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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

Student Corner Are bad calls part of sports?

By Haley Cha During the 2010 World Cup round of 16, England scored a golden goal while playing against Germany. However, the referee, not paying enough attention, shockingly disallowed the goal. At the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, Kim Dong-sung was robbed of his gold medal by Anton Ohno. Every single bad call is tremendously stressful and disappointing. But what’s more unendurable is that these misjudgments are likely to happen over and over again. However, international sports organizations are approving such bad calls as part of the game and consider it as a convention of sports. Let’s recall the Round of 16 in the 2010 World Cup. Germany was leading the game by two goals while England scored one. The match of the two rivals was heating up. A following goal from England evened the score against Germany and drove the English fans wild. But it lasted just until the referee disallowed the goal, making the fans mad. The goal was clearly over the line, but it spun out as the referee eventually saw it. Consequently, the severely discouraged England was defeated 4-1.

Apr 6, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

HS Seoul City to provide cyclists with subsidies

By Kim Rahn Citizens cycling to subway stations will receive subsidies as part of Seoul City’s effort to encourage bicycle use. Free bike rentals will also be available by making use of abandoned bicycles. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced its revised bicycle policy Wednesday to deal with the inconvenience citizens have experienced for the last two years since the city started making a total of 88.3 kilometers of bicycle-only lanes. To boost bike use, the city plans to give about 200-300 won subsidies to people who ride between their homes and subway stations, starting August. Kiosks have been installed at bicycle parking lots near Sindorim Station and Suyu Station for the pilot program. “Citizens can cycle from home to the station, park there, have the kiosk scan their traffic card, and take the subway to work or school. On their return, they can retrieve the bikes from the kiosk and the subsidy will be credited to their cards. They can use the money later for buying goods or taking public transportation,” a city official said. The service will be

Apr 6, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Asiana, Air Busan to beef up safety inspection of 737 fleets

By Lee Hyo-sik Asiana Airlines and its affiliated budget carrier, Air Busan, have been ordered by aviation safety authorities here to conduct in-depth safety inspections of their Boeing 737 fleets, following the mid-air fuselage rupture of a Boeing 737-300 aircraft operated by U.S.-based Southwest Airlines last Friday. Neither airline operates Boeing 737-300s; but Asiana has two Boeing 737-400 airplanes in operation, while Air Busan has three Boeing 737-400s and 737-500s. Boeing 737-400s and 737-500s are known to have a similar fuselage structure as 737-300s. Korean Air currently operates 30 Boeing 737 airplanes — 737-800s and 737-900s. According to the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs, 737-800s and 737-900s are more advanced and safer than 737-300s, saving the nation’s largest flagship carrier from the fallout of the Southwest debacle. “We recently asked both Asiana and Air Busan to beef up their safety checkups of Boeing 737s as a precaution, after a Southwest Airline’s Boeing 737-300 airplane was forced to make an emergency landing la

Apr 6, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Korean Air accused of unfairly recruiting pilots from Air Busan

By Lee Hyo-sik Korean Air, the nation’s largest flagship carrier, has been accused of “stealing” pilots from Air Busan and other budget carriers here by luring them with large paychecks and generous benefits. Air Busan, a low-cost airline affiliated with Asiana Airlines, said Korea’s largest airline has been intentionally targeting its well-trained pilots, claiming this constitutes an act of unfair trade by using a dominant market position. However, Korean Air said there was nothing wrong with its hiring practices, insisting it has not targeted experienced pilots of any particular airline. The company said it is entirely up to pilots themselves whether to change jobs or not. Korean Air recently hired four pilots who used to be in the cockpit of the Air Busan fleet. In August last year, one Air Busan pilot moved to the flagship carrier. In response, the budget airline cried foul over Korean Air’s hiring of its pilots, claiming that the company was systematically stealing experienced manpower from it. “Korean Air operates a training center, producing a substantial nu

Apr 5, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Top prosecutor in hot seat for cash gift

By Lee Hyo-sik The nation’s top prosecutor has caused a stir after handing out envelopes containing millions of won in cash to subordinates during a recent workshop. The prosecution said it is a decades-old practice intended to financially help prosecutors perform their duties, stressing there is “nothing wrong” with it. Civic groups argue that the practice has to be abolished and the way high-ranking government officials spend taxpayers’ money should be more transparent and subject to tighter scrutiny. According to participants of the workshop, Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu gave 2 to 3 million won each to 45 senior prosecution officials, including heads of district prosecutors offices, totaling 98 million won ($90,000). The envelopes were handed out along with the workshop material. Decades-old practice? Senior prosecutors gathered at the Legal Research & Training Institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on April 2 to discuss countermeasures against a series of judiciary reform packages unveiled by the National Assembly. Both governing and opposition lawmakers

