Wednesday, October 16, 2013

LTW - Warm to Xi/Cold to Abe & 60 yrs of US-Korea Alliance


1. National
1) 60 years of Korea-U.S. alliance celebrated

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was in Seoul to celebrate 60th anniversary of the Korea-U.S. alliance events that had some 500 guests, including President Park Geun-hye. Gen. Walton Walker, a former commander of the Eighth U.S. Army during the Korean War, was posthumously honored with the Paik Sun-yup Korea-U.S. Alliance award given to his grandson. Paik Sun-yup, 94, is the first Korean four star general who started his military career as a cadet in Japanese army during the colonial days. Gen.Walker is well known for his “Stand or Die” order to defend the Busan perimeter in Jul 1950. The security alliance dates back to the Mutual Defense Treaty of Oct, 1, 1953 after the war ended. Some 36,000 U.S. soldiers lost their lives in the Korean War.

The prosperity of South Korea would not have bee possible without the 16 nations that sent forces to South Korea during the Korean War under U.N. resolution. South Korea is now paying back with its troops stationed in South Sudan, Afghanistan and Lebanon under U.N. peace keeping forces. One of the soldiers in South Sudan is my first son who will be stationed there for 6 months, fighting dragonfly size mosquitoes while building social infrastructures.

2) Warm to Xi, cold to Abe
President Park Geun-hye asked Xi Jinping of China again to help curb Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons capabilities in APEC meeting in Bali, Indonesia. Xi once again said he opposes North Korea’s nuclear weapons possession and its nuclear tests. It was their third dating in the past three months. While Park was solidifying her relationship with Xi, she was snubbing Abe of Japan for his right wing position on comfort women and Dokdo (Takeshima in Japan) islet sovereign authority. They sat next to each other to Alphabetical order in the APEC meeting, but didn’t even exchange words of greetings, reflecting the current diplomatic relationship between South Korea and Japan.

I thought leaders of nations must be much different from common people like me and my wife. They are the same! My wife and I fight once in a while, and we would not talk each other for a few days, communicating through my sons. It is always me to talk first to break the silence, usually at the prodding from my son who longs for the peace in the family. I think my son in South Sudan would be doing a pretty good job there as a U.N. peace keeping force.

2. Economy
1) Two national holidays celebrated

The last two weeks were great for most Koreans with two national holidays. The first was Oct 3 which marked the 4,345th anniversary of the mythical founding of Korea in 2,333 B.C. by the legendary god-king Dangun. The 2nd was the 567th anniversary of the proclamation of Hangeul, the Korean Alphabet. The Hangeul Day this year is more meaningful, as it is the first time in 23 years that it is being celebrated as a national holiday, after having been stripped of the designation in 1991. Invented in 1943 by King Sejong, who is featured in 10,000 won bill, Hangeul is praised by linguists as the most scientific, easy to learn alphabet in the world, with 14 consonants and 10 vowels. So easy that even Mike Tyson can learn to read and write after three hours of class, though not understanding what he is reading or writing.
 
Koreans must respect bears. Hwanwoong, a son of God from heaven, promised a tiger and a bear that he will turn them into humans if they persist only with garlic and bitter wormwood in a dark cave for 100 days. The tiger tried but gave up only a few days left, but the bear made it to become a pretty lady. The bear turned lady married Hwanwoong and delivered a son named Dangun who built the first Korean dynasty in Pyongyang in 2,333 B.C. that lasted 1,000 years. One rationale Kim Jong-un insists North Korea is more Korea than South Korea.

3. Auto Industry
1) Renault Samsung signs MOU on Rogue

Renault Samsung Motors singed a memorandum of understanding with Renault and Nissan at its Busan plant for the production of Nissan Rogue to be rolling out mid next year. RSM has prepared to manufacture 80,00 units of the Rogue for export to North America after the announcement by Carlos Ghosn in July 2012. Renault sees this as an opportunity for RSM to be an export hub in Asia as “car sales in the Asia-Pacific region are about 50% of global market, but only 10% of Renaults’ revenue.” The first task for RSM, however, is domestic market where RSM has sold only 36,493 units for the first 8 months of this year, down 8% from a year ago.

RSM’s domestic marketing is being led by Park Dong-hoon, former CEO of Volkswagen Korea who got let go late August. RSM has gained market share since Park took office Sep 1, selling 4,958 units in September, up 28.3% from a year earlier, and enough to get ahead of Ssangyong which sold 4,432 last month. It was the first month this year RSM sold more than Ssangyong Motors in monthly sales. What about VW Korea without Mr. Park? VW Korea became No.1 importer in September with 2,456 units, followed by Mercedes-Benz(2,430) and BMW(1916).  It was the first month since Dec last year VW was the monthly No.1. It was probably a rare case of bloody divorce leading to happiness for all.

2) Samsung in talks with Tesla over battery

Reuter reported electric carmaker Tesla may name Samsung SDI, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, as an additional battery supplier. Both Tesla and Samsung SDI confirmed that the report, though the spokesman for Samsung said “Nothing has been decided.”  Tesla is interested in the deal because it has only one batter supplier, Panasonic, at the moment while Tesla plans to expand its models. Sources say the negotiation is about 90% done. The final roadblock is Samsung SDI’s position that Tesla buys other Samsung products like touch screens as part of the deal, and Tesla still looking at other battery supplier alternative .

Samsung companies are very popular to job seekers. Over 100,000 college graduates applied for 5,500 openings in the second half of the year hiring. With 320,000 college graduates this year, one in three has applied to Samsung. While you have to beat 18:1 competition to get a job in Samsung these days, it was a piece of cake 27 years go when I was to find a job at senior year in college.  Twenty four of my friends in my department in 1986 applied for internship in Samsung and 96% of them got accepted. I was the 4%.

Regards,
H.S.[출처] 올드팝 프랭크 시나트라(Frank Sinatra) - My Way(마이웨이) 노래가사/듣기/가사해석|작성자쏭

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