Category: Korea-Business

The New York Times has taken notice of how progressive policies that have been championed in the US have not worked in South Korea:

INCHEON, South Korea — As President Trump leads a drive to slash taxes and pare back regulation, one major economy is taking a different approach. 
Under President Moon Jae-in, South Korea has raised taxes and the minimum wage in the name of economic growth. So far, it hasn’t worked out as planned.
Growth has slowed, unemployment has risen and small-business owners like Moon Seung are complaining. Mr. Moon, founder of an auto parts maker called Dasung in Incheon, an industrial town near Seoul, says his labor costs were up an extra 3 percent last year after the minimum wage rose to 7,530 Korean won, or about $6.70, an hour. That may not sound like much, but it ate into his razor-thin profit margin and prompted him to stop hiring.

“We can’t take it,” Mr. Moon said. “This is a problem not just for the employers, but for the employees.”

NY Times

You can read the rest at the link.

The technology is kind of cool, but I am not sure why someone would need a rollable television?:

LG Electronics unveiled the world’s first “rollable” television at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019 that launched in Las Vegas, United States, on Tuesday. 

Last year, its affiliate LG Display unveiled a prototype of a 65-inch rollable OLED display panel at the same event. Dubbed the LG Signature OLED TV R9, it uses the same technology, only it comes with an aluminium case at the screen’s bottom that looks like a long tissue box.

A rolling OLED display was possible because unlike TV panels of the past, OLED screens don’t need backlight to show color, but have molecules that let out light on their own. 

The panel can roll itself up and down from the case so that the television set looks more like a long, rectangular table once the screen is completely inserted. LG boasts that the screen can maintain its color definition even as it rolls itself. R9 won the CES 2019 Innovation Awards in the video display sector. 

LG plans to launch global sales of R9 this year, starting from Korea. Its price was not disclosed, but it will be among LG’s premium television lineups.

Joong Ang Ilbo

I am curious to see how durable and useful this foldable smartphone is going to be:

Samsung Electronics Co. plans to launch its first foldable smartphone in March, along with a fifth-generation (5G) network-powered Galaxy S10, industry sources said Monday.

According to the sources, the South Korean tech giant plans to unveil the flagship Galaxy S10 smartphone in February, followed by the presumed foldable Galaxy F and another edition of the Galaxy S10 that runs on the 5G network in March.

The outlook came after Samsung Electronics President Koh Dong-jin, who heads the mobile business, said last week that the company will release a foldable smartphone within the first half of 2019. Koh said the shipment volume of the foldable smartphone will be at least 1 million.

Industry watchers said Samsung is expected to showcase the upcoming foldable smartphone in the Mobile World Congress in February, ahead of the official launch in the following month.

The much-awaited foldable smartphone, however, is not expected to support the 5G network.

While the price of the foldable smartphone has not been decided, industry watchers said it may cost around 2 million won (US$1,770). The steep price is expected to limit sales.

Samsung said the upcoming foldable smartphone will fold inward, and will sport a 7.4-inch screen when unfolded and have a 4.6-inch display like a regular smartphone when folded. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Along with the sexism here, the problem with so many Korean workplaces is how much they depend on _your_ loyalty for employee retention. That, and the age discrimination that makes it harder for you to find work elsewhere the longer you stay. https://t.co/jdmFTMh5SN

— the oranckay (@oranckay) November 14, 2018

It seems to me that Samsung is getting off pretty cheap on this issue:

Samsung Electronics plans to deliver an official apology on the long-standing dispute surrounding its former workers suffering from diseases apparently related to the working environments at its factories, the mediation committee said Wednesday.

The apology is part of the agreement reached between one of the world’s leading makers of chips and Supporters for the Health and Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry (Sharps), a group of victims suffering from various illnesses such as leukemia after working on Samsung’s production lines.

Earlier this month, the mediation committee announced the settlement – which Samsung and victims earlier agreed to accept – which included compensation of up to 150 million won ($132,000) per illness.

