah was 23 when the 1995 collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul buried her in darkness. She lay in the rubble for 24 hours before getting plucked out. Shin was one of the few survivors of the worst collapse in Korean history, which killed more than 500 people. From the day of the collapse on, Shin said she vowed to change. Instead of being shy and reclusive, she developed an aggressive, extroverted personality. "She just tried to organize exhibitions ...
Also filed in ...blow by blow, English Teaching, General academia, General arts news | | Comments (1) »

Round-up of recent business stories

10-Jul-07
Some recent stories I don't want to lose. Mercer's annual cost of living survey for expats has recently been published. Seoul, last year's number 2, has been pushed to number 3 by London. Moscow stays top of the list. Tokyo is fourth. Korea is also slipping in the GDP rankings. Bank of Korea data shows that in 2005 Brazil overtook Korea in notional GDP terms, while earlier this year it was reported that Russia and India had also overtaken Korea. Latest World Bank statistics are here. As if to rub salt in the wounds, Deutsche Borse has launched the DAX Emerging 11 Index, to track the so-called "Next-11" group of emerging market countries, who, after the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and ...
Also filed in Business, Hanwha, Samsung, Statistics | | Comments (0) »

DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts Anti-Chongryon Campaign in Japan

03-Jul-07
An interesting prelude to the two talks at Chatham House this week... A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK on Sunday issued the statement : Japan has taken harsh actions against Chongryon and Koreans in Japan such as forcible search of its facilities and their houses, assaults and arrests of them last year and this year. Not content with this, it is working hard to force upon Chongryon the sale of the plottage and building of the Hall of its headquarters through the Resolution and Collection Corporation. The Abe group instructed the corporation to raise an extremely discriminative and unfair demand to Chongryon, persistently turning down its sincere and reasonable proposals to redeem debts. It has thus unilaterally hamstrung ...
Also filed in Voice of DPRK | | Comments (0) »

Hanwha and Kim Seung-youn links

19-May-07
A lazy post to bring together some of the Hanwha coverage. Interestingly, not many of the bloggers seem to have shown much interest in the story, as far as I can see. (South Korean police officers carry the seizures after searching at home of Hanwha Group Chairman and CEO Kim Seung-youn in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 1, 2007. Police on Tuesday searched the home of the South Korean business tycoon accused of taking part in a sensational revenge attack on bar workers after his son was hurt in a fight in a karaoke pub. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Choi Jae-gu)) One of those Kahoidong fake-hanok-style houses. Some of the links: Rough and tumble, Korean style: Donald Kirk, Asia Times, 5 May 2007: Even as investigators searched ...
Also filed in ...blow by blow, Business, Hanwha | | Comments (0) »

Shinhan agrees to buy majority stake in LG Card

21-Dec-06
On December 20, 2006, Shinhan Financial Group signed an agreement with Korea Development Bank, the Presiding Bank representing the 14 Creditor Financial Institutions, to acquire a 78.58% stake in LG Card at KRW67,770 per share. The deal was the largest ever Korean M&A transaction, according to Bloomberg, and the transaction completes the restructuring of LG Card, which began when the Creditor Financial Institutions bailed the company out in 2004 through a KRW4.4 trillion recapitalization program. Related posts:KEB blow by blow Reports of HSBC’s renewed interest in KEB have given me...A regulatory nerd picks apart a Hankyoreh article An interesting article (at least for that tiny population of...The financial pulling power of Korea’s soccer stars Readers may recall that during this year’s World ...
Also filed in Business | | Comments (0) »

Death of the worlds oldest company

15-Dec-06
A Japanese company which, according to the Chosun, has its roots in Korea, is to go into liquidation in January 2007. The company, temple builder Kongo Gumi, was founded in 578. Links: Family Business list of the world's oldest companies Time Magazine article (Feb 2004) Kongo Gumi website Related posts:Developed Market status and other recent business stories In a week when the most developed market in the...Samsung - am I missing something? I’m puzzled by this item on the KBS site today...Round-up of recent business stories Some recent stories I don’t want to lose. Mercer’s annual... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Also filed in Business, Historical | | Comments (0) »

Condom sales, motel bookings surge after DPRK nuclear test

26-Oct-06
The Chosun reports a surge in condom sales and in love motel bookings in the days and weeks following North Korea's nuke test on October 9th. I hope the world's not going to end quite yet. Related posts:DPRK Nuclear test Readers may wonder why on a day when the news...Korean speakers wanted to test Korean version of IT application Just received We are looking to employ 2 Korean students...More DPRK art in London This is proving to a bumper year for North... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Also filed in Statistics | | Comments (0) »

Winners and losers in Korean equities

20-Oct-06
KBS reported recently (in an article so confused in its arithmetic as to be downright misleading - and frankly makes you wonder whether they've got anywhere near reality) how foreigners made $90bn gains on Korean stocks last year. I'm sure there are rogue nationalistic elements around who might lament the fact that anyone apart from a Korean should benefit from investing in Korean stocks. Those same elements will no doubt be rubbing their hands with glee that Credit Suisse reportedly managed to lose $120mn on Korean equities in a space of just 3 months. The story is in Bloomberg on Oct 16, and is picked up in the FT's Lex column the next day. The debacle, which wasn't reported to shareholders, resulted from ...
Also filed in Business | | Comments (0) »

