Food inflation spike alarms policymakers

Food prices have continued to rise for months, burdening average households. 

Statistics Korea said Monday the inflation rate for July stayed within the central bank’s target range at 2.6 percent from a year earlier, but food and oil prices are increasing at far above the overall rate is causing disarray. 

The price of agricultural products leaped a whopping 16.1 percent in July from a year earlier and analysts are expecting it to worsen this month. 

69 year old who failed driving test 960 times gets free car

Cha Sa-sun, 69, who failed her driver’s license test some 960 times before passing it earlier this year, received a free Soul vehicle from Hyundai-Kia Motors Group on Friday. 

Hyundai Motor, which is conducting a philanthropic campaign to give away cars to those in need, chose her as a recipient.

Since 2005, Cha has failed the written test some 950 times and the driving test 10 times. Both tests are required to obtain a driver’s license. Yet she continued trying out for the tests with perseverance and finally acquired the license in May. Her story drew a lot of attention, even making headlines in foreign media including the New York Times and Reuters. 

Gold is the best bet this year

Gold offered the highest returns this year as the prices jumped on investors’ appetite for the safe-haven investment amid the global recession, a research found. Real estate was rated among the worst. 

Daishin Securities Co. released a report on Monday comparing betting results of some of the key asset classes such as stocks, bonds, gold and real estate. 

According to the Seoul-based brokerage, local prices of gold rose more than 8 percent year to date in 2010, offering the highest return. 

The wholesale price of the pure gold stood at 184,250 won per don, or 3.75 grams, as of Aug. 5 in Korea, compared to 170,500 won on Dec. 31.

Gold prices rose globally, as investors flocked to the precious metal, traditionally considered a safe-haven investment, during the recession. 

Findings by Daishin also revealed that properties, once favored by Koreans as one of the surest bets for wealth creation, was the one of the worst performing asset classes, as the local housing sector remained in a prolonged slump. 

A housing price index compiled by Kookmin Bank, the nation’s largest commercial lender, changed only by 0.83 percent from 101.465 to 102.303 during the eight months. 

Local shares produced solid returns, as the Korean economy rebounded strongly from a global recession, led by major exporters such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor.

No gray zone for Korean films

Picking a Korean film to watch is like flipping a coin. Either you get something sweet and saccharine or you get something vicious and violent.

On the surface, local films can be categorized between the depiction of reality as an idealized, almost fairy tale universe through melodramas such as “The Classic” or the more violent, urban gothic version portrayed in thrillers like “Oldboy,” that revel in the embrace of the macabre.

This summer, it’s been the case of the latter with a slew of unapologetically violent pictures that have garnered much attention from the public -- two of those films are currently sitting atop the domestic box office charts.

“(Korean) movie studios are trying desperately to figure out what sells and what audiences want,” said Lee Yong-kwan, director of the Pusan International Film Festival and professor of Chung-Ang University’s department of film studies.

“They want to give the public something different, something they haven’t been exposed to and I think that is why this year we’ve seen so many violent pictures produced by big studios starring big movie stars -- it’s because we’ve seen it all before.”

As of this writing, “The Man from Nowhere,” Won Bin’s ultra-violent turn as a knife-wielding madman on a mission to clean out the criminal underworld, has topped the domestic box office with over a million ticket sales already notched during its opening week.

The film unseated yet another violent local picture, director Kang Woo-seok’s “Moss,” as the top Korean film.

This is impressive box office performance given that the Korea Media Ratings Board slapped both with a hard 19+ rating.

“Kang Woo-seok directing a picture so completely unlike his previous films reveal how desperate the local film industry is in trying to find the next big thing to get in on,” said a film producer who asked to remain anonymous.

“So far it seems to be working. Everyone seems to be talking about them.”

Writer-director Kim Ji-woon’s controversial latest, the Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-sik tandem, “I Saw the Devil” -- set for an Aug. 12 release -- has been scoring high in the buzz meter among local audiences not to mention attracting plenty of media attention since it was recently given a limited release judgment due to its excessive screen violence.

