Monday, February 20, 2023
Round-up of important news from major Korean dailies and from international media today

 

The Korea Post ( www.koreapost.com )

POSCO Chemical, Samsung SDI sign a 40 trillion won cathode materials supply contract
POSCO Chemical has signed a contract to supply high-nickel NCA cathode materials for electric vehicle batteries to Samsung SDI for 10 years from this year to 2032. This contract, which is worth 40 trillion won, is the largest and longest-term order POSCO Chemical has landed since its foundation. With this contract, POSCO Chemical has expanded its product portfolio to include NCA* in addition to NCM and NCMA* cathode materials that have been mainly produced so far, as well as earning a new client, Samsung SDI, which supplies batteries to various global automakers, thereby laying the foundation for another quantum leap forward.


Samsung Electronics makes global launch of its Galaxy S23 Series
Samsung Electronics announced the global availability of its industry-leading Galaxy S23 smartphones on Feb. 17, following impressive pre-order results. Pre-orders for the previous year’s Galaxy S22 series had already been a great success, with numbers more than double that of the Galaxy S21 series within the first week. This year, pre-order results were even higher than those of the Galaxy S22 series, with 60% of consumers opting for the most premium Galaxy S23 Ultra. The great momentum we’re witnessing speaks to customers’ excitement about products that push the envelope and give them the freedom to express themselves creatively,” said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics.


Ven. Chief Monk Park Seung-uk of Cheonman Temple named as the Great Monk of World Buddhism
Venerable Chief Monk Hyangdeok (Park Seung-uk) of the Cheonman-sa Buddhist Temple in Ulsan held a Buddhist service with the Nepal World Buddhist Seungga Foundation to pray for world peace and inter-Korean unification. At a temple in Rumbini Park, Nepal, the birthplace of Buddha, on Nov. 1. 2022, Venerable Chief Monk Hyangdeok held a Buddhist service with about 20 Korean monks, including Chief Monk Neungin of the Gakhwang-sa Temple in Chilgok, Gyeongsangbuk-do.

 


Chosun Ilbo (http://english.chosun.com)
World's Oldest Metal Print Book to Go on Display in France
The world's oldest text printed with movable metal type, Korea's "Jikji Simche Yojeol," will go on public display for the first time in 50 years in France. The National Library of France will put "Jikji" on display in a special exhibition from April 12 to July 16, the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation said Thursday. The exhibition titled "Imprimer! L'Europe de Gutenberg" traces the history of printing technology.


N.Korea Named as Enemy Again in Defense Paper
North Korea is expressly named as the enemy again in the latest biennial Defense White Paper, the first published by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. "The North explicitly stated in a new preamble of the Workers Party charter that its goal is to communize the entire Korean Peninsula. It also defined South Korea as an 'undoubted enemy' at a party meeting in December 2022," the Defense Ministry wrote in the white paper published Thursday. The North Korean regime and army, which have been continuing to pose a threat without abandoning their nuclear weapons program, are the enemy."

 

Opposition Chief Questioned over Seongam Bribery Scandal
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung appeared for questioning by prosecutors on Tuesday over his involvement in a bribery scandal in Seongam, Gyeonggi Province when he was mayor there. Lee showed up at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office with a group of Minjoo Party lawmakers and read a five-page statement. "It is totally unacceptable to try Seongnam city officials' and my own sincere efforts in the interest of citizens as a crime," he said. "The summons is a politically motivated trap and I will stand up and face it." "It amounts to an attempted judicial coup to revive a case that was dropped as groundless after several years of investigation," he added. "This is definitely a targeted investigation to eliminate a political opponent."

 

 

Joongang Ilbo (https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com )

North Korea fires missile two days after ICBM test
North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the East Sea on Monday morning, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The launch came just two days after an intercontinental ballistic missile launch by the North, and a day after South Korea-United States joint air drills involving a B-1B strategic bomber.  A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launching of a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at Pyongyang International Airport in North Korea on Saturday.

