Friday, November 13, 2009

Korea news links for November 13, 2009: Two percent

North Korea is saying that South Korea will pay a dear price for the naval crash in the Yellow Sea, but lucky for us, that dear price calculated at just 2% interest. Okay, okay... that was about the lamest way I could ever possibly have connected the top two stories of the day.

I'm actually quite happy about the interest rate remaining at 2%, since my mortgage is an adjustable-rate one (that's what they were offering, and it seemed like a good idea at the time). Meanwhile, we saw a huge spike in H1N1 deaths, from 52 to 64, but it's nothing like the 3900 they're now saying have occurred in the US.

  1. North Korea says South Korea will pay a "dear price" for Yellow Sea naval clash, calls it a planned provocation (NYT, WaPo, Reuters, AFP, Bloomberg)
  2. Bank of Korea keeps key interest rate at record low of 2.0% for ninth straight month (AP via WaPo, WSJ, Bloomberg, Korea Times)
  3. ROK President Lee Myungbak, in Singapore for APEC summit, says he plans to maintain expansionary policy for the time being (Reuters via CNBC)
  4. Death toll from H1N1 "swine flu" jumps to 64 (Yonhap)
  5. Life expectancy to reach 79.4 years in 2010 (Korea Times, Chosun Ilbo, Joongang Daily)
  6. Kim Jong-il ranks #24 on Forbes list of 67 most powerful people; no South Koreans make the list (Chosun Ilbo)
  7. Math and English sections of CSAT rated harder than in past years (Donga Ilbo)
  8. ROK Defense Ministry considering allowing women to volunteer as rank-and-file soldiers to make up for manpower shortfalls (Korea Times, Korea Herald)
  9. Justice Ministry presses ahead for revisions allowing dual nationality (Donga Ilbo)
  10. Hyundai predicts greater global sales in 2010 than in 2009 (Reuters via CNBC)
  11. French envoy Jack Lang meets with North Korea's nominal Number-two (Yonhap)
  12. When asked about the possible destruction of Earth in 2012, 85% of respondents in South Korea answer, "No, I'm not worried at all... Why? Should I be? ... I mean, I haven't heard about this before. What's supposed to happen? Why aren't you telling me? Is this for real? Speak to me, aßßhole! Oh, God, I should call my family! Leave me alone. Just leave me alone. [inaudible sobbing]" (Yonhap)

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