Category: General

Today (%) Previous Session(%) Change (BP)

1-year TB 3.352 3.371 -1.9

2-year TB 3.269 3.300 -3.1

3-year TB 3.191 3.204 -1.3

10-year TB 3.293 3.306 -1.3

2-year MSB 3.259 3.266 -0.7

3-year CB (AA-) 3.939 3.953 -1.4

91-day CD 3.740 3.770 -3.0

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Lai Ching-te, the presidential candidate from Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive party, won the election on Saturday. Lai, a pro-U.S. politician, advocates for Taiwan’s independence and even wants to use English as the country’s official language. Upon his nomination as the presidential candidate of the party, China called him a “traitor” and “trouble maker” in the same context as President Xi Jinping’s emphasis of “One China” in December. If China-Taiwan relations deteriorate, it will likely heighten the tensions in U.S.-China relations and Northeast Asia security.

The problem is the possibility of North Korea pushing the security situation to the limits. At the year-end full meeting of the Workers’ Party, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the two Koreas “two hostile countries at war,” not the previous “same people countries.” His declaration violates the 1991 Basic Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-Aggression and Exchanges, which defined the inter-Korean relations as “special ones.” Kim’s proclamation tr
anslates into a rejection of unification based on the principle “one people and one nation, and two political systems and two governments.” In the 2000 summit in Pyongyang, his father Kim Jong-il signed the June 15 Joint Declaration which recognized commonalities between the South’s proposal for a loose association of the two states and the North’s proposal for a low-level federal system.

Kim Jong-un’s portrayal of the South-North relations as “countries at war” and his pledge to “conquer the entire territory of South Korea” means a threat to unify the divided land with nuclear weapons. North Koran experts like Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker evaluated the peninsula situation as the most tense since the Korean War.

Defense Minister Shin Won-sik shows a strong determination to retaliate against the North’s provocations “immediately, powerfully and to the last minute.” But the government must not ignore the need for crisis management at the same time. If the presidential office and all security-related min
istries only raise strong voices, it will certainly help escalate the likelihood of a regional military clash or a bigger conflict.

President Yoon Suk Yeol needs to send messages more prudently. Shortly after the presidential election in Taiwan, U.S. President Joe Biden started crisis management saying he doesn’t want Taiwan’s independence.

Our Foreign Ministry must demonstrate flexibility, and the Unification Ministry must find its appropriate role and solutions to address the North Korean leader’s declaration of “two different states at war.” The government also must reinforce the Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation and advance the extended deterrence.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, Seoul shares closed nearly flat Monday after an eight-session losing streak, as cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data buoyed hopes for rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) edged up 0.94 points, or 0.04 percent, to close at 2,525.99.

Trade volume was moderate at 788.29 million shares worth 8.05 trillion won (US$6.09 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 575 to 304.

Institutions bought a net 89.73 billion won worth of stocks, offsetting foreigners and individuals’ stock selling valued at 96.89 billion won.

The U.S. inflation data that came out Friday (U.S. time) gave a boost to bets on an early rate cut in the first quarter, analysts said.

“Despite the buoyed hopes for rate cuts (this year), losses in battery stocks kept KOSPI from rising further in the domestic market,” Lee Jae-won, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities Co., said.

In Seoul, battery and refiner stocks led declines.

L
eading car battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. fell 3.3 percent to 399,500 won, while another car battery firm Samsung SDI Co. declined 2 percent to 400,000 won, battery materials maker POSCO Future M dropped 2.6 percent to 306,000 won, and leading refiner SK Innovation Co. shed 1 percent to 123,400 won.

Among the gainers, market bellwether Samsung Electronics Co. rose 1.1 percent to 73,900 won, top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. rose 0.8 percent to 187,500 won, and the country’s national flag carrier Korean Air Co. climbed 0.4 percent to 22,950 won.

The local currency closed at 1,320.20 won against the greenback, down 6.7 won from the previous session’s close.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui has left for Russia for an official visit at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, state media reported Monday, amid deepening military cooperation between the two nations.