“I Saw the Devil” is currently being trimmed for a third submission to the KMRB.

Park Hae-il (left) stars in director Kang Woo-seok’s “Moss.”

So have filmgoers just been in a mood for some violence or has there always been a polarized preference in films from the masses?

Veteran actor Choi Min-sik stars alongside Hallyu-star Lee Byung-hun as a serial killer in writer-director Kim Ji-woon’s “I Saw the Devil.”

17 people injured in explosion of gas-powered public bus

Seventeen people were injured, one of them seriously, when a natural gas-powered public transit bus exploded on a Seoul street, police and witnesses said Monday, Yonhap News reported.

 The explosion took place at around 4:57 p.m. when the bus was waiting for the light to change on a motorway in Haengdang-dong of Seoul, police said.

  Police identified the seriously injured as a 28-year-old female passenger of the bus and said 16 other people, including six pedestrians, suffered minor injuries.

Politicians in their 40s taking positions

The appointment of a 47-yearold prime minister-designate has raised the curtain for a new generation of politicians in the limelight two years ahead of the presidential elections.

The nomination of former governor Kim Tae-ho as the prime minister portends fiercer competition within his age group to contest Rep. Park Geun-hye’s standing as the ruling party’s presidential frontrunner.

The Grand National Party’s junior assemblymen in their late 40s and early 50s have already begun to raise their voices, notably after the party was defeated in the June 2 local elections. 

Shortly after President Lee Myung-bak mentioned the need of a “young and vital party,” two-term lawmakers Rep. Na Kyung-won and Rep. Chung Doo-un made it to the GNP leadership in the national convention last month. 

The president replaced his top aides with the up and coming in their early 50s -- Rep. Yim Tae-hee as presidential chief of staff, Baek Yong-ho as chief of policy staff and Rep. Chung Jin-suk as senior secretary for political affairs.

Forty-six-year-old Rep. Wohn Hee-ryong was appointed as the GNP’s secretary general while assemblymen in his age group took over as chiefs of most of the parliamentary standing committees.

Reelected Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon and Gyeonggi governor Kim Moon-soo have also joined the group of presidential hopefuls.

Former GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye, who lost to Lee Myung-bak in the party’s internal race for the presidential nomination in 2007, leads a faction that a third of the GNP lawmakers belong to. 

The pro-Lee majority, which consists of those following the president’s 74-year-old brother Rep. Lee Sang-deuk, recently resurrected kingmaker Lee Jae-oh and smaller groups of young lawmakers, has yet to groom a heavyweight to match Park. Former party chairman Rep. Chung Mong-joon, Oh Se-hoon and Kim Moon-soo are currently deemed as the next strongest.

N. Korea fires some 130 artillery shells near NLL

North Korea fired some 130 coastal artillery shells into waters near the western inter-Korean maritime border Monday, further ratcheting up tensions between the two Koreas.

“From 5:30 p.m. for 3 minutes, (the North) fired some 10 shells into waters near the Northern Limit Line off Bangnyeong Island. And then, between 5:52 p.m. and 6:14 p.m., some 120 shots were fired into the waters near Yeonpyeong Island,” said a military official. 

“The Navy has strengthened its vigilance and readiness posture.” 

The fired shells did not land in waters south of the NLL, a de facto sea border, and no damages were inflicted on the South, the official said. 

The volley of the artillery fire came after the South Korean military finished its five-day maritime maneuvers in the West Sea, which were designed to enhance its defense capabilities against North Korean provocations. 

The North has repeatedly warned of “physical action” against the drills, which followed the South Korea-U.S. joint exercise conducted late last month in the East Sea in a show of force against the communist state.

Tensions have run high since the March sinking of the corvette Cheonan, which Seoul holds Pyongyang responsible for. The North has so far denied any role in the incident that caused the deaths of 46 sailors.

The North is reluctant to recognize the NLL on the grounds that it was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The two Koreas remain technically at war as the war ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldm.com)