The Economist (February 16)
“Ageing and robots are more closely related than you might think. Young countries with many children have few robots. Ageing nations have lots.” South Korea, Singapore, Germany and Japan top the list, but there needs to be a shift in focus. “An ageing world needs more resourceful robots” that can help care for seniors “rather than take people’s jobs.”
Time (January 22)
“Trump’s desperation for a North Korea deal may play into Kim’s hand.” An overeager Trump might sign a sweet sounding, but dangerous, peace agreement that leaves the region more war prone, especially if it removes the rationale for stationing U.S. troops nearby. “What does this mean for South Korea? Worst case scenario is that it’s left exposed and isolated by the U.S. with a fanatical foe just miles away.”
Tags: Dangerous, Deal, Desperation, Exposed, Isolated, Kim, North Korea, Overeager, Peace, South Korea, Troops, Trump, U.S., War
LA Times (November 5)
Though the “Trump administration slapped tough U.S. sanctions on Iran’s energy, banking and shipping industries,” there are “gaping holes” as the White House “granted waivers to the six largest importers of Iranian oil.” China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Italy and Japan accounted for “more than 75% of Iran’s oil exports last year.”
Tags: Banking, China, Energy, Exports, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Oil, Sanctions, Shipping, South Korea, Trump, Turkey, U.S., Waivers
New York Times (July 29)
“While Japan famously brought the world the concept of ‘death from overwork,’ South Koreans work longer hours, according to labor data. In fact, they put in 240 more work hours per year than Americans do — or, put another way, an extra month of eight-hour workdays.” South Korea is now trying to break free of this convention with a new law mandating 52-hour workweek caps for a large number of employees.
Tags: Death from overwork, Employees, Japan, Labor data, South Korea, U.S., Workweek caps
Reuters (July 5)
“Investors watching the trade tit-for-tat between the United States and China may well have reason to fear the havoc a full blown conflict between the world’s two biggest economies could wreak on the global economy.” Furthermore, the collateral damage could be worse than that done to the principals. Due to global supply chains, countries like Taiwan, Hungary, the Czech Republic, South Korea, and Singapore could be equally if not more vulnerable” to fall out from the spat between the U.S. and China.
Tags: China, Collateral damage, Conflict, Czech Republic, Global economy, Hungary, Investors, Singapore, South Korea, Supply chains, Taiwan, Tit-for-tat, Trade, U.S., Vulnerable
Newsweek (June 13)
Kim was the “undisputed winner” and rather “sadly, this isn’t really up for debate.” Kim successfully “appealed to Trump’s vanity…. On its own, putting the suspension of our defensive joint military exercises on the table in exchange for nothing concrete is a jaw-dropping concession from both a diplomatic and a military readiness perspective. In addition, it seems the Defense Department was not consulted, nor were our South Korean allies.”
Tags: Allies, Concession, Defense Dept., Diplomatic, Jaw-dropping, Joint military exercises, Kim, Military, Nothing concrete, Readiness, South Korea, Trump, Undisputed, Vanity, Winner
Reuters (May 23)
“Pyongyang’s announcement last week that it might pull out of the meeting should have been less of a surprise. North Korea has spent decades using similar tactics to shape the diplomatic agenda with the South and Washington, raising hopes of a breakthrough—then sparking a crisis and moving the goal posts.”
Tags: Agenda, Breakthrough, Crisis, Hope, North Korea, Pyongyang, South Korea, Surprise, Tactics, U.S.
The Guardian (April 26)
“There is little chance of a concrete agreement of any kind resulting from the summit” between North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in on April 27. “Beginning negotiations with a meeting between the two leaders, before any details have been hammered out, is always risky. The meeting will likely be followed by months, if not years, of negotiations at the lower levels before anything is signed.”
Tags: Agreement, Kim Jong Un, Moon Jae-in, Negotiations, North Korea, Risky, South Korea, Summit
Bloomberg (April 13)
A “$105 billion ‘ghost stock’ blunder” created market upheaval in Korea. An error at the South Korean brokerage Samsung Securities Co. gave employees 1,000 Samsung Securities shares each instead of 1,000 won (less than $1). “In total, the company distributed 2.83 billion shares, worth—on paper—about 112.6 trillion won. That was more than 30 times the company’s market value.” As employees sold the ghost shares, the stock price “plunged” 12% and “many retail investors got burned.”
Tags: Blunder, Brokerage, Burned, Employees, Market upheaval, Retail investors, Samsung Securities, South Korea, Stock
Wall Street Journal (March 27)
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paid a surprise visit to China this week, in his first known foreign trip since taking power in late 2011.” With upcoming U.S. and South Korean summits approaching, “analysts say the trip appears to be an effort to mend fences with Beijing, as Washington stakes out a tougher line on denuclearization talks planned for May.”
Tags: Analyst, China, Denuclearization, Kim, North Korea, South Korea, Summits, U.S.
