[Newsmaker] PM-designate mired in familiar territory

Putting aside the concerns over his administrative capacity, President-elect Park Geun-hye’s choice of presidential transition team leader, Kim Yong-joon, as her first prime minister looks to be heading into all-too-familiar territory.Lest her appointee get caught up in the political scrutiny by the opposition bloc, Park emphasized Thursday that her choice was based on Kim’s judicial integrity as a former Constitutional Court chief.But, as admirable as his career has been ― becoming the country’

PoliticsJan. 27, 2013

[Newsmaker] Lee’s elder brother, ex-aide get jail terms

President Lee Myung-bak was dealt a another blow on Thursday as his elder brother and a former aide were convicted of taking illegal funds from failing saving banks. A lower court sentenced his brother Lee Sang-deuk, 72, a former Saenuri Party lawmaker, to two years in prison and fined him 750 million won ($702,000). He was arrested in 2012 for allegedly receiving hundreds of millions of won from two financial institutions and a business group from 2007 to 2011.The banks were at risk of being sh

PoliticsJan. 24, 2013

[Newsmaker] CJ suspected of bribing doctors

The police announced on Tuesday that 10 officials at CJ CheilJedang, a chaebol manufacturer of food and medicine, have allegedly given illegal kickbacks worth approximately 4.5 billion won ($4.2 million) to more than 200 doctors over two years from May 2000. The kickbacks were allegedly offered in exchange for prescribing its product and were the form of lending the company credit cards to doctors. Some of the doctors used the company credit cards to purchase furniture and other commodities for

Social AffairsJan. 23, 2013

[Newsmaker] Dijsselbloem out to spur euro recovery

New Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem may well be the ultimate compromise candidate.Elected to head the group of eurozone finance ministers Monday, the Dutch finance minister has sided with Germany and other northern eurozone states who insist on austerity for countries needing bailouts. He is also a social democrat like the government in France, the EU’s other major power player.But perhaps the key factor driving his acceptability is his novelty ― Dijsselbloem has headed the Dutch finance min

InternationalJan. 22, 2013

[Newsmaker] Lee accelerates to record-breaking sprint

South Korea’s top speed skater Lee Sang-hwa is getting faster, breaking national and world records in the space of 24 hours.Lee won the Speed Skating World Cup race in Calgary, Canada, on Sunday in 36.80 seconds in the 500 meters, taking 0.14 seconds off the previous record set by Yu Jing of China last January. A day earlier, she broke the national record with 36.99 seconds, becoming the first Korean female to break the 37-second barrier. Her record-breaking performance adds to her sweep of all

More SportsJan. 21, 2013

[Newsmaker] BAI railed for delay of report on 4 rivers

“The Board of Audit and Inspection should be audited and inspected first,” said a TV talk show commentator on Friday, one day after the state agency unveiled the result of its inquiry of the four-river restoration project.The BAI called President Lee Myung-bak’s pet project of damming and dredging “seriously flawed.” Poor design left dams with feeble base structures that could cost hundreds of billions of won each year in maintenance, and blocked water flow that could deteriorate water quality a

PoliticsJan. 20, 2013

[Newsmaker] Residents fume at Taean spill ruling

A court’s ruling on the Taean oil spill on Wednesday is likely to rekindle controversy as its assessment of financial damages fell short of expectations. The Seosan Branch of the Daejeon District Court ordered a 734 billion won ($694 million) compensation payout to victims of the country’s worst oil spill in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, after five years of legal disputes.About 128,000 people including residents, fishing and tourism business operators and local government offices sought 4.2

Social AffairsJan. 17, 2013

[Newsmaker] Top court nominee plagued by allegations

The man tapped by President Lee Myung-bak to head the nation’s highest court is proving himself to be a walking encyclopedia of ethical deprivation. Lee Dong-heub, who was nominated by the president in early January to be the chief justice of the Constitutional Court, faces a series of allegations ranging from unlawful real estate transactions to backroom dealings with powerful corporations. Records indicate that Lee registered his residence at an address in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, in 1995,

PoliticsJan. 16, 2013

[Newsmaker] Safety worries grow for ‘Dreamliner’

The 787 Dreamliner is Boeing’s newest and most sophisticated passenger jet. It is the world’s first passenger jet built mainly from lightweight carbon-plastic materials, while the use of a lithium-ion battery to start the auxiliary power unit is also unprecedented. The innovative technologies cut fuel costs largely by about a fifth. Airline companies worldwide have ordered more than 800 of the jets, which have a price of $207 million. But the 787 has been hit by technical and electric malfunctio

IndustryJan. 15, 2013

[Newsmaker] Resignation of Park's aide fuels speculation

The sudden resignation by one of President-elect Park Geun-hye’s top security and deplomacy aides from her transition team is sparking speculation about the reasons, ranging from a policy rift or personal irregularities to dismissal for an information leak.The takeover team confirmed Sunday that Choi Dae-seok, a key architect of Park’s policy to engage North Korea, quit the subcommittee on defense, unification and foreign affairs the previous day.Neither gave the reason of his departure. Specula

