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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

Economist gets spotlight for wealth studies

Dongguk University economics professor Kim Nak-nyeon/  Korea Times photo by Kim Jae-wonBy Kim Jae-won  Dongguk University economics professor Kim Nak-nyeon has drawn attention from the media for his two recent studies on inheritance of wealth and its centralization based on data from the tax agency.He said that Korea’s wealth inequality has worsened since 2000 based on inheritance tax data. Those in the top 10 percent had 66 percent of the nation’s total assets between 2010 and 2013, according to his working paper published in October.According to the economist, inheritance contributed to 42 percent of wealth accumulation in the 2000s in Korea, which was a sharp increase from the 1980s when it took up only 27 percent.“Such an inequality gap will become even wider in the future because Korea faces a low economic growth age that provides little chance to the have-nots,” Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times.He said that Korea is becoming an aging society, adding a bigger burden to the economy as less people are economically active.“This i

Dec 3, 2015

Open management makes Google strong

Members of the Corea Image Communications Institute (CICI) pose during a Korea Culture Quotient (CQ) event at the residence of Singaporean Ambassador to Korea Yip Wei Kiat in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, Nov. 24. From left are CICI President Choi Jung-wha; Kiat; head of Chromecast and TV Partnership, Asia Pacific at Google Mickey Hyunyu Kim; Pinar Okcal, wife of the Turkish ambassador; Turkish Ambassador to Korea Arslan Hakan Okcal; and Kuwaiti Ambassador to Korea Jasem Albudaiwi. / Korea Times photo by Kim Jae-heunBy Kim Jae-heunMickey Hyunyu Kim, the head of Chromecast and TV Partnership, Asia Pacific at Google, praised the working environment at his Silicon Valley office during his hour-long speech at the Korea Culture Quotient event hosted by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) at the residence in Seongbuk District, northern Seoul, of Singaporean Ambassador to Korea Yip Wei Kiat, Nov. 24.Also a former official at Samsung Electronics, Kim considered one of the youngest high-ranked employees in Google’s Korean branch, has always aspired to play in the big lea

Dec 2, 2015
Open management makes Google strong

Volunteer worker builds bridge for Korean adoptees

Jung Aie-reeBy Kim Hyo-jinA voluntary worker is hoping to become a bridge between Korean adoptees that live in 15 nations around the world and their motherland. “Adoptees barely cast off feelings that they are disoriented. Searching out their roots is instinctive and helps them steer their lives with confidence,” Jung Aie-ree, who runs the International Korean Adoptee Service (InKAS) said during an interview with The Korea Times, Tuesday. “I’m trying to bring back what they feel is missing.”InKAS helped over 25,000 adoptees reach out to their motherland by providing them with Korean language courses and culture programs for the past 17 years at locations in Seoul. It also offers translation services when adoptees meet birth parents and consultations for those who want to pursue a career or take up residence here.Jung said the group focuses on helping adoptees to learn Korean as being able to speak mother language is essential to understand its culture, not to mention its benefit when they meet their parents and keep in contact. “Speaking the langua

Dec 2, 2015
Volunteer worker builds bridge for Korean adoptees

Expanding internship program

Sookmyung Women’s University President Hwang Sun-hye, left, poses with Olivia Lum, CEO of Singaporean water company Hyflux Ltd., at the school’s campus in Seoul, Sunday. They signed a memorandum of understanding on expanding a student internship program and strengthening research exchanges. / Courtesy of Sookmyung Women’s University

Dec 1, 2015

'Gagok' composer never stops exploring

Lee An-sam / Courtesy of Lee An-samBy Nam Hyun-wooLee An-sam has been confining his life to strict self-discipline. But, the 73-year-old “gagok” composer has been more than flexible in his music world, continuing pioneering works in the Korean music genre.Gagok is a genre of vocal music using poetry as its lyrics. Hovering between classical vocal music and pop songs, the genre has given voice to Koreans’ sorrowful sentiment to the accompaniment of western instruments, but lost its ground to the influx of western musical styles in the 1980s and found itself shunned as passé.For Lee, who has been composing gagok songs since he was 19 and established himself as one of its top composers, it was an intolerable situation that “young students don’t even know what gagok is,” leading him to take various approaches to popularize the genre.“I came up with clapop around 2007,” said Lee during an interview with The Korea Times. “I tried to blend the melodies, chords, form and rhythms of pop songs into a classic sound so that younger gen

