Day: February 10, 2024

SEOUL, President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a Marine Corps unit Saturday to show appreciation for the troops’ service and order strong readiness against North Korea, his office said.

On the Lunar New Year holiday, Yoon visited the Marine Corps Second Division in Gimpo, just west of Seoul, to inspect the unit’s military readiness amid heightened tension with Pyongyang.

“If the enemy provokes, you have to sternly and overwhelmingly respond under the principle of ‘act first, report later’ to completely crush the enemy’s will,” Yoon was quoted as saying.

He inspected the multiple rocket system Cheonmoo and urged the troops to be prepared against any North Korean provocations.

During his meeting with soldiers, Yoon made surprise appearances in some soldiers’ video calls with their parents on the traditional holiday.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, South Korea’s point man on North Korea said Saturday the government will keep pushing for the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, saying Pyongyang’s provocations will not deter Seoul’s drive.

Kim made the remark after attending an annual gathering of separated families and others who were born in North Korea but ended up south of the border following the war. To mark the Lunar New Year, they came to pay their respects to their ancestors and family members in North Korea by taking bows in that direction from the border town of Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

“We will not give up on our pursuit of fundamental solutions to the problems regarding separated families and abductees,” Kim said. “The government will not be affected by any type of provocation or action from North Korea.”

Kim said Seoul will remain open to dialogue with Pyongyang on humanitarian matters and added, “North Korea must respond seriously without any political considerations whatsoever.”

Kim said any effort to addres
s inter-Korean humanitarian issues must begin with the restoration of an inter-Korean liaison communication channel, while also blaming Pyongyang for the strained ties between the Koreas.

“We urge North Korea to normalize that communication channel, which it unilaterally cut off in April last year,” Kim said. “To separated families, who suffered through the war and division on the Korean Peninsula, the recent series of actions taken by North Korea is absolutely deplorable. North Korea must halt provocations that threaten the survival of our people and must not ignore the pains of separated families.”

In recent years, aging members of separated families in South Korea have died without having a chance to meet with their long-lost relatives in North Korea amid strained inter-Korean ties.

The number of surviving separated family members came to 39,881 as of the end of November 2023, with 65.6 percent of the total aged 80 and older, government data showed.

The divided Koreas have held 21 rounds of reunions si
nce the landmark summit of their leaders in 2000, bringing together more than 20,000 family members who had not seen each other since the war. The two sides last staged temporary family reunions in 2018.

In 2022, South Korea proposed holding talks with North Korea on family reunions, but the North has yet to respond to the offer.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, North Koreans celebrated the Lunar New Year on Saturday dining on traditional food and playing folk games, while also paying tribute to their two late former leaders on one of the country’s biggest holidays, Pyongyang’s state media reported.

The Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s main newspaper, published an article in its Saturday edition describing the Lunar New Year as “one of the holidays that our people enjoy the most.”

According to the story, North Koreans clean up their homes and prepare traditional dishes to mark the Lunar New Year. The paper also said North Korean people dine on “tteokguk,” a soup with rice cakes, with their family and take “sebae,” a formal bow, before the elderly — just as South Korean people do.

North Koreans also play folk games on the Lunar New Year, including “yutnori,” a board game played with four wooden sticks as dice.

Even though it’s a holiday, North Koreans don’t celebrate the Lunar New Year over an extended holiday, as South Koreans do.

Unlike in South Korea, whe
re millions of people travel out of Seoul and its surrounding region toward their hometowns en masse during the weekend, North Koreans face travel restrictions.

In North Korea, the birthday of its founder, Kim Il-sung (April 15), called the Day of the Sun, and the birthday of Kim’s son, Kim Jong-il (Feb. 16), known as Kwangmyongsong Day, are considered the two biggest holidays.

On the start of the new year, North Koreans typically visit the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun or statues of the two Kims in their neighborhoods to pay tribute to their former leaders.

The reclusive regime began celebrating the Lunar New Year in 1989 on Kim Jong-il’s order, and it became an official holiday in 2003.

The Korean Central News Agency claimed Saturday that it was thanks to Kim Jong-il’s devotion to the Korean tradition that the people were able to celebrate the Lunar New Year with joy.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, South Korea may face an outflow of foreign investment from its financial market should the widely anticipated U.S. rate cuts be further delayed, according to a report Saturday.