Choe is scheduled to visit Russia from Monday to Wednesday at Lavrov’s invitation, and her delegation was seen off at the airport Sunday by Vice Foreign Minister Pak Chol-jun and Russia’s Charge d’Affaires ad Interim Vladimir Topeha, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Her visit appears to be a reciprocal trip following Lavrov’s visit to Pyongyang in October and comes amid suspicions that North Korea has provided weapons to Russia for use in its war with Ukraine in return for Russia’s technical assistance for Pyongyang’s weapons programs.

Pyongyang and Moscow have denied any arms deals so far.

Last week, the White House said Russia recently fired additional North Korean ballistic missiles into Ukraine following earlier such launches on Dec. 30 and Jan. 2.

A
lso drawing attention is the issue of whether Choe and Lavrov will discuss a possible trip by Putin to North Korea, as the Russian leader accepted Kim’s invitation to visit the North during their summit at Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in September last year.

In April 2019, the North’s state media said Putin had accepted Kim’s proposal to visit Pyongyang during their first summit in Vladivostok. But at that time, the Kremlin did not confirm it, nor did Putin visit the North.

At a year-end party meeting, the North’s leader vowed to strengthen solidarity with countries standing against the United States. He is seeking to bolster ties with China and Russia vis-a-vis the strengthening of security cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, Prosecutors have requested the national bar association consider disciplinary action against opposition leader Lee Jae-myung as a lawyer, citing multiple criminal charges he is standing trial on, sources said Monday.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office filed the application on Dec. 14 with the Korean Bar Association, saying Lee’s dignity as a lawyer had been damaged due to the charges, the legal sources said

Lee, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party and a lawyer by occupation, has been indicted and standing trial on five different cases, including those on corruption charges involving two real estate development projects launched under his former term as the mayor of Seongnam, south of Seoul.

The Attorney-at-Law Act prohibits lawyers from any act that damages their dignity and requires district prosecution office chiefs to file for the bar association’s disciplinary action against lawyers accused of violating the act.

The bar association’s disciplinary committee has the aut
hority to impose penalties, ranging from a reprimand up to permanent expulsion, which automatically revokes the lawyer’s license.

Even if the committee officially initiates its disciplinary procedure for Lee, the main review process is not expected to commence until final court rulings on his cases.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, South Korean stocks opened higher Monday as chip and bio shares gained ground.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 5.86 points, or 0.23 percent, to 2,530.91 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics climbed 1.09 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix rose 0.75 percent.

Samsung Biologics also added 0.67 percent, and Celltrion climbed 0.66 percent.

Auto shares also started in positive terrain, with Hyundai Motor up 0.22 percent and its smaller affiliate Kia up more than 1 percent.

But battery shares got off to a weak start.

Industry leader LG Energy Solution dropped 1.57 percent, Samsung SDI retreated 1.72 percent, and POSCO Future M lost 0.48 percent.

Steel giant POSCO Holdings and leading chemical producer LG Chem also shed 0.56 percent and 0.89 percent, respectively.

The local currency was trading at 1,316.90 won against the U.S. dollar, down 3.4 won from the previous session’s close.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has completed its final check of competition venues and other facilities for the fourth Winter Youth Olympics opening in South Korea this week, the event’s officials said Monday.

The organizing committee of the Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics said IOC officials, together with Gangwon representatives, toured nine competition venues, the athlete’s village and sites for cultural festivals from Jan. 10 to 14.

The venue walkthrough was organized to allow the IOC to conduct its final check on Gangwon’s preparation for the competition, which opens Friday and wraps up on Feb. 1. Gangwon officials briefed IOC leaders, including Christophe Dubi, executive director of the Olympic Games, on issues including game operations, transportation, parking and catering.

IOC President Thomas Bach is scheduled to visit Gangwon on Wednesday.

Gangwon Province, on the eastern part of South Korea, is the first non-European host of the Winter Youth Olympics, with Austria, Norway and Sw
itzerland having held the first three editions. Many of the venues for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics will be used during the youth competition, including ski jumping and biathlon venues in PyeongChang, some 130 kilometers east of Seoul, and all ice venues in Gangneung, about 30 kilometers east of PyeongChang.