 

Korea's foreign minister urges Japan to resolve forced labor issue
Foreign Minister Park Jin in his meeting with the Japanese foreign minister in the German city of Munich on Saturday urged Japan to make a political decision to resolve the forced labor issue that has soured the bilateral ties for years. "I've said all I can about the main issues," Park told the press after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. "I urged Japan to make a political decision to come up with a sincere response."

 

DP lawmakers hold rally to slam Yoon for arrest warrant
Democratic Party (DP) lawmakers gathered at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Friday morning to denounce prosecutors for attempting to detain their leader, DP Chairman Lee Jae-myung. A large crowd of DP members, including lawmakers, aides and rank-and-file staffers, showed up in front of the National Assembly Building holding pickets that accused the Yoon Suk Yeol administration of running the country as a dictatorship. The DP said some 2,000 people showed up at the rally, which was held a day after prosecutors applied for a pre-trial detention warrant for Lee on a slew of corruption charges when he was serving as the mayor of Seongnam, Gyeonggi, from 2010 to 2018.

 

The Dong-A Ilbo (http://english.donga.com/)

Kim Jong Un made first unexpected order for ICBM launch
North Korea announced on Sunday that an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-15 was launched based on Kim Jong Un’s unexpected order on Saturday to launch the missile without a pre-made plan. This was the first ICBM launch by the country following Kim’s unexpected order. It was an explicit threat that an ICBM, which can hit the U.S. mainland, could be launched any time in actual fights. North Korea launched an ICBM at 5:22 p.m. on Saturday, nine hours and 22 minutes after receiving Kim’s order at 8 a.m. on the same day.

 

People caught for lending bankbooks in homeless’ names to crime rings
Police have arrested a group that has lent more than 1,000 bankbooks in homeless people’s names to organized crime rings operating at home and aboard. ‘Black money’ that has thus been transacted through those bankbooks are valued at 13 trillion won (about 10 billion U.S. dollars). The violent crime investigation team at the Seoul metropolitan police agency said Sunday they had caught and handed over to the prosecution a group of 38 people, who created 1,048 bankbooks in the names of homeless and other people and lent them for fees to organized crime rings, including voice phishing and illegal gambling groups.


Vanderbilt University writes a condolence letter with ChatGPT
Vanderbilt University, which wrote a statement of condolence for the recent shooting spree at Michigan State University, the U.S. with interactive artificial intelligence (AI) ‘ChatGPT,’ has officially apologized for the strong criticism it received from the public. Bloomberg News reported on Saturday (local time) that the Peabody College Secretariat at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee sent an email to students to express condolences for the victims of the indiscriminate shooting at Michigan State University.

 

                                         

Maeil Business News Korea (http://www.pulsenews.co.kr/)
LG Chem signs lithium supply contract with U.S. mining company
South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd., the parent of world’s No. 2 battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES), has secured North American spodumene concentrate for the first time in the local industry, a move that will help the company boost its supply network. LG Chem announced Friday that it signed an agreement with U.S. mining company Piedmont Lithium Inc. to buy 200,000 tons of spodumene concentrate, a high-purity material that processes lithium ore. The material allows extraction of hydroxide that is a key material for batteries.

 

U.S. dollar rises to 1,290 won on U.S. inflationary concerns
The U.S. dollar rose against the Korea won in Seoul on mounting concerns that inflationary pressure in the U.S. persists. The dollar traded at 1,291.9 won Friday, up by 7.1 won ($0.01) from prior day’s close. U.S. producer price index rose 0.7 percent in January from a month earlier, the biggest month-on-month increase since June, and was 6.0 percent higher from a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics overnight.

 

Korean SMEs adopt measures to defend against hostile takeovers
Small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) threatened by shareholder activism and hostile merger and acquisitions (M&As) have adopted measures such as the super-majority voting rule to defend management rights. According to a study by Korea Listed Companies Association (KLCA) and KOSDAQ Listed Companies Association upon request by Maeil Business Newspaper on Thursday, 405, or 18.4 percent of 2,203 Kospi- and Kosdaq-listed companies have introduced one or more articles that defend management rights. Among them, 367 were SMEs and 30 large companies.

