Day: July 30, 2023

South Korea’s financial regulator said Sunday the English language service of its electronic disclosure system (DART) will be expanded starting next week as part of efforts to improve foreigners’ access to the country’s financial market information.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said the updated DART will allow users to search for a company’s name, titles of reports and an attached file’s name in English and provide a built-in translation service for financial reports written in the Korean language.

The search will also be expanded to include companies listed on the KONEX index as well as unlisted corporations.

Currently, companies listed on the main KOSPI and tech heavy KOSDAQ indexes are available for filings searches.

The system update comes in line with financial authorities’ announcement earlier this year that they will gradually make it mandatory for South Korean companies to provide English disclosure.

KOSPI-listed companies with assets of 10 trillion won (US$7.8 billion) or more will be required to issue key regulatory filings in English from next year, and the mandate will be expanded to KOSPI-listed firms with assets of 2 trillion won or more from 2026.

The FSS also plans to provide XBRL specific viewer on DART starting with third-quarter filings made by companies.

XBRL viewer, which uses extensible business reporting language, allows users to check various attributes in English from element names to international standard ID, and debit and credit attributes.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

1959 — Cho Bong-am, leader of the Jinbo (Progress) Party, is executed after being convicted of violating the anti-communist National Security Law by engaging in pro-communist activities.

While Korea was under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), Cho was an independence activist who served time in prison for participating in the March 1st Independent Movement in 1919. After his release, he studied politics in Japan for one year and came back to Korea with the belief that socialism would enable Koreans to regain their sovereignty.

Amid the ideological rift that developed in the country shortly after independence, Cho left the Communist Party and turned slightly right. In 1948, he was appointed agricultural minister and served two terms as a lawmaker. He ran for the presidency in 1956 against Rhee Syng-man but was defeated.

Some people have claimed Cho was brought to trial as a result of a plot by Rhee, his political rival, but no proof of such a plot has ever been found.

1995 — Park Yong-gil, the wife of pro-unification activist Rev. Moon Ik-hwan, is arrested when she crosses the border at the truce village of Panmunjom after making an unauthorized visit to North Korea.

2000 – Mountain climber Um Hong-gil completes scaling all 14 peaks of the Himalayas that stand more than 8,000 meters above sea level. He was the first South Korean to achieve the feat.

2002 — South and North Korea end a Cabinet-level meeting in Seoul after issuing a six-point agreement that called for, among other things, the relinking of a cross-border railway, the Kyeongui Line.

2018 — Seoul records a temperature of 38.3 C at 3:19 p.m., marking the second-highest figure since the government began to compile the data in 1907, after South Korea’s capital city hit a record 38.4 C on July 24, 1994.

2019 — North Korea fires two short-range ballistic missiles from the Kalma area in the North’s eastern port of Wonsan, only six days after firing another two short-range ballistic missiles from the same area. South Korea, holding a National Security Council meeting, expresses “strong” concerns over the missile test.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

South Korea’s weather agency said a heat wave warning remained in effect for most parts of the country Sunday, warning people to refrain from outdoor activities as temperatures soared to 33 C in most areas.

The heat wave warning first went into effect for most parts of the country Tuesday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

On Sunday, the agency raised a heat wave advisory in some parts of Gyeonggi Province and South Jeolla Province to a heat wave warning.

Heat wave warnings are issued when the highest apparent temperature is expected to be 35 C or higher for more than two consecutive days or if major damage is anticipated from the heat.

The midday temperature rose to 35 C in Seoul, Daegu, Gangneung and Cheongju, while most of the country saw the mercury rise to 33 C.

The KMA advised the public to refrain from outdoor activities and urged those working outside to stop working between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

On Saturday, four heat-related deaths were reported in North Gyeongsang Province, according to the provincial fire authorities.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Family members of six former South Korean presidents have met at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae in the first such gathering dubbed as a symbol of “historic reconciliation.”

The meeting on Saturday came as Culture Minister Park Bo-gyoon invited the relatives of the former leaders to view a special exhibition marking the first anniversary of opening the compound to the public.

Cheong Wa Dae had long served as the presidential office and residential compound of South Korean presidents until President Yoon Suk Yeol relocated the presidential office to Seoul’s Yongsan district and opened Cheong Wa Dae to the public in May last year.

The exhibition, which kicked off June 1, highlights the lives of the former presidents by bringing together items that symbolize each of them. More than 230,000 people have attended the exhibition since its opening.

Attending Saturday’s event were a daughter-in-law of South Korea’s first president, Rhee Syng-man, and five sons of five late presidents: Yun Po-sun, Park Chung-hee, Roh Tae-woo, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung.

The meeting is meant to remember that the country’s “proud history” would have been impossible without the devotion of the former presidents, to overcome conflicts and confrontations in the country’s tumultuous modern history through the historic reconciliation of their family members and to pledge to create a new vision for the country, the culture minister said.

The family members recalled the lives of the former presidents and their own as being the children of a national leader.

“Father’s (efforts) to overcome poverty and modernize his home country were to establish a foundation for national integration,” said Park Ji-man, the son of late President Park Chung-hee and younger brother of former President Park Geun-hye.

Some credit Park Chung-hee with rebuilding South Korea from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War, while others accuse him of violating human rights and clamping down on democracy during his authoritarian rule. South Korea has now become a full-fledged democracy and an economic powerhouse.

Kim Hong-up, a son of late President Kim Dae-jung, noted how his father had invited former Presidents Choi Kyu-hah, Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo and Kim Young-sam to Cheong Wa Dae for dinner in a rare meeting that was aimed at conveying a message of unity to the public.

In 1973, Kim Dae-jung was kidnapped from a hotel in Japan by South Korea’s spy agency during the harsh rule of then President Park Chung-hee.

In 1980, Kim was sentenced to death on charges of sedition and conspiracy in the wake of a military coup by Chun and a democratization movement in the southwestern city of Gwangju, Kim’s political stronghold.

The family members of the former presidents pledged to help create and spread a presidential culture of unity and positivity, according to the culture ministry.

Chun’s family members did not attend Saturday’s gathering.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

South Korea’s weather agency said a heat wave warning remained in effect for most parts of the country Sunday, with heat-related deaths reported in the southeastern region where temperatures soared to over 33 C.

The heat wave warning first went into effect for most parts of the country Tuesday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

On Sunday, the agency raised a heat wave advisory in some parts of Gyeonggi Province and South Jeolla Province to a heat wave warning.

Heat wave warnings are issued when the highest apparent temperature is expected to be 35 C or higher for more than two consecutive days or if major damage is anticipated from the heat.

The midday temperature rose to 35 C in Seoul, Daegu, Gangneung and Cheongju, while most of the country saw the mercury rise to 33 C.

The KMA advised the public to refrain from outdoor activities and urged those working outside to stop working between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Heat-related deaths had been reported in North Gyeongsang Province where the temperature rose above 33 C in most areas as of 3 p.m.

Two men, in their 80s and 90s, were found collapsed in a farm field and near a road, and were pronounced dead, according to the provincial fire authorities.

A woman in her 90s was sent to a hospital for treatment after she was also found collapsed in a farm field.

On Saturday, four heat-related deaths were reported in North Gyeongsang Province, the fire authorities said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency