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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

’Alcohol in song lyrics not harmful to youth’

By Lee Hyo-sik A song cannot be considered harmful to the youth just because the lyrics contain the word ``alcohol,’’ the court said Thursday. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled that a censorship arm of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family should revoke its decision to designate a single album, titled ``Miss You So Much’’ by four male singers belonging to SM Entertainment, as harmful to adolescents. ``The album does not explicitly state the alcohol manufacturing methods or its health effects, which are considered harmful to teenagers under the Youth Protection Law. The song lyrics do not seem to encourage adolescents to drink alcohol either,’’ the court said in the ruling. The song ``Miss You So Much’’ contains the lines, ``I will stop missing you by getting drunk’’ and ``I dream after falling asleep by getting drunk.’’ Although alcohol is designated as harmful to teens, scenes of actors and actresses drinking alcohol are normally seen in TV dramas and movies, and often written about in poetry, novels and other works of literature, the court said. “Alcohol

Aug 25, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

2011 wage hike settled at 5.2 percent

By Lee Hyo-sik Businesses were found to have raised employee salaries by a larger margin this year amid the surging prices of goods and services, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Wednesday. It also said a wage increase in the public sector has forced private employers to concede more to the unions, raising concerns that higher labor costs may chip away at the competitiveness of domestic enterprises when the global economy is largely expected to slow down on sovereign debt crises in Europe and the United States. Of the 8,458 businesses employing over 100 workers nationwide, 3,636 companies settled this year’s wage negotiations with their workers by July, the ministry said, adding that salaries will grow by an average of 5.2 percent, higher than the 4.6-percent increase in 2010. “We think the higher corporate wage hike reflects soaring consumer prices in the first half of the year. Additionally, state-run companies’ decision to pay their workers 4.1 percent more on average has encouraged private-sector workers to demand a higher pay increase,” a ministry official s

Aug 24, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Garuda Indonesia accused of sexually harassing female crew candidates

By Lee Hyo-sik Garuda Indonesia, the Southeast Asian country’s flagship carrier, is accused of sexually harassing a group of Korean women seeking to become a crew member for the airline during a physical exam last month. According to the airline industry sources, Wednesday, Garuda Indonesia posted a job opening for flight attendants in June. The company planned to hire 18 Korean crew members but hundreds of women applied to work as a stewardess. The airline conducted physical and medical exams in July for those who passed the written-test screening and preliminary interview. During the examination, female candidates were asked to remove their clothes, except for their underclothes and to lie down on a table. A middle-aged Indonesian male doctor came into the exam room and allegedly touched the women’s chest and other parts to check whether they had breast implants and other artificial objects in their body. “When the candidates were on an examination table, their body was covered with a blanket. The company obtained consent prior to such a physical checkup. The Indone

Aug 24, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Teen entertainers registered with association number 366

By Lee Hyo-sik The number of underage entertainers registered with the Korean Entertainers’ Association stood at 366 as of the end of May, according to Rep. Lee Myoung-soo of the minor conservative Liberty Forward Party. Of the 366, 208 were elementary school students, with 76 and 82 attending middle and high schools, respectively, Lee said Tuesday, citing data from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Most of the teenaged entertainers often skip classes as they maintain a busy work schedule and the education authorities take no concrete measures to have them properly educated, he said. Nearly half of the under-aged entertainers reside in Seoul, followed by 97 in Gyeonggi Province and 64 in Incheon. By gender, girls make up more than half at 199 and the remaining 167 are male. It is estimated that there are more child entertainers than the statistics suggest as more students are engaged in professional singing, acting, modeling and other activities without belonging to any association. “More and more elementary, middle-and high-school students are beco

Aug 23, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Illegal stalls at highway rest areas removed

By Lee Hyo-sik Hundreds of illegally set-up kiosks and stalls selling CDs and other miscellaneous goods at highway service stations have been removed across the country as part of government efforts to create a more pleasant space for motorists. Korea Expressway Corp. (KEC), the state-run expressway operator, said Tuesday that it demolished a total of 328 unlicensed structures selling a variety of household items and began operating an alternative outlet called “Hi-Shop.” Over the decades, vendors have sold miscellaneous goods out of small-sized trucks unlawfully occupying parking spaces without the highway operator’s permission. The space previously taken up by the vendors has turned to motorists. “For many years, street vendors were engaged in illegal business at highway rest areas. They caused inconvenience to motorists and negatively affected the overall environment of the service areas. We are glad that unlicensed stalls have been replaced with the Hi-Shop,” an official at KEC said. The expressway operator said it held a series of talks with businesses running se

