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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

Yeosu Expo hit by bribery scandal

By Lee Hyo-sik With less than two years to go before its opening in May 2012, the Yeosu Expo is facing a public relations disaster after one of the key figures behind the town’s hosting of the international event has been put behind bars for taking bribes. As former Yeosu Mayor Oh Hyun-sup and dozens of city councilors have been embroiled in the bribery scandal, the Organizing Committee for EXPO 2012 Yeosu Korea, headed by Kang Dong-seok, has recently decided not to take the city council to the ongoing Shanghai World Expo later this month. It also stopped all promotional activities when it should have actively publicized itself to attract visitors from both home and abroad. There have been growing concerns that the Yeosu Expo may not be able to draw as many visitors as it aims to, particularly from overseas, due to a shortage of affordable lodging facilities and poor transportation network. Even the Shanghai Expo has been struggling to attract foreign tourists. To make up for the shortfall, it has been asking schools there to send students to the trade fair. The

Aug 23, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Korail ousts Samsung from Yongsan project

By Lee Hyo-sik Korail demanded Thursday that Samsung Construction and Trade (C&T), the leader of the consortium of builders for the Yongsan development project, voluntarily pull out of the stalled scheme if the company is unwilling to normalize it. The state-run rail operator also said it will soon select a new lead builder to replace Samsung. But it said it has no intention to exercise its right to nullify the development contract with the construction arm of Korea’s largest business group. “We have informed Samsung C&T that we want the builder to withdraw from the asset management company (AMC) in charge of implementing the development project. But we have not yet received any response from Samsung,” Korail said in a press release. Samsung C&T owns a 45.1 percent stake in the AMC, a special purpose entity that was set up in 2007 solely for completing the “Yongsan International Business Zone” project, a 31- trillion-won ($27 billion) venture that was to represent the country’s largest single property scheme. “Samsung C&T has been forcing the state-run Korail to make

Aug 19, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
Travel & Food

Domestic travel key to boosting tour industry

By Lee Hyo-sik Korea has been promoting the tourism industry as one of its future growth engines, placing top priority on attracting foreign tourists to generate new sources of income and strengthen the competitiveness of the local sector. The nation has been largely successful in drawing foreign travelers, mostly from China, Japan and other Asian countries in recent years, on the back of the growing popularity of Korean pop culture, an improving international image and the weakening of the Korean won. They spend billions of dollars here each year not only to eat, sleep and visit tourist spots, but also to purchase cosmetics and other merchandise, providing a much-needed boost to Korea’s tourism and retail industry. However, with millions of Koreans heading overseas for leisure and spending billions of dollars each year in foreign countries, it has realized that without encouraging Koreans to travel domestically, it will be difficult for Korea to become a truly competitive and advanced tourism destination. Against this backdrop, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and o

Aug 19, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

State seal maker suspected of lobbying powerful people with gold

By Lee Hyo-sik The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said Thursday that it will look into whether a person responsible for manufacturing the official state seal in 2007 made stamps out of leftover gold and gave them as gifts to governing party lawmakers and senior government officials during the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration. The ministry said a production team led by Min Hong-gyu manufactured the official state seal in 2007, the fourth since the foundation of the Republic of Korea in 1948. Min is a famous sealmaker who has dedicated his career to replicating the official state seals, “oksae,” of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910). The team was given 3 kilograms of gold, along with copper, zinc and other metals. Out of 3 kilograms of gold, the ministry said 2.053 kilograms were used in making the seal, with around 5 percent of the precious metal lost in the manufacturing process. About 800 to 900 grams of gold were estimated to be left over, worth some 40 million won at market prices. There has been growing speculation about the whereabouts of the remain

Aug 19, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Koreas population to decline from 2018

By Lee Hyo-sik Korea’s population is projected to peak in 2017 and then decline the following year as women are having fewer children, raising concerns that the low birthrate and the rapidly aging population will weaken economic viability. The nation has and will continue to become an increasingly multiracial, multicultural society, with more foreign women coming here, mostly from China and Southeast Asian countries, to marry Korean men. Additionally, Asia’s fourth largest economy is the only country among the 32 OECD members to grapple with a rising suicide rate, with one individual taking his or her own life every 40 minutes. Particularly, a growing number of senior citizens are committing suicide, largely due to financial difficulties after retirement. The Korea Social Science Data Archive (KOSSDA) unveiled these and other statistics Wednesday in a report titled ``Korea’s Social Trends in 2009.’’ It projected that Korea’s population and workforce will begin to ebb within the next 10 years because of rapidly falling birthrates. The population will start heading dow

