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Lee Hyo-sik

Korea Times Finance Reporter

Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.

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South Korea

Mt. Nam most popular tourist attraction in Seoul

By Lee Hyo-sik Mt. Nam in the heart of Seoul is the most popular destination in the capital for foreign visitors, the city government said Friday. According to an online survey of 1,849 foreign tourists consisting of 1,080 from China, 534 from English-speaking countries and 235 from Japan, 16 percent, or 295, picked Mt. Nam as their favorite spot in Seoul. They said they most enjoyed hanging a “love padlock” on a fence set up for couples at N Seoul Tower on top of the mountain, and kissing their partners while looking down at the city nightscape. From Nov. 2 to 20, the city government conducted a survey on its website, asking foreign visitors to name Seoul’s most attractive tourist site. By nationality, 241 Chinese tourists picked Mt. Nam as their favorite place, followed by 44 English-speaking visitors and 10 Japanese. Myeongdong, the shopping district located in downtown, came in second as 13.4 percent of respondents, or 247, picked it as their favorite. They said that tourists can purchase high-quality cosmetics products at affordable prices there, as well as t

Nov 25, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Korea, Macao sign open skies agreement

By Lee Hyo-sik Aviation authorities in South Korea and Macao have signed an open skies agreement allowing airlines of both sides to operate as many passenger flights as they want to. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said Tuesday that it reached the liberalization accord with its Macao counterpart after a two-day meeting held in the special administrative region of China on Nov. 22 and 23. It said the pact will boost economic and cultural exchanges between the two. “National flagship carriers and low-cost airlines from both sides have already been allowed to operate as many cargo planes as necessary. This liberalization accord for passenger services will surely increase the number of business and leisure travelers between the two,” a ministry official said. “Korean travelers seeking to tour the city famous for casinos and nearby Hong Kong will benefit from a more convenient flight schedule and lower airfares as a result of intensifying competition among air carriers.” Currently, Jin Air operates on the Incheon-Macao route five times a week, while Air Ma

Nov 24, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
Travel & Food

Alpensia seeks foreign investment

2018 Winter Olympics venue aiming to become winter sports hub By Lee Hyo-sik Alpensia Resort, the main venue of the 2018 Winter Olympics, is making an all-out effort to attract investments from overseas to emerge as a new winter sports Mecca in Asia, its CEO said. In an interview with The Korea Times, Kim Sang-kab, CEO of Gangwondo Development Corp., which owns and operates the resort in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, said he is in talks with several foreign investors interested in acquiring a stake in Alpensia Resort or managing it. ``Currently, multiple Chinese investors have shown interests in investing in the resort. Additionally, a couple of resort operators in North America are sounding out their intention to invest. Given the surging number of Chinese visitors, we think it would be better if Chinese capital takes over and manages Alpensia,’’ Kim said. ``Additionally, professional hospitality managers will do a much better job than us in managing the resort. Privatizing it makes sense in all business aspects.’’ The CEO said he seeks to dispose of a 50-percent s

Nov 24, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Soldier on leave jumps to death

By Lee Hyo-sik A 19-year-old soldier jumped to his death from an apartment building in Seoul late Tuesday night after failing to report back to his unit. According to the Gwangjin Police Station Wednesday, the soldier was found dead on a lawn near an apartment building in Jayang-dong, Gwanjin District, at 11:30 p.m. A patrolling security guard found him and reported it to the police. The soldier, stationed at an artillery division in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, was supposed to return to his base Tuesday after being on leave for several days. Police said a suicide note was discovered in the hallway on the apartment’s 11th floor. The note read ``My life is a failure. I want to be reborn.’’ ``Under the circumstances, we think the soldier jumped off from the apartment building to kill himself. The discovery of the note further confirms that he committed suicide,’’ a police officer said. According to the bereaved family, the soldier left home early Tuesday to return to the base by taking an express bus from the Eastern Seoul Bus Terminal in Gwangjin District. Family

Nov 23, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Free rides for elderly add to subway losses

By Lee Hyo-sik The cumulative losses at subways due to elderly passengers riding for free over the past five years has reached 1.6 trillion won ($1.45 billion) for Seoul Metro and other subway operators across the nation. According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, Wednesday, the amount of fares exempted for senior citizens at seven subway operators in Seoul and other metropolitan cities reached 343 billion won in 2010, compared with 337.3 billion won in 2009. The lost revenue at Seoul Metro, the operator of the subway line Nos. 1-4, reached 139 billion won, while Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit, which manages the subway line Nos. 5-8, suffered an 84 billion won loss. About 12.6 percent of subway passengers on lines operated by Seoul Metro were senior citizens, while those aged over 65 accounted for 13.5 percent of subway users on Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit lines. Gwangju Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corp. recorded a ratio of 31.6 percent, the highest among subway operators. In 2010, Seoul Metro recorded 257 billion won in the red, follow