Aug 23, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Famous elder caught after abusing minors

A 61-year-old man, a well-known elder portrayed by the media as a social activist helping children from poor families, was found to have sexually abused half a dozen minors over the past two decades, police said Monday. The man named Kim was arrested for sexually assaulting minors after luring them to his house. In 1991, Kim, an elder of a church in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, took a 15-year-old boy, who is now 35, to his home, undressed him and touched his body. Kim is suspected of sexually abusing seven minors over the past 21 years.

Aug 22, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Koreans buy anti-drug-test drug in China

A drug capable of concealing narcotics is being widely circulated in Northeastern China, putting law enforcement authorities here on high alert. Cable news channel YTN reported Monday that a growing number of Koreans travel to Jilin and China’s other northeastern provinces to take illicit drugs. It said drug users buy and take the “mysterious” drug, which can make narcotics substances in the bloodstream undetectable in drug tests currently used here. A drug addict named Lee told YTN that he took the drug in China and after returning home, he was tested by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and the National Forensic Service but was cleared. “They took samples of my hair for narcotics tests. I was screened twice. But I tested negative even though I had taken illicit drugs. It is because of the unknown drug I took in China, along with the narcotics,” Lee told the news channel. He said the mysterious drug is easily purchased from Chinese dealers and that many Korean drug users visit the mainland for their fix.

Aug 22, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Hide-and-seek starts for homeless

Civic groups call for more fundamental measures than eviction By Lee Hyo-sik Dozens of homeless people were forcibly moved out of Seoul Station for the first time early Monday morning, drawing strong protests from those evicted and civic groups opposing what they call an abrupt and unprepared expulsion. Korail, the state-run railroad operator, said there were no major physical confrontations between the homeless and the Korail officials who expelled them, stressing that it has no choice but to evict them by force from the nation’s largest train station amid growing complaints from passengers. Citizens using the station have been complaining that there are too many homeless people causing inconveniences to travelers and even threatening their personal safety. Korail officials said they expelled homeless people from Seoul Station at 1:30 a.m. Monday morning and banned them from coming back into the station until 4:30 a.m. “No homeless people put up a fight when they were asked to leave. We are glad that we were able to execute the mandatory eviction without a problem. It

Aug 22, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Singer accused of beating worker of management firm

By Lee Hyo-sik Singer Yim Jae-beom, who rose to stardom by appearing on the popular television show “I Am a Singer,” has been accused of assaulting an employee of his management firm, police said Sunday. The Seocho Police Station said a 28-year-old man, surnamed Kim, filed a complaint against Yim Saturday, claiming he was beaten by the singer at a building used by Y Entertainment in Seocho-dong on July 29. Kim said he was editing a television program at the time of the assault. Kim said he asked the singer who practiced in the next room to turn down the music volume. But Yim assaulted him, saying he sounded too arrogant. In the complaint, Kim said that he sustained an injury requiring three weeks to heal. Police said investigators will summon both Kim and Yim for questioning in the coming days to determine exactly what happened.

Aug 21, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

73% of Hanjin unionists oppose Kim Jin-sook’s protest at crane

By Lee Hyo-sik More than seven out of every 10 unionized workers at Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction were found to oppose the months-long sit-in protest by a labor activist atop a 35-meter giant crane at its shipyard in Busan. In a survey of 714 unionists at the Yeongdo shipyard where Kim Jin-sook, a former Hanjin Heavy worker and member of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, has been protesting layoffs since January, 73.1 percent, or 522 workers, disapproved of Kim’s occupation of the crane, the company said Sunday. It also said 95.6 percent of 547 non-union members at the shipyard, or 523, called on Kim to stop the sit-in and help the plant resume operations. Of all the 1,440 union and non-union members taking part in the survey, 83.8 percent or 1,117, said the labor activist should halt the protest at the tower crane. The survey result came a day after members of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, opposition political parties and progressive civic groups gathered at Seoul Plaza Saturday night, demanding Hanjin Heavy reverse its decision to lay off h

Aug 21, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
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