Saturday, October 24, 2009

Korea news links for October 24, 2009: Secret summit?

President Lee Myungbak is still on his overseas trip (if it's still Asia, does it count as overseas?), from which we might see agreement on a North-South summit. Not sure if that's good or bad news. Kia has followed its sister company and posted major profits, while the US seems to be following Joshua Stanton's policy of squeezing North Korea's banks.

  1. Kia Motors posts record-high profit in third quarter thanks to stimulus packages in South Korea, the US, and China as well as weakened won (Bloomberg, WSJ)
  2. UN Special Rapporteur for North Korea describes food situation in DPRK as desperate, particularly for women (BBC, CNN)
  3. Media reports say that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has secretly invited ROK President Lee Myungbak to a summit meeting in Pyongyang (BBC, Chosun Ilbo, Times Online, Korea Times, Joongang Daily, Korea Herald)
  4. US freezes assets of North Korean bank it has designated a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction (AFP, Yonhap, Reuters, AP via WaPo)
  5. ROK Defense Minister says South Korean military is readying to take on "any request" from the government for a possible Afghanistan mission (Yonhap, Korea Herald)
  6. ROK Finance Minister says Seoul will take steps to deal with "distortions in the exchange rate" that are feared to hurt exports (Yonhap)
  7. General Motors buys all $413 million worth of new shares issued for GM Daewoo (Reuters)
  8. Hynix posts $207 million third-quarter profit, its first in two years, as industry-wide cut in chip production helped ease glut (Bloomberg)
  9. National Health Insurance Report says one-third of South Korean adults are overweight or obese (Korea Times, Korea Herald)
  10. ROK Foreign Ministry urges China not to repatriate refugees (Donga Ilbo)
  11. South Korean apartment prices rise for twentieth straight week (Reuters via CNBC)
  12. KOTESOL forum kicks off today at Sookmyung Women's University (Korea Herald)
  13. Korea's "punk squirrels" (Pteromys volans, Cultural Property #574) inducted into Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame (Reuters)

1 comment:

  1. I love those squirrels. I call them the 'Don King' Squirrel.

    ReplyDelete

Share your thoughts, but please be kind and respectful. My mom reads this blog.