Korea ( South & North ) 01 (May 08 - Nov 10)

[winston]

If these jokers dont play their cards right, they are giving ammunition to the cowboys to attack them ..

North Korea says in last stage of enriching uranium By Jonathan Thatcher

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Friday it was closer to a second way of making nuclear weapons, a move analysts saw as a new tactic to put pressure on the international community after a month of conciliatory gestures.

The chief U.S. envoy for the North, Stephen Bosworth, said the enrichment claim was "of concern." He was in Beijing on a trip to Asia to discuss ways to bring Pyongyang back to long-stalled negotiations on giving up its nuclear ambitions.

"Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase," the North's KCNA news agency quoted its United Nations delegation as saying in a letter to the head of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC).

The United States has long suspected the North of having a secret program to enrich uranium for weapons. Experts have said it has not developed anything near a full-scale uranium program while it has enough plutonium for six to eight bombs.

"I think for all of us, it reconfirms the necessity to maintain a coordinated position on the need for complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Bosworth said, after meetings with Chinese officials.

The North said its latest steps were in response to tighter sanctions.

At the United Nations, the mission of the United States, which currently holds the Security Council presidency, said it had received the North Korean letter and circulated it to the other 14 members of the council.

U.N. sanctions have hurt the impoverished North's arms trade, one of its few significant exports, and analysts said it may be angered its latest attempts at conciliation with the outside world have been largely rebuffed.

The United States has refused to ease up on the sanctions, and sent its point man for their enforcement to Asia last month to build support.

"Now they (North Korea) are taking the road that they know will drive a response out of all countries -- the military way -- and leaving them to decide what to do," said Cho Myung-chul, an expert on the North at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

WEAPONISING

North Korea added that reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods was at its final phase and extracted plutonium was being weaponised.

"We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions. If some permanent members of the UNSC wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue."

In another move that serves as a reminder of the tension on the divided peninsula, a North Korean patrol vessel crossed briefly into the South's waters on Friday but returned without incident, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

"They are taking a mixed strategy, which I would call the sweet and sour approach. This keeps their adversaries guessing and it makes it more difficult to formulate policy," said Peter Beck, research fellow at Stanford University and a specialist on Korean affairs.

[winston]

What are the chances that they will test it on Oct 1, the 60th Anniversary for China ? LOVL ..

Seoul silent on reported plans for third NKorean nuke test

SEOUL : South Korean officials declined to comment on Sunday on reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has called for a third nuclear test in protest at UN sanctions against the reclusive state.

Open Radio of North Korea, a Seoul-based rights group, quoting unnamed Pyongyang sources said last week that Kim had told military and ruling party officials to prepare for a new test.

The North conducted a first such test in 2006 and a second in May, sparking tough UN Security Council sanctions.

According to Open Radio, Kim said during a trip to Wonsan on the east coast on August 26 that a third test was needed to nudge the United States towards bilateral talks as well as to protest UN sanctions.

Seoul's unification ministry and National Intelligence Service, which both handle cross-border relations, on Sunday declined to comment on the allegations.

Young Howard, head of Open Radio of North Korea, on Wednesday separately told Seoul-based PBC radio that a third nuclear test would very likely use enriched uranium, instead of the plutonium used in the first two tests.

He said he expected the test to occur between September 20 and October 10.

September 20 marks the end of the North's new "150-day" campaign for boosting its economy, while October 10 is the anniversary of the founding of the North's communist party.

North Korea has in the past chosen symbolic dates to stage weapons tests.

The US government said on Friday it was ready to hold direct talks with North Korea in a bid to bring Pyongyang back to six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations, marking a significant policy shift.

North Korea quit the six-way talks in April in protest at UN censure of a rocket launch. The UN Security Council then tightened sanctions on North Korea after it staged its nuclear test in May.

Washington had previously said that bilateral talks with Pyongyang would come only within the framework of six-party talks which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

Meanwhile, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday that Kim had praised his forces as "an iron wall" to defend the country during a visit to an undisclosed navy unit in his latest field trip.

"Our socialist motherland will always remain an invulnerable fortress and eternally prosper as the matchless great army is standing guard over the nation's defence line as an iron wall," Kim said.

