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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

President Lees friend returns home for inquiry

By Lee Hyo-sik Chun Shin-il, the chairman of Sejoong Namo Tour, returned home Tuesday from Japan where he had been staying since August to evade the prosecution’s investigation over his alleged involvement in an influence-peddling scandal. Chun, known to have been a close friend of President Lee Myung-bak over the past several decades, headed straight to the hospital after arriving at Incheon International Airport at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, citing his worsening chronic illness. Over the past three months, he had been asked by the prosecution to face questioning over allegations that he had received 4 billion won in cash and gift vouchers from Lee Su-wu, head of Imcheon Industry, a subcontractor of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Industries. In return, Chun allegedly used his influence so the company could tap 100 billion won in bank loans in 2005 and another 20 billion won in 2008. The chairman flew to Japan in August five days before Imcheon head Lee was questioned by prosecutors, citing business affairs and treatments for his chronic illness. The Seoul Central Pr

Nov 30, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Exemplary service businesses selected for Yeosu Expo visitors

By Lee Hyo-sik With one year and six months remaining before the southwestern port city of Yeosu hosts the World Expo in May 2012, the organizing committee has launched a full-fledged campaign to attract a record number of visitors from both home and abroad. The Organizing Committee for EXPO 2012 Yeosu Korea has designated 195 restaurants, 151 lodging facilities and 33 shopping centers in South Jeolla Province and South Gyeongsang Province as official business partners. The designation is designed to draw more tourists during the three-month-long event by guaranteeing the quality of where they stay, and what they eat and buy. Yeosu Expo aims to draw a total of 8 million visitors, including 550,000 foreigners. The 379 businesses were selected out of 739 after undergoing a rigorous screening process. On top of a paper evaluation, officials from the committee and the Korea Management Association conducted an on-site inspection of the proposed businesses. The organizing committee will provide the select businesses with financial and other support to help them conduct

Nov 29, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

KTO website available on smartphones

By Lee Hyo-sik The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has introduced a mobile website for smartphone users so they can more easily obtain tourism information in three different languages — Korean, English and Japanese. Earlier this week, the KTO hung a banner with a quick response (QR) code on one of the outer walls of its headquarters in central Seoul. By shooting the code with their smartphones, users can log onto the specially-designed website. The website contains a wide range of information on royal palaces and other tourism attractions, as well as plays and other cultural contents. The first 2,010 people who log onto the mobile website through Dec. 5 will be able to collect souvenirs at a KTO tourism information center, the organization said. “Korean and foreign tourists can now more conveniently access tourism information through their smartphones, thanks to the newly displayed QR code at our headquarters building. It will also promote Korea’s image among foreign visitors as an information technology powerhouse,” said Je Sang-won, manager of the KTO global

Nov 29, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Tycoons cousin beats up trucker

By Lee Hyo-sik Police are investigating an allegation raised by a laid-off trucker that a younger cousin of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won brutally assaulted him with a baseball bat and paid him 20 million won in compensation. The case was made public by MBC’s investigative program aired on Sunday. A 52-year-old trucker, identified only by his surname Yoo, claimed that Chey Chul-won, the 41-year-old former CEO of SK Group affiliated logistics firm, Might & Main (M&M) Corp., had hit him more than 10 times with an aluminum bat and beat him with his fist at Chey’s office in central Seoul on Oct. 18. According to the program, Chey savagely beat the trucker who struggled to dodge the beating, shouting at the victim, “1 million won for one beating.” While he assaulted the driver, seven to eight senior company officials were also present at the scene. The truck driver, a member of the Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union, which is affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Union, held a one-man protest in front of the headquarters of SK Group in January this year after lo

Nov 29, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Yeonpyeong crisis takes toll on tourism

By Lee Hyo-sik An increasing number of foreign tourists are canceling their trips to South Korea, following last week’s military skirmish between the two Koreas, officials from tour agencies said. Due to safety concerns, groups of Japanese students who had initially planned to come here for a field trip have decided to go somewhere else. According to the domestic travel industry Monday, one high school in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture recently decided to scrap a field trip planned on Dec. 2-6, following North Korea’s sudden artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island and the continued military confrontation. Other schools have and will likely follow suit. An executive at a local travel agency catering mostly to Japanese tourists said the Japanese government has issued a travel warning for those planning to visit Korea. “Japanese parents have become extremely concerned about what is happening here and fear future provocations from North Korea. They do not want their children to be in danger. A growing number of Chinese are also increasingly wary of the safety situation here,