Dec 1, 2015
'Gagok' composer never stops exploring

Translation Awards winners honored

The winners of the 46th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards pose for a photo at a prize ceremony at the Lotte Hotel Seoul, Monday. From left are The Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup; fiction Commendation Award winners Christine Kwon and Park Chul-hwan; poetry Grand Prize winner Sophie Bowman; fiction Commendation Award winner Jung Slin; fiction commendation award winner Helen Cho; and Kim Jung-ki, deputy president of KEB Hana Bank. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Kwon Mee-yooSophie Bowman from the U.K. started learning Korean eight years ago as a second language because she thought it was exotic. She soon fell in love with Korean literature, and started to translate Korean literature into English. Her translation of Jin Eun-young’s poems, including “When You Were a Boy,” won the Grand Prize in poetry at the 46th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards hosted by The Korea Times at Lotte Hotel Seoul, Monday.Bowman, 27, is a graduate student in the Department of Korean Literature at Ewha Womans University. Her Korean studies began at the

Nov 30, 2015

Woo named new president of EBS

Woo Jong-bumBy Kwon Ji-younWoo Jong-bum, former CEO and president of Jeju MBC, has been appointed CEO and president of the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (EBS), the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said Friday.The KCC said 12 candidates answered its open call for applicants, and four were interviewed on Nov. 25. The final decision was made at a KCC general meeting, Friday.Woo was conferred his certificate of appointment Monday, and his three-year term will end on Nov. 29, 2018.Woo studied education at Yonsei University, and has served as head of MBC’s radio network, director of Daejeon’s Traffic Broadcasting Network and is currently a standing auditor for 88 Country Club, a golf club owned and operated by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.

Nov 30, 2015
Woo named new president of EBS

Kodeco founder passes away at 96

Choi Gye-wolBy Yoon Ja-young Kodeco Group Chairman Choi Gye-wol, who set up Korea’s first overseas investment company in Indonesia, passed away on Nov. 27. He was 96.Born in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, in 1919, Choi moved to Japan with his family when he was six years old. He graduated from Waseda University, majoring in law.After gaining trading experience with Japanese companies, he founded Korea Development Company (Kodeco) in Indonesia in 1963, which focused on developing timber in Kalimantan. Borrowing $4.5 million from the Korean government, Kodeco became the country’s first overseas investment company.The successful development of the virgin forest on Indonesia’s Borneo enabled Choi to advance into the energy business, developing an oil field in Madura, Java, that produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 1994.In 1995, he was awarded by the Indonesian government for his contributions to the country’s economic development.He expanded his business into diverse sectors, including rubber, cement and thermal power generation. However, his activit

Nov 30, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Kodeco founder passes away at 96

LG Uplus calls SK Telecom's takeover of broadcaster 'illegal'

LG Uplus Corp., South Korea's smallest mobile carrier, said Monday that the latest takeover of a local broadcaster by its bigger rival SK Telecom Co. is "illegal," claiming that the move will distort the market order.Earlier this month, top mobile carrier SK Telecom struck a deal to buy CJ Hellovision, the country's biggest operator of cable channels and Internet TV content in a bid to tap into the media platform business."(SK Telecom's) move to monopolize the broadcasting and telecom industry through an illegitimate merger and acquisition must not be tolerated," LG Uplus said in an official statement.Citing a local law firm, LG Uplus also said the merger violates South Korea's fair trade rules that regulate mergers with top industry players."It is the norm that competition among numerous players is more beneficial to consumers than merger deals among conglomerates," LG Uplus added, "The deal will distort the market order."Under the deal, SK Telecom will purchase a 30-percent stake in CJ Hellovision from parent firm CJ O Shopping. SK Telecom also has the option to buy an additional 2

Nov 30, 2015

Activist encourages IT firms to cut emissions

Gary Cook, a Greenpeace International activistBy Kim Se-jeong Energy companies have been the target globally of campaigns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Gary Cook, a Greenpeace International activist, 47, has a different target: IT companies.In the United States and Europe, Cook has been pushing IT companies like Facebook, Apple and Google to use renewable energy for their data centers.After five years of successful campaigns, he is moving his target to IT companies in Asia.He was in Korea in June for the campaign. He returned home with a commitment from Naver, Korea’s most-visited web portal, to use renewable energy for its data center in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. Naver became Asia’s first IT company to make such a commitment.This week, he was back in Korea to launch the second phase of the campaign. He made a policy proposal to the Korean government, asking it to give IT companies more room to play when it comes to supplying power for the data centers.In the U.S., Facebook made the commitment in 2011 and pushed the government of North Carolina to change the

Nov 27, 2015By Kim Se-jeong
Activist encourages IT firms to cut emissions
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