KCNA did not give a date for the visit. - AFP/ms

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 86/1/.html

[winston]

Maybe when a person has stared death before, they would have a different perspective of things...

North Korea's nuclear vows fail to sway skeptics By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese envoy he will work to end his country's nuclear arms program through multilateral talks in an apparent breakthrough, but similar vows in the past have not been met with action.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/ ... dChannel=0

[winston]

Koreans have tearful reunions with separated relatives

SEOUL: Hundreds of Koreans on Saturday had tearful reunions with relatives they had not seen for almost 60 years, as a North-South humanitarian programme was resumed after a two-year hiatus, a report said.

An estimated 600,000 people in the South alone are believed to have relatives in the North.

- AFP/so

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 42/1/.html

[winston]

It’s the World’s Hottest Market – And it Isn’t China
By Martin Hutchinson, Money Morning

Which global economy grew at an annual rate of 11% in the second quarter, and will report a second-consecutive double-digit advance when it reports on Monday?

Hint: It isn’t China.

But you are looking in the correct part of the world.

The economy in question is South Korea, which has enjoyed an astonishing rebound since it reached a recessionary bottom last winter. One factor in particular should nurture this rebound: The Korean economy wasn’t pulled down by the U.S.-led subprime mortgage crisis, which infected many foreign banks that invested in mortgage-backed securities – the Asian Tiger was pole-axed by a collapse in world trade in the first three months of this year.

At the nadir in March, South Korean exports were down 40% from the same point in 2008. The banking system also had a liquidity crisis that required a government bailout – not because of investments in toxic U.S. derivatives, but because of similarly lackluster credit card loans and dodgy mortgage rubbish of its own.

The South Korean won declined by 40% against the dollar during the 12-month-stretch that ended in February. It has since recovered about half that drop, so it remains undervalued.

The forecasters at The Economist expect Korea to advance at a 2.8% rate in 2010, but that forecast looks way too low. After all, remember that even in the difficult, post-Asian-contagion years of 1998-2008, Korea experienced average annual productivity gains of 4.3% – more than double the rate experienced by the U.S. economy during the same period.

http://www.moneymorning.com/2009/10/23/ ... -in-korea/

[kennynah]

when are they tearing down the DMZ ??

[winston]

South Korea's economy grew 2.9 percent in the July-September quarter, its fastest clip since early 2002, but much of the growth came from inventory building, making analysts doubt the central bank could raise rates this year.

Source: Reuters

[winston]

Korea down 4.7%. This came as a surprize.

Supposedly, some of the Korean Enginerring companies have some projects in Dubai.

But 4.7% is not a small number. It's almost equal to the drop in HK today ..

[winston]

Kospi to Rise to 1,900 in a Year, Morgan Stanley Says (Update1) By Saeromi Shin

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index may rise to 1,900 in a year as “earnings momentum” will continue through 2010 and as the global economy recovers, Morgan Stanley said.

Profits at Korean companies may rise 30 percent in 2010 after an average 56 percent increase this year, Morgan Stanley said in a report today. The leading economic indicator of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a proxy for the nation’s export growth, continues to climb, it said.

“Valuations are still undemanding,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Chanik Park said. Korean companies are also likely to be the “biggest beneficiaries” of consumption growth in China, they added.

The Kospi rose 0.3 percent to 1,629.12 as of 11:19 a.m., gaining for a sixth day, the longest winning streak in more than four months. Park raised his 12-month target for the index to 1,800 from 1,650 in August, and the Kospi has advanced 45 percent so far in 2009, set for its best annual performance in four years.

Park said in a Nov. 25 interview that corporate profits may beat analyst estimates and prompt a further revision in his estimate for the benchmark measure.

Still, Korea remains Asia’s second-worst performing emerging market after the won’s 8.9 percent advance against the U.S. dollar pared the value of exports.

Morgan Stanley’s top picks among Korean stocks include Samsung Electronics Co., Hyundai Motor Co., Hyundai Mobis Co., Shinsegae Co., Amorepacific Corp., Korea Zinc Co., Posco and LG Chem Ltd.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... jC5kHT9B4s

[kennynah]

IMF just raised South Korea's growth