 

 

HanKyoReh Shinmun (http://english.hani.co.kr)

Arrest warrant sought for leader of top opposition party for first time in history of Korea’s constitutional government
For the first time in Korea’s modern history, prosecutors have sought an arrest warrant for the chairperson of the main opposition party. On Thursday, the first and third anti-corruption divisions of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office announced that as part of their investigation into accusations of preferential treatment in relation to the Daejang neighborhood development case and the soliciting of support funds for Seongnam Football Club (FC) they have sought an arrest warrant for Lee Jae-myung, head of the Democratic Party.

 

S. Korea’s first defense white paper under Yoon defines N. Korea as “enemy”
In the first defense white paper released under South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, language about the North Korean regime and military being South Korea’s “enemy” are back after an absence of six years. That change reflects how the Yoon administration’s policy on North Korea and inter-Korean relations differs from that of former President Moon Jae-in. South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense announced on Thursday the publication of the “2022 Defense White Paper,” which was written to provide a clear understanding of the reality and gravity of the North Korean threat.

 

Simulation shows Fukushima wastewater will reach Jeju within 5 years upon dumping
A simulation by South Korean government research institutes has found that if Japan dumps contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear reactor into the ocean, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen in the contaminated water will begin entering the waters off Jeju Island within four or five years. The same analysis also found that a low concentration of radiation (less than one-millionth of the current background concentration in Korean waters) could temporarily be brought into the area by ocean currents two years after the contaminated water is released.



The KyungHyangShinmun (http://english.khan.co.kr/)
Lee Jae-myung, “You Must Ask a Fortune Teller or Prosecutor Before Making Policy Decisions, Otherwise You Will Be Sent to Prison”
On February 17, Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung said, “Policy makers in the Republic of Korea have to ask a fortune teller or a prosecutor before making decisions, because prosecutors can put them in jail anytime if their predictions are wrong.” Lee expressed his thoughts on social media Friday, as he shared a media report claiming prosecutors played with numbers to exaggerate Lee Jae-myung’s misfeasance allegation. On Thursday, prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for Lee in connection with alleged favors in the development of Daejang-dong and the Wirye New Town and donations to the Seongnam Football Club.


Kimigayo” Performed for the First Time at the Japanese Emperor’s Birthday Party in Seoul, “Influenced by the Yoon Suk-yeol Government”
Kimigayo,” the national anthem of Japan, was performed for the first time in an event celebrating the birthday of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, hosted by the Japanese Embassy in South Korea and held in Seoul on February 16. The Sankei Shimbun said that the aim of the Yoon Suk-yeol government was reflected in the latest performance of “Kimigayo.” The Japanese Embassy hosted a reception and invited guests in Korea to celebrate the birthday of Japanese Emperor Naruhito (Feb. 23) at a hotel in Seoul Thursday.

 

The Garden Alone Cost 60 Million Won?” BAI Chief Struggles to Explain 140 Million Won Renovation Costs for Official Residence
On February 15, it was revealed that Choe Jae-hae, chair of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) had spent 140 million won to renovate his official residence after entering office. Of the total expenses, 60 million won was spent on the yard and garden, triggering fierce criticism from an opposition lawmaker. In a meeting of the parliamentary Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Tahney aimed at Choe and said, “As soon as you entered (the official residence), you spent 60 million won on the garden alone.”

 



KBS(http://world.kbs.co.kr/service)

JCS: N. Korea Fires Ballistic Missile toward East Sea
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said on Monday that North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile toward the East Sea earlier in the day. The South Korean military is working on analyzing the details of the launch, including the site of the launch, as well as range, speed and altitude. The latest missile comes only two days after the North fired a long-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea, with Pyongyang claiming on Sunday that what it fired the previous day was a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile.


Sister of N. Korean Leader Issues Further Warning over US Behaviors
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has warned more provocations by the North will ensue unless the United States changes its course of action. In a statement announced by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Monday, the third of its kind released by her this year, Kim Yo-jong said the frequency at which the North utilizes the Pacific Ocean as its shooting range depends on the behaviors of the U.S. military. Kim said Pyongyang remains adamant on its position that it will make what she calls “fanatics” pay their price for aggravating the situation.


