I’ve just come across an interesting and well-written article on the KOFIC website which gives a very good review of the state of the Korean film industry in 2005. Here’s a link. The challenge with the article is that, at least on my browser, all the names of the films have been omitted. Sometimes, unless … [Read More]
Category: News and Current Affairs (page 48)
Deja vu
Where do the Korean tax authorities get all their investigators from? They’ve just been throwing resources at trying to get money out of Lone Star, and now they’ve descended en masse on Carrefour. Is this a bit of anti-foreign politicking? Or are there genuine concerns that Carrefour have been trying to avoid tax? Heavy-handed investigations … [Read More]
Buying Vietnamese brides
The Chosun Ilbo article I spotted a week ago in this blog entry has created waves in diplomatic circles. As ever, the Marmot has his finger on the pulse. He has some great posts here and here. Follow his links at your leisure. [Read More]
Conspiracy theories
Tom Coyner has a mischievous speculation in one of his recent email news updates. I sometimes wonder if Pres Roh and PM Koizumi have these gentleman agreements, off the record of course, that allow each of them to act ridiculous so as to pander to local politics while knowing that the other politician is giving … [Read More]
London Korean Festival 2006 – we need news now!!
Tae-min, please, pretty please, post something about the festival on your website soon. Do you know how long it takes google find a new or updated page? Nor do I, but in theory I guess the minimum is more or less instantaneous, and the maximum is infinite — it just depends on where the googlebot’s … [Read More]
Think, Korea
I can’t help feeling that the Koreans have been taken for a bit of a ride with this Think Korea 2006 thing. I’d be interested to know for sure which government is investing more money in the programme, but I’d be willing to bet that it’s the Koreans. And let’s look at who’s getting what … [Read More]
Korean marketing skills
Korea may be the most wired nation on earth (or is it the second-most?), but Koreans in London have yet to embrace new technology. As noted in previous rants, there has been absolutely nothing official on the web which gives any decent information on the Korean concert in Croydon on 1 May. Well, yesterday I … [Read More]
A little gripe about CD packaging
I’m turning into one of those grumpy old men who gets annoyed by the stupidest of things. A very trivial rant today prompted by the latest delivery from YesAsia (I’m mugging up in preparation for the K-pop concert which I hope is happening on 24 May but which no-one apart from KBS seems to know … [Read More]
Mixed marriages
As mentioned a few days ago, the appearance of Hines Ward in Korea recently provoked a certain amount of debate. As it happens, statistics published in the Korea Times say that 14% of Korean marriages in 2005 were international, while attitudes are getting more positive. However, there is a darker side to this — with … [Read More]
The cost of news
I thought I might investigate the cost of a subscription to the Yonhap News service. I’m a bit stingy when it comes to paying for things on the web, and would never consider paying for FT.com; but if it’s going to be cheap then I might consider it. So I shoot off an email to … [Read More]
Saying Sorry with cash
I haven’t been following the Hyundai Slush Fund story, but Hyundai hopes to have drawn a line under it with a $1bn charitable donation. Samsung apparently adopted a similar approach to the tune of $840mn last year. Lone Star, meanwhile, is making a $100mn donation as a goodwill gesture in relation to its KEB purchase … [Read More]
DPRK’s need for hard currency
Sorry, I’m a bit behind with some of the news stories. The BBC ran an interesting one a couple of days ago on the US$ supernotes and other ways of generating hard currency. The theme is picked up on in today’s DPRK embassy e-bulletin. [Read More]
Frustration at more examples of poor Korean organisation
Thanks to Hyun-ho Khang for letting me know about a Korean performance by the Royal Philharmonic at the Fairfield Halls on the Mayday bank holiday. And absolutely no marks to the organisers of Think Korea 2006 and the Fairfield Halls for not publishing the programme. The RPO’s website doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of the … [Read More]
Investing in Korea: Carrefour
We await a comprehensive analysis of why Carrefour failed to succeed in Korea. An article in yesterday’s JoongAng Ilbo suggests a failure adequately to “localise” — having French rather than local management; and despite having French management it is suggested that the need to refer decisions to head office (a familiar gripe) resulted in slow … [Read More]
How to boost your stock price
Get Yonsama to buy some shares. Though I guess this would only work with Korean small-cap media stocks: [Ottowintech]’s share price, which stood at W12,700 on March 27 right before resuming stock transactions, quadrupled in less than 10 days, netting Bae, who invested a total of W9 billion in the company, more than 10 times … [Read More]
More on Lone Star / KEB and the US Kaesong visit
I’m guessing that Douglas Anderson from the US House of Representatives has now reported back to base following his visit to Kaesong. Jay Lefkowitz, the US envoy for NK human rights has condemned the low wages and poor conditions there, to the understandable irritation of the South. I’m also guessing that the messages taken back … [Read More]