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

[millionairemind]

Jan 20, 2010
Largest theme park in Asia
$3.7 billion resort will be Universal's largest in Asia, and is slated for 2014 opening
SEOUL - UNITED States film giant Universal Studios on Tuesday signed a deal with South Korean partners to build its largest theme park in Asia at a cost of around 3 trillion won (S$3.7 billion).

Besides the theme park, the Universal Studios Korea Resort will include a water park, shopping centre, hotels and a golf course, and has renowned American director Steven Spielberg as its creative consultant.

Work is due to start on the 4.3 sq km park in March next year on the site in Hwaseong city, about an hour's drive from Seoul, the South Korean capital. The park is slated to open in early 2014.

Universal Studios also operates theme parks in Hollywood, Orlando in Florida and Japan, and is due to open one on Singapore's Sentosa Island soon.

The South Korean theme park is expected to attract 15 million local and overseas visitors a year, and create more than 40,000 jobs.

'This will be a remarkable landmark in terms of tourism in Korea,' said Governor Kim Moon Soo of Gyeonggi province, where Hwaseong is located.

[kennynah]

SEOUL - UNITED States film giant Universal Studios on Tuesday signed a deal with South Korean partners to build its largest theme park in Asia at a cost of around 3 trillion won (S$3.7 billion).

Besides the theme park, the Universal Studios Korea Resort will include a water park, shopping centre, hotels and a golf course, and has renowned American director Steven Spielberg as its creative consultant.

hahahaha... LHL...u r being screwed...

[iam802]

Watch the drugs companies...

Maybe it goes under Health... ( a bit dated >> Jan 11, 2010)
===

S Korea closes 5 markets over foot-and-mouth disease

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2010 ... 300465.htm

SEOUL: Five cattle markets in South Korea on Monday decided to close indefinitely following the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the country, local media said.

In a move to prevent further spread of the contagion, Hoengseong County, located in the Gangwon Province, said it is closing its renowned Hoengseong cattle market indefinitely as well as its calf auction market, following the same move by four other cattle markets in the region.

The foot-and-mouth disease has re-occurred in South Korea Thursday in the northern city of Pocheon, the first case of disease reported in eight years.

The foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious disease that could fatally harm livestock including cattle, pigs, deer, and sheep, which could cause a drop in the country's dairy exports.

[winston]

Gi ahead. Make my day.

NKorea threatens war after South's strike warning

North Korea threatens war after South's defense chief warned of pre-emptive strike

KWANG-TAE KIM
AP News

Jan 24, 2010 01:57 EST

North Korea threatened war Sunday after South Korea warned of launching a pre-emptive strike if the North was preparing a nuclear attack — the latest salvo in a battle of rhetoric despite signs of improved cooperation across the militarized frontier.

The North's military said it would take prompt and decisive military action against any South Korean attempt to violate North Korea's dignity and sovereignty and would blow up major targets in the South, including its command center.

"Our revolutionary armed forces will regard the scenario for 'pre-emptive strike,' which the South Korean puppet authorities adopted as a 'state policy,' as an open declaration of war," the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

The North's warning came in response to the South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young's remarks last week that the South should launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korea if there was a clear indication the country was preparing a nuclear attack.

A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae dismissed the North's statement Sunday as a predictable reaction.

Kim made similar remarks in 2008 when he was chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, prompting North Korea to threaten South Korea with destruction.

Analysts in South Korea said the North's latest statement reflected its intolerance of any challenge to its own security and the authoritarian regime leader Kim Jong Il but that the war of words was unlikely to derail attempts to improve relations.

"The North has sent a clear message that it was ready for cooperation with South Korea, but it won't tolerate it if South Korea touches on the prestige of its leader or its system," said analyst Paik Hak-soon of the private Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul.

The North's isolated communist regime has reached out to the U.S. and South Korea in recent months in what could be an attempt to ease some of the pressure of U.N. sanctions imposed on the North after it conducted a nuclear test last year, its second to date.

North Korea quit international talks on ending its nuclear programs in April last year, but has indicated its willingness to return to international disarmament negotiations if the sanctions are lifted.

In a sign of the conflicting signals from Pyongyang, the North's military renewed in Sunday's statement the country's commitment to improve inter-Korean relations.

Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the South — led by a conservative government which has been more cautious in engaging Pyongyang than preceding more liberal administrations — was also giving mixed signals.

"South Korea appears to have not decided whether to grab the hand of North Korea's conciliatory gestures," Koh said.