This will be the largest Winter Youth Olympics, with 1,803 athletes representing 79 nations. They will be competing in 81 events across seven sports and 15 disciplines.

Though medals will be awarded, there will be no official medal race, as the focus of the competition is on education, cultural exchange and friendship.

All events except for Friday’s opening ceremony will be free. Spectators can grab their free tickets on the official booking site, gangwon2024.com. Organizers said on Friday that over 320,000 tickets had been snatched up.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, The value of investment funds in South Korea grew from a year earlier in 2023, data showed Monday.

The net asset value of South Korean investment funds came to 971.4 trillion won (US$737.6 billion) as of the end of last year, up 68.1 trillion won from a year before, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.

“Interest rates remained high throughout the year, making bond products more attractive,” it said in a press release. The country’s central bank has kept its policy rate frozen at 3.5 percent since January 2023.

The net assets of bond funds stood at 138.2 trillion won as of end-2023, up 21.6 trillion won, or 18.5 percent, from a year earlier, while those of public funds surged 23 percent to 348.3 trillion won over the cited period, marking a turnaround from a 9.3 percent on-year decline in 2022.

The net assets of equity funds increased 53.9 trillion won, or 9.5 percent, over the cited period to 623.1 trillion won.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, The average lending rate of major banks in South Korea for mortgage loans fell from a month earlier in December, data showed Monday.

COFIX, or the Cost of Funds Index, a benchmark lending rate for mortgage loans, came to 3.84 percent last month, down 0.16 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Federation of Banks.

The COFIX rate for outstanding loans slipped 0.02 percentage point to 3.87 percent over the cited period.

COFIX is calculated based on costs of funding information provided by eight domestic banks in South Korea. They are Nonghyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Korea, Hana Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Kookmin Bank and Citibank Korea.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEJONG, South Korea on Monday unveiled its plan to establish what it calls a “semiconductor mega cluster” in southern Seoul by 2047 by promoting a total investment of 622 trillion won (US$472 billion) with Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc.

The envisioned cluster, which includes various industrial zones throughout southern Gyeonggi Province, will boast a total area of 21 million square meters and post a monthly production capacity of 7.7 million wafers by 2030, according to the joint statement by the industry and science ministries.

In detail, the government plans to establish exclusive zones for the fabless industry in Pangyo, along with foundry and memory chip production facilities in Hwaseong, Yongin, Icheon and Pyeongtaek.

South Korea will also build an industrial zone for material, part and equipment businesses in Anseong, with research and development facilities in Giheung and Suwon.

Under the plan, the area, which currently houses 21 fabrication facilities, will host 16 additional fabs by 2
047, including three for research.

“By completing the construction of the semiconductor mega cluster at an earlier period, we will obtain the world’s leading competitiveness in the chip sector and offer quality jobs for younger generations,” Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun said.

In detail, Samsung Electronics Co. plans to invest a total of 500 trillion won for the project, including the 360 trillion-won budget for six new fabs in Yongin, 33 kilometers south of Seoul.

The country’s top chipmaker will also invest 120 trillion won to build three new fabs in Pyeongtaek, 54 kilometers south of Seoul, along with three research fabs in Giheung with 20 trillion won.

No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix will allocate 122 trillion won to build four new fabs in Yongin, according to the ministry.

Based on the investment from the private sector, the government plans to have the complex boast world-class production capacity focusing on cutting-edge products, including chips with a 2 nanometer process and high bandwidth memory.

Th
e ministry added the 622 trillion-won project will eventually create 3.46 million jobs during the process.

South Korea will take up 10 percent of the global market for non-memory chips by 2030 as well, rising sharply from the current estimate of 3 percent.

Along with the construction of the mega cluster, the government vowed to support the ecosystem by advancing the country’s self-sufficiency in the supply chain of key materials, parts and equipment to 50 percent by 2030 from the current estimate of 30 percent.

Other policy support includes launching a testbed for suppliers of chip-related materials, parts and equipment at the Yongin complex by 2027, where companies can test-run their products.

Source: Yonhap News Agency