The report from the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF) noted that current conditions remained favorable for a steady rise in foreign investment, citing the upcycle in the semiconductor industry.

“Favorable conditions for an inflow of foreign capital have been created for now, considering the shift in global monetary policy and the upcycle in the information technology sector,” the report said.

It added, however, “There exists a need to be mindful that the possibility of an outflow remains high until a soft landing of the U.S. economy and rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve become visible.”

Foreign investment in the South Korean market has been on the rise since November, with foreigners net purchasing 11.2 trillion won (US$8.43 billion) worth of local shares and 3.9 trillion won worth of bonds in the November-J
anuary period, according to the KCIF.

U.S. interest rates have remained higher than those of South Korea since September 2022, and currently remain up to 2 percentage points higher.

The report attributed the recent rise in foreign investment here to large drops in recent years.

According to the report, foreign investment dropped by a net 21 trillion won in the 2020-2022 period, creating a large enough “room” for future inflows.

In January, foreign investment in listed firms here accounted for 33.0 percent of total market capitalization, compared with a five-year average of 34.4 percent.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, Hyundai Motor Co. has signed a 10-year partnership with the New York-based Whitney Museum of American Art to support its exhibition projects and the Whitney Biennial, according to the company Saturday.

The long-term sponsorship will offer an innovative platform for artists to experiment and showcase their works to the world, while supporting the Whitney Biennial, which opens on March 20, the company said in a statement.

Hyundai Motor said the partnership is expected to embrace “the complexities of our present by inviting visionary artists to share perspectives from their communities.”

In the past decade, Hyundai has expanded its partnerships with museums to support “innovation in arts” as part of its efforts to enhance its brand awareness as a premium carmaker.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, Exports of soju, distilled Korean liquor, topped US$100 million for the first time in 10 years in 2023, data showed Saturday.

According to the Korea Customs Service, outbound shipments of soju reached $101.4 million in 2023, an increase of 8.7 percent from 2022.

The last time soju exports surpassed $100 million was in 2013.

Soju is a distilled liquor made of ethyl alcohol and water, with the addition of sweeteners.

An industry source said soju sold overseas had been mostly consumed by South Korean residents in the past, but it has grown more popular among the locals thanks to the rise of Korean pop culture.

As of only a few years ago, soju exports had been on the decline, falling from $97.6 million to $89.7 million in 2019 and down to $82.4 million in 2021.

The figure bounced back to $93.3 million in 2022 and has been on an upward trajectory since.

Among countries, Japan was the largest importer of South Korean soju with a little over $30 million, followed by the United States with $23.6 millio
n.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, Rep. Ji Seong-ho, a North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party, proposed a bill calling for the designation of a commemorative day for North Korean defectors, his office said Saturday.

Ji submitted a revision to the North Korean Defectors Protection and Settlement Support Act, which aims to designate July 8 as a commemorative day for defectors from the North. The date is when the government resettlement facility for North Koreans, called Hanawon, first opened in 1999, his office said.

“Hanawon plays a decisive role in the resettlement of North Koreans, as the facilities provide education as well as policy support. We anticipate the bill could improve how we view and think of North Korean defectors, who are still socially vulnerable,” Ji’s office said.

During a Cabinet meeting last month, President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the unification ministry to designate a day for North Korean defectors. The unification ministry has since been working on the order while lawmakers ha
ve submitted bills presenting their opinions on an appropriate date.

Last month, another defector-turned-lawmaker, Rep. Tae Yong-ho, also proposed designating Aug. 26 as the special day for North Korean defectors. The proposed date is when the Soviet Union officially closed off the 38th parallel in 1945, leading to the division on the Korean Peninsula.

Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun proposed designating July 14, the day when the defector settlement and support act was enforced in 1997.

South Korea has a longstanding policy of accepting any North Korean defectors who want to live in the South and repatriating any North Koreans who stray into the South if they want to return.

According to the data from Seoul’s unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs, the total number of the North’s defectors in the country is over 34,000.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, Traffic on major highways began to build up across South Korea on Saturday morning as millions of people hit the road on the Lunar New Year.

This year’s holiday began Friday, marked by the traditional exodus of people from Seoul and its surrounding areas to their hometowns.

On the second day of the long weekend Saturday, more people headed out of the capital region, while others were making their way back to Seoul.