Death Toll from Türkiye-Syria Earthquake Exceeds 46,000, Most Search Operations End
The death toll from the massive earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria on February 6 has surpassed 46-thousand. The AFP on Sunday quoted a senior Turkish anti-disaster management official as saying the death toll in Türkiye alone from the magnitude seven-point-eight quake stood at 40-thousand-689 as of yet, increasing by 47 from Saturday. The number of those killed in the earthquake in Syria remained unchanged at five-thousand-814 for days, bringing the combined death toll from the two countries to 46-thousand-503.

 


Yonhap (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr)

N. Korea fires 2 short-range ballistic missiles toward East Sea: S. Korean military
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) toward the East Sea on Monday, Seoul's military said, a day after South Korea and the United States staged joint air drills, involving B-1B bombers, in response to the North's long-range missile launch. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the Sukchon area in South Pyongan Province between 7 a.m. and 7:11 a.m. It did not immediately provide details. "While strengthening its monitoring and vigilance, our military is maintaining a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the U.S.," the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.

 

Rival parties to vote on arrest motion of opposition leader Lee on Feb. 27
Rival parties have agreed to hold a plenary session of the National Assembly on Feb. 27 to vote on the arrest motion of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, officials said Saturday. Earlier this week, prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for Lee, the head of the Democratic Party, over development corruption and bribery allegations. Sitting lawmakers, however, are immune from arrest while parliament is in session. The prosecution must obtain parliament's consent to detain lawmakers.


S. Korean minister urges Japan to make 'political decision' over forced labor issue
- South Korea's top diplomat has met with his Japanese counterpart and called for Tokyo to make a "political decision" to resolve the issue of how to compensate Korean victims of wartime forced labor under 2018 rulings by Seoul's Supreme Court. Foreign Minister Park Jin had the one-on-one talks with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in Munich on Saturday (local time) on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Following the 35-minute meeting, Park told reporters that the two sides had sufficient discussions on "major points in dispute" regarding the thorny matter.

 

The Korea Herald (http://www.koreaherald.com)

Mongolian PM wants to use Busan as outlet for trade corridor
Mongolia wants South Korea's largest port city, Busan, to become an integral part of a trade corridor for the landlocked country, its Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene told The Korea Herald in an interview Friday. Mongolia currently relies on the sea ports of Russia and China to import foreign goods and sell products to other countries. This means international sanctions imposed on Moscow and Beijing, as well as port lockdowns due to internal policies like zero-COVID, often led to freight bottlenecks for Mongolia as well.

 

Tensions simmer on peninsula after NK launch, allies’ drills
South Korea and the US staged combined air drills Sunday, a day after North Korea aggravated inter-Korean tensions by firing an intercontinental ballistic missile that South Korea believes could reach anywhere in the continental United States. South Korea and the US staged combined air drills Sunday, a day after North Korea aggravated inter-Korean tensions by firing an intercontinental ballistic missile that South Korea believes could reach anywhere in the continental United States.

 

Top diplomats of S. Korea, Colombia discuss cooperation in trade, agriculture
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin held one-on-one talks on Sunday with his Colombian counterpart to discuss strengthening of bilateral cooperation in areas of trade and agriculture among others. At the session with Alvaro Leyva at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Park noted that the relations between the two countries have deepened on the occasion of last year's 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties and expressed his wish to further develop the partnership, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

 

The Korea Times (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr)

N. Korea fires unspecified ballistic missile toward East Sea: S. Korean military
North Korea fired an unspecified ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Monday, Seoul's military said, a day after South Korea and the United States staged joint air drills, involving B-1B bombers, in response to the North's long-range missile launch. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced the launch, the North's third missile provocation this year. It did not immediately provide details. Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, issued another sharp-tongued threat of "corresponding" actions against the allies' military drills.

