The alarm is sounding for the Korean economy as the continuing eurozone debt crisis has begun to spill over to China, the engine of global economic growth and the largest market for Korean exports.Last week, China announced that its economy grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, a sharp decline from 9.5 percent a year earlier. The growth figure was the lowest since the world’s second-largest economy grew 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2009 at the height of the global financial

A serious power struggle appears to be under way in Pyongyang as Ri Young-ho, the North’s top military official, has been removed from all his posts in a most unusual way.Ri was viewed as one of the guardians that the deceased North Korean leader Kim Jong-il picked to ensure a smooth power transfer to his heir and youngest son, Kim Jong-un.But he was stripped of all his posts in the Workers’ Party, according to a brief dispatch of the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Monday. He was a member

President Lee Myung-bak must have been dejected last week when he saw his older brother, Lee Sang-deuk, being sent to jail on television. He must have wondered what had gone wrong. The same question must have been asked by so many Koreans, who have in the past witnessed some of those close to presidents or presidential candidates being sent to prison for taking bribes and breaching the election-funding law. Lee’s brother, accused of taking money from businesses, may have followed in their footst

It is not surprising to see liberal and progressive opposition parties turn their backs on conglomerates. Traditionally, they have supported small businesses and labor unions while criticizing the business practices of large corporations.To their chagrin, however, the ruling Saenuri Party is withdrawing what has long been seen to be their unwavering support for big businesses. The party has joined the opposition forces in demanding greater economic democratization ahead of the December president

North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong-un, accompanied by an unidentified woman, recently attended a concert that marked an unusual departure for his isolated regime.Footage run on state TV showed performers dressed as Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and other Disney characters dancing against a backdrop of clips from Disney movies including “Snow White” and “Beauty and the Beast.”The concert also played a rendition of the famous “Rocky” theme song, showing scenes of the U.S. film character pounding

A recent debate on multiculturalism in Korean society was disturbed by some people antagonistic toward expatriates here.One of them jumped on the podium and claimed that multicultural policies would destroy the integrity of the nation. He then hurled invective against the organizer of the debate, a female immigrant from the Philippines who was elected to parliament as a proportional representative for the ruling Saenuri Party in the April general elections. While being taken out of the conferenc

President Lee Myung-bak told his senior secretaries that his was a “morally perfect administration” and that, as such, it “should not permit even the tiniest blemish.” He made the remarks in reference to corruption allegations against some of his aides on Sept. 30 last year.It was not clear whether he actually believed in his administration’s moral supremacy or intended his remarks to be mere political rhetoric. But a stern-faced senior presidential secretary, emerging from a meeting presided ov

The central bank’s latest decision to cut its base rate by 25 basis points came as a surprise to the financial market, which, given its governor’s earlier remarks, had anticipated a continued freeze. When the rate was frozen at 3.25 percent for the 13th consecutive month in June, the governor said it did not mean any change in the central bank’s policy of raising the rate to the proper level at a time deemed suitable.Many had anticipated the central bank would keep the rate intact this month aga

The parliamentary dismissal of the arrest motion for a ruling party lawmaker suspected of bribery is shameful for both of the major parties, which pledged to give up privileges given to legislative members.The dismissal is expected to make voters more cynical and distrustful of the parties, especially the ruling Saenuri Party, whose members worry about its possible negative impact on the prospects of their candidate winning the presidential election in December.Rep. Chung Doo-un, a three-term Sa

In contrast to sluggish domestic consumption, a growing number of Koreans have been traveling abroad, spending large amounts of money in foreign shops, resorts and other tourist attractions.Local travel agencies, which sold a record number of overseas tour packages for the first half of this year, expect the sales to increase at a more rapid pace during the summer holiday season.The number of people on the subscription list of their July-August package trips abroad rose by nearly 10 percent from

Park Geun-hye, the presidential frontrunner of the ruling Saenuri Party, has officially announced her bid to become the nation’s first woman president. She pledged to democratize the economy, create jobs and expand welfare to make Korea a country where everybody can achieve their dreams.Park’s announcement signaled the beginning of the race for the next presidency. Ten or so candidates from the ruling and opposition parties have already joined the contest, with a couple more expected to particip

In recent months, job creation has been brisk. According to employment data, Korean employers added 472,000 new jobs to the economy in May, not a small number in light of the global economic downturn and the subsequent stagnation of Korea’s export sector.Yet one problem is that a large proportion of the new jobs were created by micro-businesses with less than five employees. According to Statistics Korea, the number of people working at such tiny businesses increased 286,000 in May compared to a

A leading conglomerate has been given a hefty fine for illegal intra-group trading at a time when political parties are moving to rein in chaebol, or family-controlled business groups. This does not bode well for corporations.On Sunday, the Fair Trade Commission said seven companies affiliated with SK Group breached the fair trade act when they awarded another affiliate, SK C&C, a systems integrator, with no-bid contracts amounting to 1.77 trillion won during the period from 2008 to June this ye

A prosecutorial investigation into fallen savings banks points to the possibility that substantial amounts of money from them found their way into President Lee Myung-bak’s 2007 election fund. But the prosecutors’ office is reluctant to start a new investigation to this, though it promises to look into the alleged secret contributions.A recent news report quoted an unidentified executive of Mirae Savings Bank as saying that its chairman gave 3 billion won, not 300 million won as is believed by t

Korean officials might not have expected their plan to restart whaling for “research purposes” to prompt such vehement international protests.The plan, announced at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Panama last week, triggered criticism from anti-whaling nations and global conservationist groups. They suspected it might be a pretext for commercial whaling, with Korea following the example of Japan. Through a loophole in the commission’s 1986 moratorium on whaling that permits