Last week, the two Koreas held talks on developing their joint industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong, the most prominent symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. On Friday, the North unexpectedly offered to hold discussions between military officers in Kaesong this Tuesday to discuss border crossings, customs, and the use of mobile phones and the Internet for South Korean companies in the complex.

South Korea plans to accept the North's demand for dialogue but ask Pyongyang to set another date as the two sides had already agreed to meet on Feb. 1 in Kaesong to discuss the complex.

"There is no reason to oppose the North's proposal and we plan to reply on Monday," a South Korean official said. He asked not to be identified because no official decision has been made yet.

More than 110 South Korean factories at Kaesong employ some 42,000 North Korean workers to make everything from electronics and watches to shoes and utensils, providing a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped North.

Source: AP News

[millionairemind]

Jan 26, 2010
S.Korea Q4 GDP up 0.2%

SEOUL - SOUTH Korea's economy grew more slowly in October-December than in the previous quarter but rose sharply from a year earlier, avoiding a contraction in 2009, the central bank said on Tuesday.

Asia's fourth largest economy grew 0.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter and rose 6 per cent compared with the fourth quarter of 2008, the bank said in a statement.

For the full year, gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 0.2 per cent compared with a 2.2 per cent rise in 2008. The bank forecasts growth of 4.6 per cent for this year while the government tips 5 per cent.

Quarter-on-quarter growth slowed as the effect of fiscal spending diminished and exports fell, the central bank said.

The 0.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth was sharply lower than a 3.2 per cent expansion in the third quarter. But the year-on-year expansion of 6 per cent in October-December was sharply higher than the 0.9 per cent year-on-year growth in the previous quarter.

'In the fourth quarter, exports of goods like ships declined from three months earlier,' the bank said. Exports fell 1.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter in October-December after jumping 5.2 per cent in July-September. Government spending fell 2.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter compared with a 0.8 per cent decline in the third quarter. -- AFP

[millionairemind]

Feb 1, 2010
SKorea exports see huge surge
SEOUL - SOUTH Korea's exports surged in January, posting their biggest gain in more two than decades as shipments of auto parts, semiconductors and consumer electronics rose amid the global economic recovery.

Exports increased 47.1 per cent to US$31.08 billion (S$43.8 billion) in January from the same month the year before, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said on Monday. That was the biggest gain since South Korean exports rose of 52.6 per cent in August of 1988, said ministry official So Myoung-hee.

Auto parts soared 158 per cent from a year earlier, while semiconductors jumped 121.6 per cent and liquid crystal devices gained 103.4 per cent, the ministry said. Consumer electronics, petrochemicals and automobiles all racked up double-digit percentage increases.

Mobile phones and ships, however, failed to keep pace, declining 2.1 per cent and 22.9 per cent, respectively.

The gain in exports, however, could not prevent South Korea's first monthly trade deficit in a year as higher oil prices and increased fuel demand for heating and power generation amid colder temperatures pushed up the country's import bill.

Imports increased 26.7 per cent in January to US$31.55 billion, the ministry said, resulting in a deficit of US$468 million compared with a surplus of US$3.09 billion in December. -- AP

[winston]

How much leverage does China now have on North Korea ?

Report: Chinese envoy to visit North Korea

Report: Chinese envoy to visit North Korea in mission seen as aimed at reviving nuclear talks

KWANG-TAE KIM
AP News

Feb 05, 2010 23:15 EST

A senior Chinese official is traveling to North Korea on Saturday, a news report said, in what is seen as a mission to jump-start stalled international talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs.

Wang Jiarui, head of the liaison office of China's ruling Communist Party, is to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and deliver a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao, South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Saturday, citing unidentified South Korean presidential officials.

The four-day trip is part of a regular exchange of visits by the longtime allies, the report said.

Calls to the presidential office seeking comment went unanswered Saturday.

Other South Korean media carried similar reports, though they differed on the timing of his trip.

Wang met Kim during a January 2009 trip to Pyongyang. Kim said then that North Korea was "dedicated to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" and wanted to move international talks forward, according to Beijing's Xinhua News Agency.

China is North Korea's biggest trading partner, a key aid donor and a longtime ally dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War. Its influence is seen as crucial in getting the North to return to the six-nation disarmament talks, which have been stalled since late 2008.

In Beijing, staffer Yang Lei from the Communist Party's international department refused to comment Friday on reports of Wang's trip, saying only "the whole thing has not been confirmed yet."

Also Saturday, a special envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Seoul and said he had an "excellent discussion" with South Korean officials ahead of a visit to North Korea.