Nov 23, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
Society

School for interracial children to open in March

By Yun Suh-young A six-year elementary school for children of multicultural families will open next March, the first official such institution in Korea. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Nov. 15 that the “Jiguchon Hakkyo” or “The School of Global Sarang” has officially been approved as a full-time elementary school and will open Mar. 1, 2012, in Guro-gu, Seoul. The school is a private alternative school but the school’s graduates will have their academic background acknowledged when they apply for other schools. It will admit 90 students from grade 1 to grade 6; each class will consist of 15 students with only one per grade. About 80 percent of the student pool will be from multicultural families and the other 20 percent will be filled with Korean students. “Based on 20 years’ experience on caring for foreign immigrants, I will do my best to operate the school with social responsibility” said pastor Kim Hae-sung who founded the school. “I hope this school will become a trailblazer model for schools for multicultural kids.” The school tuition and entra

Nov 23, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
Society

Sustainable volunteer work

By Kim Sung-bin While the world seems so tough and in the middle of chaos, once in a while we come across events which remind us that the earth is still a place where love and affection remain. This is evident in the increase in the number of voluntary services. Numerous organizations have been established to help and take care of people who have been unavoidably marginalized from society. Now, people try to work for the welfare of underprivileged families and the rehabilitation of the disabled. With these services in action, a question arises: Do these efforts really make a difference to those in need? Are they effective enough? Those who receive the services gain hope as volunteers work and strive to improve their lives. They can also gain things essential for their survival, such as shelter and food. The poor and the disabled manage to maintain their life because of all these efforts. But are these good enough? On July 2007, I had the opportunity to participate in a voluntary work sponsored by YWCA in Bangladesh with several friends of mine. There, we worked at a

Nov 23, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

ETS recruiting students for 2012 scholarship

By Yun Suh-young The Educational Testing Service (ETS) said Wednesday it has started receiving applications for the 2012 ETS Scholarship Program for Korea. It plans to provide scholarships worth 165 million won ($144,000) to 48 students (24 for TOEFL, 24 for TOEIC), up from 30 last year (15 for each test category). Each student will receive about 3.4 million won. The application deadline is April 13, 2012, and the final candidates will be announced in May. “We have selected outstanding students from Korea for the scholarship program since 2008,” said Walt MacDonald, executive vice president of ETS. “We are very proud to provide support to a pool of talented individuals from Korea to study both in Korea and abroad.” Those eligible for the local scholarship are university students who currently live in Korea, have a TOEFL or TOEIC test score and have a GPA of 3.0 and above out of 4.0. For more detailed information on the scholarship program, visit http://korea.etsasiapac.org/.

Nov 23, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
Society

ETS launches program to guide TOEFL takers

By Yun Suh-young TOEFL candidates will now be able to find all the information needed for taking the exam with a single click. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) unveiled its new program TOEFL Journey which guides test takers from registration to application to schools, through a demonstration of the program on Nov. 11. It has been launched for the first time in Korea. The TOEFL Journey, available in English, Korean, and Chinese, is built to be a guide throughout the test-taking process and provides necessary and useful information. The website, www.toeflgoanywhere.org/journey, requires several questions to be answered and then provides a customized service. They include whether the user has taken the TOEFL test before, which program the test taker is applying for (college, graduate school or MBA) and in which country the candidate wishes to study. When all the personal information is entered, tips about studying abroad, resources and customized advice are sent via email or text message. “We wanted students to think of the test-taking process as part of a l

Nov 23, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Jeju’s selection as 7 wonders not final

By Lee Hyo-sik The whole country celebrated when its southern resort island of Jeju was selected as one of the New7Wonders of Nature in a worldwide poll on Nov. 12. But the selection was “provisionary,” not final and the actual winners will be announced as early as next month, according to a key figure spearheading the island’s campaign. Yang Won-chan, secretary general of the National Committee for Jeju New7Wonders of Nature, said Tuesday that the worldwide voting administered by the Swiss-based organization New7Wonders Foundation will be subject to independent verification. “On Nov. 12 when Jeju was picked as one of the world’s new seven natural wonders, we said it was only provisionary, not final. Everyone gathered at the Jeju Art Center knew about it and we also issued a press release that the selection was only tentative,”Yang said. “There are campaign committees like us in every candidate country. In cooperation with our counterparts, we demanded the New7Wonders Foundation subject its poll results to an independent confirmation earlier this year. Currently, we are

Nov 22, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
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