The Korea Times

conglomerates hit for pocketing W469 bil.

Conglomerate owners, family members pocket W469 bil. in dividends via unfair practicesOwners of South Korean conglomerates and their family members have pocketed a total of 469 billion won ($411 million) in dividends over the past five years from affiliates owned by them, industry data showed on Sunday.Family-owned conglomerates, or chaebol, have been under fire in the country for their practice of granting profitable contracts to their affiliates owned by heads' children or relatives in a bid to avoid paying gift taxes on future transfers of wealth.Previously, laws did not regulate the inheritance of such assets free of tax. But beginning this month, the revised tax law calls for levying such taxes on larger firms whose owners or their family members hold more than 3 percent in stakes in their affiliates.The new law requires all South Korean conglomerates whose inter-affiliate transactions surpassed 30 percent of their sales as of last year to be subject to taxation.According to Chaebol.com, which tracks the country's family-run conglomerates, heads of the country's top 30 cong

Jul 7, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

South Korea

Rival parties agree to disclose controversial summit transcript

Rival parties agree to disclose controversial summit transcriptRival parties agreed Tuesday to disclose a summit transcript containing former late President Roh Moo-hyun's controversial remarks on the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea.The transcript, which is being kept at the National Archives of Korea, can only be viewed under certain conditions, such as with two-thirds approval from the National Assembly.The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) plan to submit a proposal to the National Assembly requesting access to the archives and put it to a vote during a plenary session later in the day.Under the request, the parties will have access to all records of the summit, including its minutes, excerpts and tape recordings.However, it remains unclear whether the proposal will pass through the Assembly as some lawmakers have voiced objections to disclosing the classified material.The controversy surrounding the transcript centers on the ruling party's claims that the late liberal president had tried to scrap the western sea border, called the North

Jul 2, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

Companies

Hyundai ordered to pay

A U.S. jury ruled Monday that South Korea's top carmaker, Hyundai, must pay $14 million to a Virginia man who sustained traumatic brain injury in a 2010 car crash, determining the side air bag system in his Tiburon was defective.Zachary "Gage" Duncan, then 16, was driving the 2008 Tiburon when the side air bag failed to deploy during the accident.His parents filed a damage suit against Hyundai.Jurors in state court in Pulaski County, Virginia, "heard days of technical testimony from engineers and analyzed dozens of crash-test videos," according to Stein Mitchell Muse & Cipollone LLP, a law firm representing the victim's parents."Plaintiffs proved that the air bag failed to deploy because Hyundai placed the side air bag sensor in the wrong location in the 2003 to 2008 models of the Tiburon," it said in a press release."This is an important victory for our client and for public safety," said Ari Casper, the plaintiffs' lead attorney.Hyundai expressed disagreement with the verdict and said it intends to appeal. The carmaker contends the air-bag system met federal safety standards an

Jul 2, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

South Korea

Tanzanians learning about Korean gov't

Rheem Chae-ho, center in front row, president of Local Government Officials Development Institute (LOGODI), poses with Tanzanian delegates at the LOGODI headquarters in Sunwon, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday./ Courtesy of LOGODIBy Shim Jae-yunA group of Tanzanian officials is visiting Korea to learn about the nation’s local administration management system and its development over the past few decades.The 15 delegates are attending a three-week program that started May 26, provided by the Local Government Officials Development Institute (LOGODI) under the wing of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration.LOGODI mapped out the program with a focus on the Saemaul Movement and rural development, in consideration of the local situation in Tanzania.The participants will attend lectures such as “Korean Economic Development at a Glance,” “Agricultural Development in Korea,” “Korea’s Saemaul Undong” and “Korean Regional Development.”They also plan to visit Incheon International Airport Customs, Saha District Government in Busan

May 30, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

South Korea

Agency helps export 'administrative hallyu'

Charles Okello, second from left on front row, chief Administrative Officer of Soroti District of Uganda, poses with another Ugandan delegation and Sung Keuk-je, center, a professor at Kyung Hee University after a class on capacity building in local administrations at the university, in Seoul, Tuesday.                                                                                                             / Courtesy of LGODIBy Shim Jae-yunAdding to the conventional concept of hallyu (the Korean wave) like K-pop and K-drama, a government agency is promoting the so-called “administrative hallyu” to help less developed countries learn the advanced administrative system of Korea.Toward that end, 17 high ranking officials from Ugandan provincial governments are visiting here at the invitation of the Loca