 

Indonesia aims to bolster ties with Korea via ASEAN chairmanship
During an annual media briefing at the ambassador's residence in Yeouido, Seoul, on Friday, Indonesian Ambassador to Korea Gandi Sulistiyanto addressed two main themes: Indonesia's chairmanship of ASEAN this year and the 50th anniversary of Korea-Indonesia diplomatic relations. Ambassador Sulistiyanto highlighted that the 50th anniversary of Indonesia-Korea friendship centered on people-to-people exchanges for the development of stronger relations, shared understandings and strengthened government-to-government, business-to-business ties.

 

China's balloon incursion 'must never happen again': Blinken
The top diplomats from the United States and China met on Saturday in the first high-level contact between their countries since the U.S. shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon two weeks ago, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken sending the message that Beijing's surveillance program had been "exposed to the world." Blinken and Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party's most senior foreign policy official, held the hourlong talks in Munich, where they were attending an international security conference, according to the U.S. State Department. "I made very clear to him that China sending its surveillance balloon over the United States in violation of our sovereignty, in violation of international law, was unacceptable and must never happen again," Blinken said Saturday in an interview for CBS' "Face the Nation."

 

 

What’s ticking around the world at this second?

See what the world media around the world have to report:

USA Today www.usatoday.com aallman@gannett.com

The New York Times www.nytimes.com inytletters@nytimes.com

Wall Street Journal www.wsj.com support@wsj.com, service@wsj-asia.com

Financial Times www.ft.com ean@ft.com

The Times www.thetimes.co.uk help@timesplus.co.uk

The Sun www.thesun.co.uk talkback@the-sun.co.uk

Chinese People's Daily www.people.com.cn kf@people.cn

China Daily www.chinadaily.com.cn circulation@chinadaily.com.cn

Gwangmyeong Daily www.gmw.cn webmaster@gmw.cn

Japan's Yomiuri www.yomiuri.co.jp japannews@yomiuri.com

Asahi www.asahi.com customer-support@asahi.com

Mainichi www.mainichi.jp

Le Monde www.ilemonde.com

Italy LaRepubblica www.quotidiano.repubblica.it vittorio.zucconi@gmail.com

Germany Frankfurter AllgemeineZeitung www.faz.net anzeigen.ausland@faz.de

SüddeutscheZeitung www.sueddeutsche.de forum@sueddeutsche.de

Australia Brisbane Times www.brisbanetimes.com.au syndication@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Sydney Morning Heraldwww.smh.com.au

Colombia Reports http://colombiareports.com

Bogota Free Planet http://bogotafreeplanet.com, bfp@bogotafreeplanet.com

El Universal http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english

Andes http://www.andes.info.ec/en

Ecuador Times http://www.ecuadortimes.net

The Jordan Times https://www.jordantimes.com

LSM.lv http://www.lsm.lv/en

The Baltic Times http://www.baltictimes.com lithuania@baltictimes.com, estonia@baltictimes.com, editor@baltictimes.com

El Pais http://elpais.com/elpais/inenglish.html

Philippine Daily Inquirer https://www.inquirer.net

Daily News Hungary http://dailynewshungary.com

Budapest Times http://budapesttimes.hu

 

The Korea Post is running video clips from the different embassies.

Azerbaijan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR8CBpcQ4WM

Sri Lanka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hByX92Y2aGY&t=22s

Morocco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfFmp2sVvSE

And many other countries.

What are you waiting for?
Use us!
The Korea Post media are more than eager to be used, and to serve you—with the following five news outlets, 37 years old this year!

Korean-language Internet edition: http://www.koreapost.co.kr
English-language Internet edition: http://www.koreapost.com
Korean-language print newspaper:
http://pdf.koreapost.co.kr/38/3801.pdf
http://pdf.koreapost.co.kr/38/3802.pdf
http://pdf.koreapost.co.kr/38/3803.pdf
http://www.koreapost.co.kr/pdf/list.php?category=&syear=2018&smonth=03&sday=26&hosu=40
English E-daily: http://www.koreapost.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=10690

 

 

 

저작권자 © The Korea Post 무단전재 및 재배포 금지