During his Feb. 9-12 trip to Pyongyang, U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe will urge North Korea to rejoin the nuclear talks and discuss its relations with the world body, a U.N. official in New York said on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

"We expect to talk about the entire range of issues while we are up there (in North Korea)," Pascoe told reporters in Seoul, without elaborating. He was to meet with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan later Saturday.

North Korea, which tested an atomic bomb last year and is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least a half dozen more, walked away from the disarmament talks last year.

The other participants, China, the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Russia, have been trying to get the talks back on track. North Korea, however, has pushed Washington for a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and a lifting of sanctions first.

This week, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said no discussion about political or economic sanctions can take place before the disarmament talks are back on.

There also has been speculation in recent weeks that North Korean leader Kim may travel to China soon. Beijing extended an invitation to Kim last year to visit at his convenience.

Kim has visited China and Russia, the North's two major remaining allies, by train. He last traveled to China in 2006.

He had planned to travel to Beijing in late January but canceled his plans, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

Source: AP News

[millionairemind]

Feb 10, 2010
S.Korea jobless rate jumps
SEOUL - SOUTH Korean unemployment last month jumped to its highest level in nine years, official figures showed on Wednesday, as more people return to the jobs market, buoyed an economic recovery.

The number of people out of work in January rose to five per cent - from 3.5 per cent in December - as those who had given up looking were given hope by the financial climate.

The jobless rate, released by Statistics Korea, has not been as high since it reached 5.1 per cent in March 2001. However, the number of employed people stood at 22.87 million last month, up 5,000 from a year earlier.

The government, fearful of a jobless recovery, is making job creation its top priority and it has announced plans to create more than 250,000 new positions this year.

The finance ministry forecasts 5 per cent economic growth this year but says it will keep its expansionary macroeconomic policy in place for the time being.

The central bank is expected to face political pressure to keep the key interest rate at a record low of 2 per cent, where it has been for 11 straight months, when it holds a meeting on Thursday. -- AFP

[kennynah]

my wish is to see North and South reunified....two peoples are torn apart unnecessarily all due to political power struggle between Russia and USA previously...

[winston]

No conclusive evidence that the North Koreans were involved...

S.Korea warship sinks near North's border, 40 said missing

SEOUL - A South Korean warship with 104 people on board sank near the North Korean border late Friday after an unexplained explosion, military officials said, as one report said about 40 sailors were missing.

The Seoul government called an emergency security meeting but military officials said there was no indication so far that the North was involved.

Yonhap news agency, quoting unidentified military officials, said about 40 people were feared missing after the blast tore a hole in the hull of the 1,200-ton corvette Cheonan.

The military said earlier that 58 people had been rescued and gave no update on that figure early Saturday.

A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said he could not confirm the Yonhap report, but indicated that many crewmen were missing. He said official casualty figures would be announced later Saturday.

The news agency said a navy team would dive after daybreak to investigate the cause of the sinking and possibly retrieve bodies.

The Cheonan sank late in the evening near Baengnyeong island in the Yellow Sea, located between the Korean peninsula and China to the west.

Media reports said six naval ships, two coastguard vessels and four other craft were involved in the rescue operation.

"Rescue operations are still under way," the JCS spokesman said. "There is no clue yet on any North Korean involvement."

The JCS said there were no abnormal military movements on the North Korean side of the disputed maritime border, the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.

Several bodies were retrieved, Yonhap said, without giving an exact figure. Seven crewmen were airlifted to hospital.

"For now, it is not certain whether North Korea is related" to the incident, presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-Hye said, adding President Lee Myung-Bak had ordered maximum efforts to rescue the crewmen.

"Finding the truth (behind the incident) is important, but saving our sailors is more important," the president was quoted as saying.

Another emergency meeting was to be held Saturday morning.

A government source quoted by local media said officials were investigating various possible causes: an attack by a North Korean torpedo boat, a mine or an explosion of munitions aboard the ship.

The ship was well south of the disputed border and North Korean ships were unlikely to be in the area, a presidential official said.

Last November the navies of the two nations exchanged fire in the area.

Seoul's officials said a North Korean patrol boat had retreated in flames but its casualties were unknown. No South Koreans were hurt.

The North refuses to accept the maritime border known as the Northern Limit Line, which was drawn up by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 Korean war. It says the line should run further to the south.

In January the North fired 370 artillery shells into the sea near the border, raising tensions between the two sides.

In an indication of sensitivities around the peninsula, Taiwan to the south activated its national security mechanism and President Ma Ying-jeou ordered close monitoring of the situation after Friday's sinking, the island's official Central News Agency reported.

- AFP /ls