Times under fire for Korean aid allegations

04-Oct-06
The (London) Times is drawing fire from the Chosun for its mischievous linking of Seoul's increasing largesse in foreign aid with Ban Ki-Moon's candidacy for the secretary-generalship of the United Nations. An article from last week catalogued the increased amounts of aid pledged by Seoul to various African nations. A prompt rebuttal by the ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, published in Monday's paper this week, aimed to set the record straight by setting the context of Seoul needing to increase its foreign aid budget to somewhere approaching the OECD recommended level. (That doesn't quite explain the gift of a grand piano to Peru, but I think it would take more than a grand piano to buy my vote if I ...
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A sinister accident?

27-Sep-06
Just received this from Tom Coyner - a circular email sent by campaigner for DPRK human rights Dr Norbert Vollertsen. Coming back from Thailand after taking care for arrested North Korean refugees and South Korean activists there here in downtown Seoul I was attacked by a street gang and knocked down in the middle of the road. After other cars slowly passed by I was intentionally run over (the driver even stared at me out of his window - in order to make a better hit ?) by a taxi, the wheels precisely running over my left knee and foot. Later I was accused by the police and some "eyewitnesses" (the guys who knocked me down ?) that I had been totally drunken, ...
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Seoul’s relations with Africa and Cuba

24-Sep-06
AidanFC's recent article in the Asia Times noted that South Korea now has diplomatic relations with all the African countries, with the opening of ambassador-level relations with the Republic of Guinea on 28 August. He gives some of the history There was a time when Guinea was a beacon of the Afro-Asian struggle against colonialism. Under the charismatic Sekou Toure, Guinea, alone of France's African colonies, voted in 1958 for independence rather than continued association with Paris. President Charles de Gaulle, who had imposed this choice on the colonies, reacted vindictively. The French pulled out and broke off all ties. Sekou Toure turned to Moscow, and in 1960 Guinea became the first black African country to recognize North Korea: another proudly independent ...
Also filed in Business | | Comments (0) »

Condemned out of their own mouth

02-Sep-06
One of the reasons I publish the DPRK e-bulletins when I receive them is for their choice language. I am always puzzled why propagandists obviously take a great deal of trouble to get something into English but nevertheless imagine that the resulting hyperbolic prose will be met with anything other than not terribly polite titters. The Chosun has been following the antics of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union. They reported on the wholesale lifting of passages from a North Korean history text book and rebranding them without disclosing the source (also here); and also on the Busan chapter's anti-globalisation take on the APEC summit. Following the Chosun's article claiming that the union was directed by a "handful of ...
Also filed in DPRK, Politics | | Comments (0) »

The world’s biggest bibimbap?

25-May-06
From the Chosun: Students make Korean traditional dish bibimbap, an assortment of vegetables and rice, for 1,000 people during a spring festival at Ewha Womans University, which marked its 120th anniversary on Wednesday. Related posts:The Seoul Magazine photo challenge One of my minor complaints with Seoul Magazine is their...Of The Outer World at I-MYU Of The Outer World 10 — 29 April 2008 Zadok...Pansori and bibimbap – fusion in Korea’s cultural content By Peter Corbishley Last Thursday and Friday 24-25th September an... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Also filed in Food & Drink, Pictures | | Comments (0) »

Two Koreas’ Top Brass Resort to Racist Mudslinging

23-May-06
A continuation of the ongoing theme on racial purity spurred by the visit of Korean-American Dan Hines to Korea. The more extreme position taken by the representative from the North chimes in well with this harrowing story in Time. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200605/200605170016.html Related posts:North-themed update The Xinhua newsagency reports the cordial meeting between Kim Jong-Il’s...Kaesong again I’m guessing that Douglas Anderson from the US House of...Les Miserables I was a bit slow in spotting this, but for... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Also filed in DPRK | | Comments (0) »

North-themed update

29-Mar-06
The Xinhua newsagency reports the cordial meeting between Kim Jong-Il's brother-in-law Chang Song Taek and a member of the Chinese politbureau, as the DPRK's tour of Chinese economic zones draws to a close. Meanwhile, Yoduk story, the musical based in a North Korean concentration camp, is a sell-out success. The BBC is now featuring the story on its website. Lastly in today's North-themed update, Pyongyang's Korean Central History Museum has agreed to lend a collection of objects to Seoul's National Museum of Korea, in what will be the biggest exhibition of North Korean artefacts outside of the DPRK. On show from June this year. Related posts:A Chuseok-themed marketing campaign US retail banking giant Chase have been aiming to show...North-South Joint Declaration The following ...
Also filed in Business, DPRK, Other exhibitions | | Comments (0) »