Nov 29, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
Travel & Food

Busan offers diverse tourist attractions

By Lee Hyo-sik Busan ㅡ When you think of the southwestern port city of Busan, you immediately conjure up tens of thousands of beachgoers on Haeundae Beach, one of Korea’s most famous summer vacation spots. It attracts millions of holidaymakers from both home and abroad from July to August. But the reality is Haeundae is just one of many tourist attractions in the city. There are numerous other beautiful beaches, parks, cultural sites, entertainment spots, festivals and museums. ``Both Korean and foreign visitors have tons of things to do here in Korea’s largest port city throughout the year. Busan offers diverse tourism, leisure and entertainment services across the city,’’ said Joe Ig-geon, assistant director at the tourism promotion division at Busan Metropolitan City. Joe also said a growing number of Japanese, Chinese and other foreign visitors are coming to shop at the city’s traditional markets and modern department stores, as well as taste its unique seafood-based cuisine and view pristine natural scenery. Taejongdae This is Busan’s best marine observatory

Nov 25, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Will Yeonpyeong Island be deserted?

By Lee Hyo-sik A mass exodus has been ongoing with residents fleeing Yeonpyeong Island, which was devastated by a North Korean artillery attack Tuesday, as they find it impossible to stay there amid fears of further military confrontation between the two Koreas. Houses and other buildings burned following the North’s shelling, while power and communications transmission towers as well as other infrastructure were severely damaged. Given this, it has become quite impractical for Yeonpyeong residents to remain on the island. On the day of the attack, about 1,200 residents out of the total 1,700 fled their homes and escaped to the mainland, seeking shelter. Many other residents fled to air-raid shelters Tuesday and Wednesday. With ferries resuming operations Thursday afternoon, most of the residents arrived at the emergency shelters set up in Incheon. Government officials said 43 remaining residents will depart the island early today. For the time being, there will only be engineers and other manpower involved in recovery efforts, along with journalists, on Yeonpyeong

Nov 25, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Incheon becomes refugee camp

Significant property damage inflicted on Yeonpyeong residents By Lee Hyo-sik, Park Si-soo The western port city of Incheon turned into a “refugee camp” Wednesday as Yeonpyeong Island residents fled their homes and escaped inland, desperately seeking attack-free shelter. Incheon is the nearest city on mainland Korea to the island bombarded Tuesday by North Korea. It takes four hours to get to Incheon from Yeonpyeong by ferry. On Wednesday alone, nearly 400 Yeonpyeong citizens arrived at Incheon on specially-assigned warships and patrol boats. And hundreds of others are expected to land at the port using the Navy’s two hovercrafts. The government has grounded all civilian boats and small planes whose travel routes skirt the island for fear of the North’s additional provocations. “The top priority of the evacuation is Yeonpyeong residents, discharged soldiers and the family members of career soldiers on the island,” said a Navy spokesman. Incheon City has designated a large-scale spa capable of accommodating about 200 people as a temporary residence for those esc

Nov 24, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Citizens pay tribute to fallen soldiers

By Lee Hyo-sik Military commanders, politicians, government officials and thousands of citizens paid tribute Wednesday to two fallen Marines — Sgt. Seo Jeong-woo, 22, and Pvt. Moon Gwang-wuk, 20, who were killed on Yeongpyeong Island Tuesday as a result of North Korea’s sudden artillery attack. A memorial altar for the two has been set up at the Armed Forces Hospital in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. In cyberspace, tens of thousands of Internet users have been posting comments on the personal homepages of the dead soldiers. Twitter and other online social media were overrun with messages expressing condolences to the bereaved family members and friends. Mourners condemned North Korea’s attack, which also killed two civilians and wounded 16 other soldiers, on the island situated near the disputed western border and called on the government to take stern military and other action to punish those responsible for the provocation. The bodies of the two fallen soldiers were flown by military helicopter to the Armed Forces Hospital. The memorial alter has been open to th

Nov 24, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Maritime border breaches alert police

By Lee Hyo-sik A growing number of Chinese are trying to illegally enter Korea through its southwestern coast, which is largely overlooked and forcing the maritime police authorities to beef up surveillance on foreign boats making unauthorized entries into the nation’s waters. Despite a number of radar stations and other surveillance mechanisms installed at the large islands in the southwestern coast, the police and coast guards have failed to detect ships carrying Chinese stowaways. Coast guards have been able to apprehend illegal entrants only after being notified of their sighting by residents. On Nov. 21, a 10-ton China-registered boat unloaded seven Chinese men on the beach of an island in Shinan County, South Jeolla Province. A week ago, they left China’s Tsingtao port after each person paid the captain of the ship three million won for the illicit voyage. Upon arrival, the men claimed that they immediately climbed the nearby mountain and spent the night there. When they came down to the village early next morning, they were spotted by a resident who report

Nov 23, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
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