Loose change for March 3, 2009

 Economic news 

• Korea Gas Corp will invest US$543 million in British Columbia gas fields. 
• Samsung Electronics will hold an international app contest for its Internet-based TV (ITV).
• South Korea has a trade surplus again.
• Is China really so "Red Scare" scary?
• The IMF says China's yuan is substantially undervalued.
• Seoul is setting a target of 70 billion won to be earned from 10,000 medical tourists. 
• Toyota's problems provide a critical lesson for South Korean automakers. One lesson is that you shouldn't let a goal of not needing a recall turn into a goal of simply not having a recall.
• The Philippines is reportedly interested in buying two nuclear plants from South Korea.

 North Korea news and stuff 

• China reportedly sent an 81-year-old POW from South Korea back to the North.
• China has suggested some steps for restarting the six-party talks.
• The Chosun Ilbo is interested in a North Korean China expert who is an official interpreter for the Dear Leader (and formerly for his father).

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• Avatar has become the biggest film in South Korea ever. Why? Because South Korean women want big eyes and long legs like the blue chick. 
• Kim Yuna may add a triple axel to her repertoire, according to her coach. This would make her unbeatable (if she can pull it off as gracefully as the other stuff she did). According to Ms Kim herself, she'd like to just enjoy the moment.
• The Donga Ilbo sures likes rubbing it in when it comes to Mao Asada. Give the poor girl a break — she did manage two triple axels, the first ever to do so in the Olympics.
• The Chosun Ilbo is reporting that AP is reporting that South Korea is emerging as a winter Olympics powerhouse.
• South Korea is no longer "immune" to damage from earthquakes and tsunamis. 
• South Korean women's childbearing peak is delayed to their thirties now.
• Scientists at KIST may have discovered a way to treat severe personality disorders.
• The Korea Times asks why (some) elite men in South Korea choose suicide.
• South Korean housing prices have risen for the eleventh straight month.
• Reuters lists the top-five restaurants in Seoul, only one of which is Korean.
• A burglar who got caught stealing laptops from the homes of foreign residents says he could identify their places by the odor. Yeah, something smells all right.

 Miscellany 

• Chile needs massive assistance. Maybe not as much as Haiti, but it still needs help.
• Ezra Klein suggests that a look back at 1982 suggests the Democrats need not be so gloomy about 2010.