Dumping Korea would be 'mistake' →

Does F1 really need Korea?


The promoter of the Korean Grand Prix has warned it would be a “huge” mistake to abandon the fledgling race, despite suffering heavy financial losses and struggling to attract spectators.

Professor Park Won-Hwa, drafted in last year to save the grand prix, told AFP in an interview that he had intensive discussions with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone to seal a revised contract that will run to 2016.

“Mr Ecclestone thinks that it is important to have F1 in Korea as the country is a fast-growing country and benefits from a booming economy and fast-growing economy,” said Park.



“It would be a huge strategic mistake to withdraw from this part of the world. The future for the F1 is important and not only the day-to-day running.”

The race lost $50 million in the first year, Park, 62, told AFP in an interview ahead of the third edition of the grand prix on Sunday.

“We had to renegotiate with Mr Ecclestone and brought a few ideas and persuaded him that Korea cannot continue the event with such a big financial loss.

“The event has to be sustainable for the benefit of both parties. I showed to Mr Ecclestone all the statistics. It took a long time, and in the end Mr Ecclestone agreed to make another contract.”

Organisers had to give away free tickets at the last minute for the inaugural race in 2010 to fill the stands, although they did not do that last year and have reduced prices this time in a bid to pull in the crowds.

More Money, More Problems in South Korea →

In less than twenty years, South Korea has gone from being a nation of savers to one of the most reckless borrowers in the world. On both government and household levels, South Korea is deep in debt and a crisis could be brewing in the world’s 13th largest economy.

The numbers don’t paint a pretty picture. According to a recent report by the LG Economic Research Institute, 28 percent of South Korean households are unable to make payments on their debts each month and can’t cover their monthly expenses with their current income.

South Korea has a household debt to income ratio of 155 percent, meaning the average South Korean household spends one and a half times what it brings in. As of the end of July, household debt totaled 647.2 trillion won (US$573.25 billion), according to the Bank of Korea.

And that debt is costly. According to a report by Statistics Korea, low-income households are paying more in interest than ever before, with the average interest monthly payment standing at 36,219 won (US$32), 13.6 higher than the year before.

The Lee’s government’s aggressive spending can be partially attributed to the pressures of the 2008 global economic crisis. In times of crisis, inaction by politicians is unacceptable to South Korea’s energetic citizenry and a stimulus package of 6.1 percent of GDP was passed, the largest among OECD countries.



In the past, South Koreans might have accepted lower incomes and made serious adjustments to their lifestyles, but not nowadays. Many point to the proliferation of easy credit as a turning point. “This is a new phenomenon driven by the access to credit. Credit cards companies issue cards to anyone,” said Richard Meaders, professor of international business at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

But not just anyone can get a credit card or bank loan. On public message boards and light posts in the South Korean capital, in between advertisements for plastic surgery and English classes are notices for another profit-driven lending service whose patrons are hoping to get ahead in one of the world’s most competitive societies. By dialing the number at the bottom of the paper, anyone can borrow money, “no questions asked,” the notices promise.

These rings of uncertified moneylenders have become a cottage industry in recent years. They don’t follow the legal maximum interest rate of 39 percent and they’re lending to people with no option besides abandoning their dream of home ownership or prestigious education for their children. Preying on South Koreans’ ambitions of class mobility, they make loans to delinquent and unqualified borrowers at exorbitant interest rates and threaten violence if timely payments aren’t made.

The reckless accumulation of debt now taking place in South Korea is scarily reminiscent of what took place in the U.S. ahead of the crisis of 2008. While the economy here isn’t large enough to mean that a crash would have large global significance, there is an important story unfolding here about what happens when a country reaches middle power status and overextends itself, and income inequality creates unrealizable ambitions. Not everyone in South Korea can be rich, but that doesn’t stop everyone from trying.

“There’s a pattern of fear and consumption,” said Baek Sung-jin, head of the Finance Consumers Association, a civic group that provides counseling to people in financial crisis.

“People are told by big companies that if they don’t have the right things no one will want to date them or be friends with them.” ..read more

Lee Myung Bak: Emperor can't visit till he apologizes →

Myung Bak keeps stirring the pot

SEOUL (Jiji Press)—South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said Tuesday that the Emperor needs to apologize to victims of Japan’s past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula before he possibly visits South Korea.

If the Emperor hopes to visit South Korea, he should truly apologize to Koreans who died in the independence movement during the Japanese rule of the peninsula before and during World War II, Lee said at a meeting with officials engaged in education.



Lee had previously sounded positive about the Emperor’s visit to South Korea, although no concrete plan for such a visit has ever been made.

This latest remark follows Lee’s unprecedented visit Friday to Sea of Japan islands known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.

The Emperor need not visit South Korea if he comes only to express his deep regret, Lee said, citing the rhetoric the Emperor used to mention the two countries’ past at a banquet held at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in May 1990 for then South Korean President Roh Tae Woo.

Lee denied that his visit to the disputed islands was based on a sudden decision. He said he made the trip after considerable thought about possible adverse effects.

Lee said he was trying to give some advice to Japan, which is one of the world’s leading countries but does not sufficiently understand the positions of the victim and victimizer.

Poor taste from the Koreans as they beat Japan during the olympics.

South Korea Postpones Military Pact With Japan →

And the history card gets played again..

SEOUL, South Korea — Faced with mounting political pressure at home, the South Korean government on Friday abruptly postponed the signing of its first military cooperation pact with Japan since World War II.

Now the fate of the agreement has become uncertain as South Korea’s political parties look ahead to a presidential election later this year.

