Shinhan chairman to receive penalty for violating rules

Shinhan Financial Group chairman Ra Eung-chan’s 51-year career looks likely to end because of an alleged violation of real-name account laws as authorities appear poised to take stern action. 

The Financial Supervisory Service is set to penalize the 71-year-old banker after reportedly finding evidence to prove an allegation against him, which was highlighted in the wake of the internal feud at Shinhan Financial.

On Thursday, the regulator notified the financial group of its decision to reprimand the chairman. The watchdog is now said to be fine-tuning the penalties to be handed down to Ra in the coming weeks.

This could mean that the FSS, which has recently reinvestigated the allegation following its initial probe last year, is convinced of Ra’s violation of the law this time.

G20 to mediate global ‘currency war’

Stakes raised for Seoul summit after IMF meet fails to calm tension

Korea is facing a daunting challenge of mediating global economic powers engaging in the so-called “currency war” in the lead up to the November Group of 20 Summit in Seoul.

After the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. over the weekend, the currency issue is emerging as a significant factor in determining the success of the G20 forum. 

Finance ministers and central bank governors of the member countries are scheduled to meet in Gyeongju on Oct. 22-23 ahead of the summit in Seoul held on Nov. 11-12.

The stakes of the G20 have increased as the IMF members concluded talks without reaching any solution to rising tensions over foreign exchange rates.

If major countries were to hammer out an agreement at the Seoul summit, their finance ministers have to discuss substantial solutions in Gyeongju. 

Ranking officials of the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit recently said they would be able to make some progress through a series of meetings ahead of the event.

Committee chairman SaKong Il told The Korea Herald last week that he thinks the issue will be discussed for about a month on a step-by-step basis “among finance ministers before beginning of the November summit.”

Soros says U.S. economy needs more fiscal stimulus

Billionaire investor George Soros said the U.S. economy should pursue more fiscal stimulus instead of joining international efforts to reduce budget deficits. 

Soros said spending cuts are the “wrong consensus” in the current economic environment. He said the global economy is still not at equilibrium, even thoughfinancial markets are functioning again, and U.S. fiscal restraint is limiting the recovery. 

“It threatens to push the global economy into a much longer-lasting stagnation than would be necessary,” Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, said in a forum at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings. The U.S. has been “driven to quantitative easing because the political debate has been won basically by the Republicans, who argue for balancing the budget and no more stimulus.” 

Paraguayan soccer diva hopes to find Korean man

Paraguay’s No. 1 soccer fan is now giving Korean men a chance to tell her the words “I do,” said a marriage consulting firm Sunday.

Larissa Riquelme, a famous 2010 World Cup fan, signed up with Couple.net in the hope of finding herself a Korean husband, said the firm.

Riquelme and Couple.net will give hopeful Korean single men a chance to woo her during a one-month period.

Then Riquelme plans to come to Korea and hold a public marriage proposal with the lucky man she chooses.

According to the consulting firm, Riquelme was always interested in Asia, and got the idea from a friend at the Korean embassy in Asuncin.

The 25-year-old lingerie model became a worldwide name after photos of her in a low cut tank top with a phone in her cleavage circulated on the Web. 

Filipinas a growing force in Korean homes

Jane has a bachelor’s degree in customs and administrations. Jasmine is a university graduate with a degree in chemical engineering. Jessica studied environmental sciences and Lovely is a computer science major.

These four women sound like they have profiles fit for white collar jobs, but instead they are part of a much lower-wage segment of Korea’s economy. They maintain the balance at home, they mind children and decide what’s for dinner: they are housekeepers.

Jessica, who declined to give her real name, has been in Korea for four years as a housekeeper. Despite graduating with a challeneging degree, working in the Philippines didn’t provide a good income.

“I actually practiced my profession in the Philippines for a year, but the pay is not really lucrative, and the cost of living just keeps increasing,” said the 28-year-old wife with one child.

The monthly salary of the women interviewed ranged from one million won ($896) to 1.6 million won.

“Here, my salary is four times of what I would have gotten in the Philippines,” said Jessica.

Lovely, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was an office worker in Makati before coming here. 

“I quit my job (in the Philippines) because the salary was very low compared to abroad. It was around 500,000 won a month,” said the 40-year-old, Manila native.

Top N.K. defector found dead, no sign of foul play

Hwang Jang-yop, chief architect of North Korea’s guiding Juche ideology who took asylum in South Korea 13 years ago, was found dead Sunday at his home inSeoul, with no apparent sign of foul play, police here said. He was 87. 


A former secretary of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, Hwang was the highest-ranking North Korean official to have defected to the South. 

“Hwang was found dead in the bathroom of his home in Nonhyeon-dong at around 9:30 a.m. Sunday (by one of his security guards),” Seoul’s Gangnam Police Station told a press briefing. 

“There was no sign of a break-in. We found no indications of foul play (in Hwang’s death,)” it said, adding that he likely died of heart attack. 

The authorities plan to conduct an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. 

Born in 1923, Hwang graduated from Pyongyang’s top Kim Il-sung University, and studied philosophy in Moscow in 1949. He became a philosophy professor of the university in 1952 at the age of 29. 

Since then, Hwang played a key role in crafting the communist state’s ruling ideology of Juche which stresses self-reliance and served as a close aide to both Kim Il-sung, the late founder of the communist country, and his son and current leader Jong-il. He even tutored Jong-il personally.

Hwang Jang-yop

Samsung launches social enterprises

Samsung Group, Korea’s top business conglomerate, will establish seven social enterprises over the next three years to support the underprivileged as part of itscorporate social responsibility campaign, the company said Wednesday.

The social enterprises will support multicultural families in rural areas, education and child care and the employment of people with disabilities. The firm will launch a youth training center for those who want to set up their own business. 

Samsung is planning to invest 20 billion won ($17.9 million) in the project, which it expects to create about 400 jobs.

“Samsung will actively commit to corporate social responsibility to communicate and grow with the neighbor society,” said Lee Chang-Ryeol, president of Samsung Corporate Citizenship, the company’s volunteer group, in a press conference.

The plan includes establishing social enterprises in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province as a base, where a large number of immigrant women formed families through marriage to Korean men. 

Samsung president of corporate citizenship Lee Chang-ryeol Yonhap News