PoliticsJan. 14, 2013

[Newsmaker] Tragic death of online activist Aaron Swartz

A dreadful, if not downright scary, scenario is the end of free content on the Internet. What if you had to pay a fee for each and every piece of digital content you browsed on the Web? What if there were no Wikipedia, and no free news feeds from tens of thousands of media outlets? Aaron Swartz, a pioneering programmer, envisioned a cyberspace where online content is freely available. But before his vision was realized in full, he tragically ended his life at the age of 26, U.S. authorities conf

TechnologyJan. 13, 2013

[Newsmaker] Shinsegae’s Chung in hot water

Shinsegae Group vice chairman Chung Yong-jin may be the first target of scrutiny against conglomerates under President-elect Park Geun-hye’s strong pitch for “economic democratization.”The prosecution is reviewing summoning Chung for interrogation on whether he ordered Shinsegae affiliates to charge cheaper sales commissions on his sister’s bakery business.The Fair Trade Commission in October slapped Shinsegae with fines of over 4 billion won for “unfair backing” of Shinsegae SVN. The antitrust

IndustryJan. 10, 2013

[Newsmaker] Poet’s bashing of liberals raises eyebrows

Poet Kim Ji-ha, a well-known dissident figure during former President Park Chung-hee’s authoritarian regime in the 1960s and ’70s, has been stirring up controversy since he abruptly announced his support for Park’s daughter, president-elect Park Geun-hye.On Tuesday, the 72-year-old poet shocked the public further when he bashed Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo during an interview with a local radio station. Not mincing his words, Kim said Moon’s performance as a presidential candidate was “dreadful

PerformanceJan. 9, 2013

[Newsmaker] Obama’s Pentagon pick faces fight

Washington is bracing for a fight between the Democrats and Republicans over United States President Barack Obama’s nomination Monday of former two-term Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska as Secretary of Defense.Democrats continue the tradition of nominating a Republican to oversee the Pentagon, but don’t expect Democratic lawmakers to greet Hagel as one of their own. Nor is the Midwestern maverick expected to enjoy support from his former GOP colleagues.One thing is for sure. Hagel will

PoliticsJan. 8, 2013

[Newsmaker] 'Not great' time for N.K. troubleshooter

Despite Washington’s discomfort with the timing, Bill Richardson may end up playing troubleshooter for yet another American detainee in North Korea when the former New Mexico governor wraps up his trip to the communist country later this week. This time, he is bringing an even bigger carrot: Google Inc. chairman Eric Schmidt, an apostle of global Internet freedom and its role in lifting people out of poverty and persecution. In the North, precious few of the elite are granted access to the Web. 

North KoreaJan. 7, 2013

[Newsmaker] Chavez to take office without taking oath

Hugo Chavez may not be capable of participating in his own swearing in ceremony on Jan. 10, but he will start an unprecedented third term as the democratically elected president of Venezuela. He has been president since his election in 1998.Chavez supporters say the inauguration date is not set in stone, and argue that the president should be given more time to recover from surgery.Chavez, 58, has not been seen in public since arriving in Cuba for his fourth cancer operation on Dec. 11, which ha

PoliticsJan. 6, 2013

[Newsmaker] Google’s Schmidt may visit N.K.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, is likely to visit North Korea on a private, humanitarian mission, sources said Thursday. A Seoul official confirmed an Associated Press report that Schmidt will travel to the reclusive country along with former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. “He planned to visit North Korea earlier but the schedule was delayed in consideration of the sensitive mood to do with the North’s long-range rocket launch,” a Seoul official said. “I understand the visit is pur

North KoreaJan. 3, 2013

[Newsmaker] Yoon’s selection starts with controversy

President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team is receiving criticism even before it is launched.At the center of the controversy is Yoon Chang-jung, a journalist-turned-columnist with vulgarity to match his radical conservativeness.Park’s appointment of Yoon as her senior spokesperson on Dec. 24 came as a complete surprise to all.Yoon was one of the most active columnists during the election, making such over-the-top comments as calling progressives “anti-Korean forces,” or former conservative

PoliticsJan. 2, 2013

[Newsmaker] N.K. leader’s speech lacks fresh vision

The shadow of his grandfather loomed large when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gave a much-trumpeted New Year’s speech on Tuesday, calling for economic growth and the defusing of tensions with the South. It was the first verbal New Year’s address made by a North Korean leader in 19 years. Kim made his maiden live speech on April 15 when Pyongyang held a massive celebration for the 100th anniversary of the birth of national founder and his grandfather Kim Il-sung. The late Kim delivered his own

Foreign AffairsJan. 1, 2013

[Newsmaker] Kim symbolic of Park's emphasis on principle

“I highly respect this person, who incarnates the Saenuri Party’s cherished values, law and principles, and the constitutional spirit.” So said Park Geun-hye in October when she appointed former Constitutional Court president Kim Yong-joon co-chair of her campaign committee. The former top judge proved her assessment right, exerting a calm and credible leadership within the election committee dogged by conflicts over key policies and verbal gaffes against liberal foes.Named the chief of Park’s p

PoliticsDec. 27, 2012