Apr 5, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Clergymen have longest life span

Entertainers, athletes, writers live shortest By Lee Hyo-sik Christian clergy and Buddhist monks were found to have the longest life span, while entertainers, professional athletes and writers die earlier than those in other occupations, according to a university study Monday. After classifying 3,215 deceased people between 1963 and 2010 into 11 vocational groups, a Wonkwang University research team, led by Prof. Kim Jong-in, calculated the average life span of each occupation category. They were clergymen, politicians, professors, entertainers, high-ranking bureaucrats, corporate executives, artists, professional athletes, writers, journalists and lawyers. Catholic priests, Buddhist monks and other religious professionals lived 80 years on average, the longest among the 11 groups, followed by politicians at 75, professors at 74 and corporate executives at 73. On the bottom of the life expectancy list were professional athletes, writers and journalists whose life span averaged 67 years during the 48-year period. When analyzing those who died from 2001 to 2010,

Apr 4, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Ex-pastor kills himself after holding family hostage

A 49-year-old man, surnamed Lim, jumped off a balcony of his apartment on the 17th floor, Friday, after holding his wife and daughter hostage for four and a half hours, according to police. Jeonju Wansan Police Station said the former pastor, who suffered from manic depression, threw himself off the balcony when three members of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team attempted to enter the apartment after descending from the rooftop by rope. He was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, but pronounced dead upon arrival. Lim took his wife and daughter hostage at knife-point at 6:50 a.m., claiming Park had tried to kill him.

Apr 1, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Weekend rain to contain minute radioactive traces

By Lee Hyo-sik Rain forecast for Seoul and central parts of the country today may contain small amounts of radioactive iodine and cesium leaked from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, raising public concerns over “radioactive rainfall.” However, experts say any amount of radioactive material in the rainwater will be too small to pose any noticeable risk to public health or the environment, warning against an overblown panic here over the ongoing nuclear crisis in the neighboring country. “The amount detected in rainwater early this week fell short of posing any health risks even if a person was exposed to it constantly. The story will be pretty much the same for the rain forecast for Saturday,” principal researcher Kim Chang-kyu at the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety said. He said radioactive iodine was detected at only three monitoring points out of 13 Thursday, stressing that traces in the forecast rain will likely be much smaller than that of the previous rainfall. “Even if we drink the rainwater directly, it will not negatively affect our health.

Apr 1, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

KEPCO loses battle to ban magazine over UAE deal

By Lee Hyo-sik A Seoul court Friday denied an injunction filed by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) seeking to force the monthly ShindongA magazine to recollect all released copies of its April edition. On March 18, the utility company asked the Seoul Central District Court to take all copies of the April edition off the shelves, insisting its article that Korea may be held responsible for the disposal of nuclear waste generated from the planned nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is groundless. But the court dismissed KEPCO’s request, saying it seemed almost impossible to collect already distributed copies of the monthly magazine. ``The report only implies that UAE’s nuclear waste could be handled in a third country and that KEPCO may be involved in the process. This does not necessarily mean that Korea will have to bring UAE’s spent nuclear materials into the country to treat and keep them here,’’ it said in a ruling. Korea won a $20 billion contract from the UAE in December 209 to build four nuclear reactors in Braka, 300 kilometers west of Abu

Mar 25, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

More senior citizens taking lives

By Lee Hyo-sik An 89-year-old man, identified only by his surname Kim, jumped off a five-story building in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, to his death on March 22. The police concluded that Kim, suffering a chronic back problem, took his own life based on the bereaved family’s testimony. The senior citizen had often said he did not want to be a burden to his children, according to the family. On March 3, a 77-year-old woman, identified by her last name Lee, committed suicide by drinking a bottle of liquid pesticide in Inje, Gangwon Province, after telling her son on the phone that she wanted to die because she did not want to become a liability to her children. According to Lee’s bereaved family, she often said she wanted to die while struggling with asthma and other chronic illnesses. Like Kim and Lee, a growing number of senior citizens over 65 here are taking their own lives due to health problems, financial hardship and family feuds among other reasons. Lee Sun-young, manager of the elderly suicide prevention center, affiliated with Seodaemun District Office in Seo

Mar 25, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik
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