Apr 23, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

South Korea

Saemaul Movement to be exported

By Shim Jae-yunPark Chung-heeThe late former PresidentThe new government will seek to globalize the Saemaul Movement or the new village movement which was designed to improve the livelihood of rural areas in the 1970s under the late President Park Chung-hee, the father of the incoming President Park Geun-hye.Ruling Saenuri Party floor leader Lee Han-koo revealed Thursday the effort will be made with the support of the World Bank.Saemaul Movement is a pan-national drive for the development of rural areas which started from 1970 by then President Park Chung-hee.Park initiated the campaign in a bid to modernize the underdeveloped provincial areas through construction of houses, roads and other infrastructure facilities. It also expanded to cover efforts to increase income of farmers and fishermen.With strong support from the government, the movement was also carried out in urban areas affecting companies and other work places, to grow as a campaign for enlightenment of the people based on the motto of diligence, self-reliance and cooperation.The movement turned into a political campaign

Feb 21, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

Opinion

Mr. Noda, try and visit Dokdo, if you can

By Shim Jae-yun Japan has taken issue with President Lee Myung-bak’s recent visit to Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets. Tokyo is trying to make Lee’s visit look as if it were a violation of its territory, threatening to take the matter to the International Court of Justice. Pity! Our neighbor apparently doesn’t have any sense of reality. The President may visit it as part of his duty as head of state to take trips to parts of the nation and see if there is anything he can do to improve the people’s livelihood, while confirming the country’s territorial integrity. In other words, he exercised his right at the same time as fulfilling his duty. If Japan claims that Dokdo is theirs, the burden of proof is on them. We dare King Akihito or Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to visit the Korean islets. If they set foot on Dokdo without Seoul’s permission, it would subject them to a search and subsequent punishment under Korean law for the crime of entering Korea illegally. If they are caught by the Korean police garrison stationed there, they may be treated as spie

Aug 15, 2012By Shim Jae-yun

Opinion

Go, Jasmine!

By Shim Jae-yun Jasmine Lee, the first lawmaker with an ethnic background, captures a new Korea in the making _ a society that is changing from homogenous into multicultural. If Korea passes the Jasmine test, it would mean the nation is well on its way to a diverse, vibrant Korea, where differences between people act as a catalyst rather than obstacle. When talking to the ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker during an interview Friday, she first looked assuring and then sounded reassuring that we are heading in the right direction. Her presence in the National Assembly is after all as much the outcome of her personal endeavor as the unmistakable evolution of Korea’s globalization track. It was her broad smile that disarmed the interlocutor. Then, it was her story about her son that indicated her smile was not a sign of weakness but proof of strength. When he was a little schoolboy, his classmates called him a monkey, obviously referring to his preference for bananas, she said. Her son’s response was “Yes, we are monkeys: So what?” Reflecting her son’s spirit and a

Jun 8, 2012By Shim Jae-yun

Opinion

Total defeat on Dokdo

By Shim Jae-yun Tension is lingering between Korea and Japan over the issue of the Dokdo islets. The Japanese government came up with an annual defense white paper claiming sovereignty over the islets in the East Sea Tuesday. A day earlier, three Japanese lawmakers were sent home without being able to fulfill their ambition of visiting Ulleung Island, the closest location to the islets. The politicians’ acts were provocative and cunningly premeditated. They seem well aware of the weak points of Korea and its people and how they will respond to their politically-motivated showdown. They were desperate to muster support from conservative forces in Japan. Dokdo is the very place that harbors the tragic legacy of Japan’s cruel colonialism and imperialism over the Korean Peninsula. In any sense, it is natural to vent anger and feel severe pain when the past aggressors again try to rub salt in the wound. The Japanese lawmakers included descendants of Class-A war criminals who played a major role in killing countless people in Korea and neighboring Asian nations during W

Aug 3, 2011By Shim Jae-yun

Opinion

Happening on highway

By Shim Jae-yun This column is the second version of my previous one for The Korea Times’ April 21 edition with the title of ``Near death experience.” I first thought about “My near death experience” for the title but decided to change it to the above one as readers, Koreans in particular, as I pointed out in the April column, have a sort of negative feeling over the word death. As you might guess, the incident took place on a highway, specifically the 149 kilometer point of the Gyeongbu Expressway bound for Seoul, near Chilgok Interchange, 17 kilometers away from Daegu City. I was returning to Seoul by car at around noon on July 1 after interviewing a ranking official of the IAAF Daegu 2011 Championships the day before. It was a sizzling, humid day. The car, aged 12 years, began to slow and stopped just before the tollgate for the highway. With emergency lights flashing and after a lull I started it again to join the expressway, harboring anxiety over the possibility of the car’s stalling in the middle of the road. In hindsight, I should not have got on the highway an

Jul 13, 2011By Shim Jae-yun

Shim Jae-yun

Read more

conglomerates hit for pocketing W469 bil.

Rival parties agree to disclose controversial summit transcript

Hyundai ordered to pay

Tanzanians learning about Korean gov't

Agency helps export 'administrative hallyu'

Saemaul Movement to be exported

Mr. Noda, try and visit Dokdo, if you can

Go, Jasmine!

Total defeat on Dokdo

Happening on highway

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