economy
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Kimchi Premium and S. Korea's Cryptocurrency Mess
On Jan. 30, the government regulations regarding the cryptocurrency market in South Korea went into effect. What is the ‘kimchi premium’? Check out the video above. For a more detailed look at the premium and the government regulations, read Raphael’s “Kimchi Premium? Arbitrage? Regulations?
IMF 20 Years On: S. Korea’s Never-ending Crisis
Near the end of the service, Pastor Huh Woon-ho asked the packed tent of congregants a question he already knew the answer to: “What happened 20 years ago?” The churchgoers instinctively knew what Huh was getting at, and responded in low-voiced unison, “The IMF crisis.” Before that, the worst financial
The Myth of S. Korea’s World-beating Nuclear Energy Exports
“Mommy, can I go and play by the nuclear power station?” — The above promotional image is from the website of KEPCO, South Korea’s largest energy provider. This autumn, South Korean media and netizens were busy arguing out the pros and cons of building new
What Does Samsung Make?
After Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007, Samsung responded with a drive to create world-leading smartphones of its own. It succeeded, with the result that its Galaxy smartphones are now pretty much neck-and-neck with Apple’s iPhones in terms of performance and popularity. But Samsung does so much more
Do Convenience Stores With No Staff Signal a Future with Fewer Jobs?
Inside, the convenience store looks like any of the countless shops one finds on almost every street in South Korea. Under bright fluorescent lights there are shelves of instant noodles and snacks, refrigerators stocked with iced coffee and soft drinks, racks of mobile phone chargers and cables. But unlike other
Amid North Korean Threat, Free Trade Agreement Bedevils Moon Jae-in Presidency
Just before the National Assembly was set to vote, a middle-aged man stood at the podium, eyes closed in an apparent meditative state, his navy blue suit covered in fine off-white dust. The man was leftist lawmaker Kim Seon-dong, and a few moments earlier he had set off a tear
Being Frugal, Not YOLO, Is South Korea's New Fad
Who knew that a podcast analyzing receipts could create such a sensation? That’s all there is to the recording: A South Korean comedian breaks down somebody’s monthly expenditures and rates the spending based on the contributor’s income and long-term financial goals. Two comedians sit
The "Mad Bitches" of S. Korea's Irregular Workforce Fight Back
For sixteen years, Pak Geum-ja was a cafeteria worker at a public school in Suncheon, South Korea. She worked next to appliances that made so much noise that she began to lose her sense of hearing. Her job wore her down so much that her mouth was constantly full of
Who Is to Blame for Inequality? The Hell Joseon Debate Rumbles On
Middle-aged KAIST professor Lee Byung-tae found himself at the center of a social media furore of Trumpian proportions earlier last week after wading into the debate that is South Korea’s inter-generational divide. At 5:26 pm on Jul. 16, just minutes after posting links to articles on South Korea’
AlphaGo and Our Future
First there was shock. Then there was hope. Then there was fear and defeat. Last summer, one of the world’s best go players was defeated by artificial intelligence in a highly publicized series of matches at a five-star hotel in downtown Seoul. It was a humiliating loss of man
The Age of E-Mart Under Moon Jae-in
South Korea’s first branch of E-mart, now the country’s largest retailer and originally inspired by Walmart, opened in November 1993. That was about four years after the country’s first convenience store, the Seven Eleven near the Olympic Village in Seoul, appeared. It’s
Black Fowl Down? Avian Influenza Outbreak Threatens Indigenous Poultry Stock
Visitors approaching the entrance to Yeonsan Ogye Black Chicken Farm in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, are normally greeted by a particular sight: hundreds of chickens, clad in black, roaming freely about the yard. Since November, however, this is no longer the case. The start of winter in South Korea last