Aug 18, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

76% of female workers sexually harassed

By Lee Hyo-sik Nearly eight in 10 female salaried workers said they have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, mostly by male superiors, a survey found Wednesday. Two out of every 10 male employees also said they were sexually harassed at least once. In a survey of 549 salaried employees, conducted by online job portal Incruit, 47.5 percent of them said they had been sexually harassed at work, with 76 percent of females and 24 percent of males reporting they were subject to various forms of sexual ridicule at least once. Incruit said 73.6 percent were harassed by their superiors, followed by colleagues (13.8 percent) and company owners (11.5 percent) and junior colleagues (1.1 percent). About 61 percent said sexual harassment takes place on a regular basis, with only 39 percent reporting one-time incidents. Among the various types of sexual harassment, unnecessary physical contact was cited most at 35.6 percent, followed by obscene jokes at 29.9 percent and comments on appearance at 11.5 percent. About 10.3 percent said they felt offended when sexually a

Aug 18, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

S. Korea picked as 15th best country in world

By Lee Hyo-sik South Korea has been ranked the world’s 15th best country by U.S. magazine Newsweek, which cited its high level of education and strong economic dynamism. The magazine also rated President Lee Myung-bak as one of the world’s 10 most respected leaders, saying his leadership made it possible for Asia’s fourth largest economy to successfully recover from the recent worldwide economic crisis. In an assessment of five categories covering national well-being ― education, health, quality of life, economic dynamism and the political environment, Newsweek said in its online edition Monday that Korea ranked 15th among 100 nations by receiving 83.28 points out of 100. Finland topped the list with 89.31 points, followed by Switzerland and Sweden. In Asia, Korea was rated as the second best country after Japan, which ranked ninth worldwide. By category, the nation received 96.72 points in education, the second highest in the world, thanks to its 99-percent literacy rate and average 16.2 years of schooling. In economic dynamism, it ranked third (73.02 points) for st

Aug 17, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

MBC President stops broadcasting of PD Notebook

By Lee Hyo-sik MBC TV’s investigative journal “PD Notebook” said in a press release Tuesday that the government is still seeking to turn the ongoing four river refurbishment project into the construction of a grand canal project. But the government strongly denied the allegations. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs filed an injunction with the court to ban the airing of an investigative program critical of the four-river refurbishment project, arguing that the program spreads false information about one of President Lee Myung-bak’s major development schemes. The court rejected the application. PD Notebook planned to air, ``The Secret Behind the 6-meter Depth of the Four Rivers’’ Tuesday night. But its president Kim Jae-chul ordered its suspension just hours before the planned broadcast, MBC officials said. According to the press release, the government formed a special task force to draw a plan to revive the nation’s four major rivers _ the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan _ between September and December 2008. It said two officials were dispatched

Aug 17, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Posting NK-friendly material ruled illegal

By Lee Hyo-sik Relaying and posting material sympathetic to North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-il on the Internet is a clear violation of the National Security Law, a court ruled Monday. The Seoul Central District Court sentenced a 40-year old man, identified only by his surname Lee, to two years in jail, suspended for three years, finding him guilty of disseminating documents and songs praising the communist state and its activities. It was the first time for an individual to be found guilty of violating the National Security Law for simply uploading a hyperlink on the Internet, which leads those clicking it to documents, songs and other materials lauding North Korea. In March, the prosecution took Lee into custody and indicted him on charges of posting and disseminating a total of 433 pieces sympathetic to the North. He was accused of uploading hyperlinks on a community cafe on Daum, one of the country’s largest portals. By clicking the links, Internet users can view pro-North Korean documents and listen to songs praising the communist state and its leader Kim, wh

Aug 16, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea

Seoul retracts plan to raise subway fares

By Lee Hyo-sik The Seoul Metropolitan Government Monday withdrew its plan to raise subway fares this year just five hours after it announced the measure as part of moves to reduce its snowballing debt. At a press briefing in the late morning, the city said it will have to raise the fare by up to 200 won per trip within this year as a means to slash its debt. However, it took back the announcement, saying the hike was not a matter it could decide alone. “We’ve considered raising fares as part of efforts to reduce debt. But we have no plan to raise them within this year,” the city government said in a statement. Seoul City, however, said it will refrain from issuing bonds and either scrap or scale down a range of infrastructure development plans to slash its debt which has surged 75 percent to 3.2 trillion won over the past four years under Mayor Oh Se-hoon. It became inevitable for Seoul to run a deficit by outspending its earnings over the past few years in order to cope with the worldwide economic slowdown. But civic groups blame Mayor Oh for Seoul’s worsenin

Aug 16, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik
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