The government and opposition parties agreed Friday to convene the National Assembly on Monday, and the Foreign Ministry said the session would give it a chance to explain and seek parliamentary support for the pact…read more

Graffiti Rat Case challenges South Korean Freedom of Expression →

Please imagine that you spray graffiti rats on a few government posters. You get caught. Presumably, the worst that will happen is a warning or a fine before you’re released. Right?

Well, in an affront to freedom of expression in South Korea with strongly political overtones, one person faces the prospect of 10 months in prison.

On 31 October 2010, Mr. Park sprayed graffiti of a rat on 22 adverts of the G20 Summit around Seoul. After a citizen’s report to the police, he was arrested in accusation of vandalism against public property. The Prosecution asked for 10 months imprisonment, which seems excessive, given the nature of the case.

The reasons why the Prosecution asked lengthy imprisonment are the following:

• It is not an accidental painting but a intentional crime that had organised far ahead of the event
• It is aimed to disturb a globally important event by drawing such a sinister symbol as rat
• By drawing a rat rather than Korean people and children, Mr. Park insulted their wish for South Korea to become a global leader through G20 Summit.

..read more

Theatre of War and Prospects for Peace on the Korean Peninsula on the Anniversary of the Yeonpyeong Incident →

The South Korean version of the Yeonpyeong Incident contains at least two important inaccuracies. One is a deliberate falsehood, and the other more a matter of spin.

Firstly the falsehood. It is claimed that the North Korean shelling on 23 November was a ‘surprise’. This has been reiterated so often that even liberal newspapers such as the Hankyoreh repeat it. Thus we read, in 2011, that:

North Korea’s surprise artillery attack on Nov. 23, 2010, brought major changes to the thinking and routine of military personnel stationed on Yeonpyeong Island. K9 artillery company members alternate over three shifts a day at artillery installations. The barracks is just 150 to 200 meters away, but they eat and sleep by the artillery in order to be able to fire back within five minutes in the event of a North Korean provocation. The situation is difficult, but no one complains. The prevailing view is that they were taken unaware once before, and they need to respond comprehensively if another opportunity arises.



Reading this one would get the impression that the South Korean soldiers were calmly going about their daily routines on 23 November when out of the blue the North Koreans opened fire. Not so. The North was reacting to a ‘live fire’ exercise conducted by ROK marines on Yeonpyeong. It had issued a number of warnings prior to the exercise, including a phone call on the morning of 23 November. We do not know how explicit the North’s warnings were, although it did threaten a ‘resolute physical counter-strike’. The exercise at Yeonpyeong happened at the same time as, but was not officially part of, a massive South Korean military exercise called Hoguk (defending the country). This involved: … some 70,000 troops, 50 warships, 500 warplanes, and 600 tanks in the areas of Seoul, surrounding provinces and the West Sea. The war game included large-scale aerial and naval drills, including landing operations in the West Sea. ..read more

Benetton taking it just a ‘little’ too far.

Why South Korea is Eyeing Nukes →

South Korean Defence Minister Kim Kwan Jin later told the same audience that his government had adopted a policy of ‘proactive deterrence,’ which he said would mean that ‘if there is a provocation, we will respond very strongly.’ Even before last year’s provocations led to a change in military strategy, the government of Lee Myung-bak, which had come to power in 2008, had adopted a much sterner line toward the North than its predecessors. It strictly reduced South Korean financial assistance and demanded an end to both of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programmes.



Although of less immediate concern to most South Koreans, the rising power of China has also been profoundly affecting regional security dynamics. In particular, China’s growing military power has resulted in many East Asian countries deepening their security ties with the United States and building up their defences, including by acquiring ballistic missile defences. In response, the Chinese have tightened their ties with North Korea, which, despite the headaches it causes, is a reliable buffer state. Few South Koreans consider China a military threat, but many worry about its growing economic presence in North Korea. ..read more

Korea's Hallyu Boom →

Choi told me that in his view, hallyu has become a ‘sort of circus,’ with ‘a lot of economic interests involved.’ Indeed, he told me that the reason he became interested in studying Korean culture in the first place was because the rise of the phenomenon had made him ‘very angry about Korean intellectuals’ attitude toward hallyu because they were ‘largely into the nationalist ideology and trying to promote (it) as a powerful product.’

Choi said that in the mid-1990s in South Korea, there was a ‘sudden shift of rhetoric and entire policy to buy into globalization and a very mercantile spirit to sell the commodities.’

‘Because Korea was losing its competitive edge over China…competing with China in the manufacturing industry was a folly and so they had to gradually shift away from it and go more into a lucrative and profitable industry. That was, the culture industry and the IT industry. So hallyu in some ways, he implied, ‘was orchestrated by the state.’ ..read more

Korean Brinkmanship, American Provocation, and the Road to War: the manufacturing of a crisis. →

Unlike his immediate predecessors as president, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, Lee has adopted a strongly confrontational policy towards the North. This has been evident from the beginning of his administration, but it became increasingly manifest with his exploitation of the Cheonan incident.

A very important part of Lee’s policy is the buildup of tension, especially through war exercises. But Lee and the South Korean military are only part of the decision-making process. War exercises take place because the US and ROK military want them. Given the vast disparity in power between North Korea and its adversaries (primarily the Unites States and South Korea but perhaps including Japan) what can be the motive for engaging in provocative military exercises? For the US the prime objective may be sending a message to China.¹⁸ Lee’s motives are probably threefold: to increase pressure on the North to produce a crisis of confidence and eventually collapse, to raise tension and fear of the North in the South, and to lock the Americans into his strategy. ..read more