According to the state-run Korea Expressway Corp., a drive from Seoul to the southeastern port city of Busan, 320 kilometers away, was expected to take six hours and 40 minutes as of 9 a.m. Saturday. A trip eastward to Gangneung, some 160 kilometers from Seoul, was expected to take three hours.

Per the Korea Expressway Corp., there was also congestion on Seoul-bound highways Saturday morning. The company estimated 6.05 million vehicles would travel out of the capital area, while another 460,000 cars would move in the opposite direction on the day.

Congestion on roads headed out of Seou
l will likely peak between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and ease around 9 p.m., the Korea Expressway Corp. said.

Traffic back to the Seoul area will peak around 3 to 4 p.m. and ease by around 2 to 3 a.m. Sunday, according to the company.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Bangkok, GPSC announces net profits for 2023 totaling 3,694 million baht, along with setting goals for 2024 to increase the portfolio of future energy innovations. Support customer needs

Mr. Worawat Pittayasiri, Chief Executive Officer and President of Global Power Synergy Public Company Limited or GPSC, the innovation leader in the electricity business of PTT Group, revealed that the company’s 2023 operating results have Total net profit was 3,694 million baht, an increase of 2,803 million baht or 314% from the previous year. From increasing the efficiency of production management To control production costs and focus on maximizing benefits. As a result, the gross profit of large power plants (IPPs) is at a good level. and the operating results of the small power plant (SPP) group can continue to grow. Combined with the electricity price factor being able to better reflect the cost of energy prices from the previous year, the margin from selling electricity to industrial customers began to increase accordi
ngly. In addition, this year the company has focused on controlling lower operating expenses (OPEX Saving Program) and from the commitment to expand investment, resulting in the company Able to realize profit share from Solar platform business from Avada Energy Private Limited (AEPL) in India, more than 300 million baht from increased commercial operations of projects. In addition, in 2023 AEPL Able to win the bid for more than 5 gigawatts of new production capacity, which will be able to gradually increase commercial operation.

For operating results in the 4th quarter of 2023, compared to the same period last year (YoY), there was total revenue of 18,319 million baht, while total net profit was 478 million baht, an increase of 209%, with the main factor coming from Electricity that better reflects energy costs In addition, the volume of electricity sold to industrial customers increased. In addition, some income was recognized from insurance compensation from Gheco-One power plants. and Sriracha Power Plant
. Compared to the 3rd quarter of 2022 (QoQ), net profit decreased by 73%, mainly due to a decrease in operating results in the SPP section, together with a decrease in total electricity and steam sales volume from Some industrial customers stopped maintenance during the 4th quarter of 2023. However, the company’s profit share from the Changfang and Xidao (CFXD) offshore wind business, Taiwan, increased from higher electricity sales for a full quarter of all 12 wind turbines. plant

Mr. Worawat said that in 2024, it is still necessary to keep an eye on risk factors from the uncertainty of the conflict situation in the Middle East. It may affect the direction of world energy prices. However, the company is preparing to expand its clean energy business and other innovative businesses. both within the country and the target country It aims to seek opportunities and expand in the battery pack and cell business, energy storage systems (ESS) as well as Energy Management System to be in line with the company’s strate
gy for sustainable growth.

From creating efficiency in production management Along with Synergy operations and controlling operating expenses. Ready to seek investment opportunities to expand the energy innovation portfolio both domestically and abroad. Moving forward to increase the proportion of renewable energy In line with the direction of world energy .

Source: Thai News Agency

SEOUL, South Korea seeks to start developing an advanced ship-based missile interceptor this year, the state arms procurement agency has said, amid efforts to counter evolving North Korean military threats.

Last year, the country’s defense authorities approved a 690 billion-won (US$520 million) project set to run through 2030 to develop the “Ship-to-Air Missile-II” designed to shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said it is pushing to begin research and development of the missile this year, aiming to equip it on the Navy’s next-generation destroyer currently under development.

The missile will be designed to have improved performance compared to the Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) currently used by the Navy, DAPA said, without providing details. The SM-2 interceptor, built by U.S. missile maker Raytheon, has a range of 90 nautical miles, or 166.7 kilometers.

The project comes amid Pyongyang’s push to develop new weapons systems, highlighted by its launc
hes of purported “strategic” cruise missiles earlier this year.

Source: Yonhap News Agency