The mediation committee said the signing ceremony of the settlement will be held on Nov. 23. In July, Samsung and Sharps agreed to accept any decision made by the mediator to end the issue that has been unsettled for over 10 years.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

For people who live in Korea and are making money from Youtube channel monetization, then yes they should be paying their taxes.  Anyone want to make a bet that every conservative with a Youtube channel will be audited to make sure they are paying taxes?:

Korean tax authorities are vowing to crack down on high-earning YouTubers to ensure that they are paying their taxes in full.

Last month, National Tax Service (NTS) Commissioner Han Sung-hee promised to take measures to “prevent tax evasion” by well-paid YouTubers during the National Assembly’s annual questioning session.

Han said that while the NTS had only advised 513 YouTubers to pay income taxes in the past, it was open to launching investigations into those who have not voluntarily declared taxes.

Starting in October, the tax authorities have been looking into YouTubers’ tax returns and verifying their authenticity. The NTS plans to finish verifications by the end of the year and launch investigations into suspicious individuals from next year.

“We are now collecting information on YouTubers who are suspected of not paying taxes,” said one tax official who requested anonymity. “We receive records on individuals who earn over $10,000 in foreign currency per year from the Bank of Korea.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

This news is about as surprising as North Korea maintaining missile bases:

Small and mid-sized companies are laying off workers ahead of another 10.9-percent hike in the minimum wage in January to stay afloat.

According to the Korea Employment Information Service, a total of 497,314 workers were laid off by small and mid-sized companies and applied for unemployment support in the third quarter of this year, up a whopping 37,710 compared to the same period of 2017.

This was the biggest rate of increase for the third quarter since the government started tallying statistics in 2010. Over the same period, 110,000 workers were laid off by big businesses, up 14 percent. That means the government has handed out W5.5 trillion in unemployment support in the first 10 months of this year, already surpassing last year’s total of W5.02 trillion (US$1=W1,130).  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

More bad press for BMW in South Korea:

BMW cars are still bursting into flames in Korea as a huge recall here continues after a spate of vehicle fires over the summer crippled the German automaker.

A BMW X5 30d SUV caught fire on Tuesday evening in Seoul while it was being driven. The 2007 version of the model is powered by diesel and is not included in the recall list. The fire did not cause any injuries.

Just a day earlier, a gasoline-powered 3-Series model that wasn’t included in the latest recall list caught fire in Yongin, Gyeonggi.

The driver pulled over after realizing that the steering wheel was not operating properly. The engine quickly caught fire once the car had stopped, the driver told a local fire station. No injuries were reported.

“We are currently looking into the case to figure out the reason behind the fire,” a spokesperson for BMW Korea said Tuesday.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

It looks like the Moon administration better hurry up and fire everyone else at Statistics Korea because the job numbers just continue to be dismal:

Anchor: New jobs figures released Wednesday show a bleak situation. Unemployment reached its highest point last month since the Asian financial crisis nearly 20 years ago.
Our Park Jong-hong has this report.

Report: The latest figures show South Korea’s jobless rate rose slightly in August to four percent due to a fall in employment in the retail and manufacturing sectors.

Young adults aged 15 to 29 who were out of a job last month stood at ten percent, up six-tenths of a percentage point from the previous year and the highest since 1999.

The number of employed went up by a mere three-thousand compared to August last year to 26-point-nine million.

This increase in jobs last month is the smallest since January 2010, when ten-thousand jobs were cut.

For the second month in a row, the number of newly added jobs has stayed below ten-thousand per month.

An official at Statistics Korea, which compiled the report, said one main reason behind the dismal figures is the struggling business at automakers and shipbuilders which is spilling over to related sectors like retail.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

If you own a BMW you better get it checked out soon:

Two more BMW diesel cars caught fire Thursday morning, less than an hour apart, as Korea’s Transport Ministry mulls banning the fire-prone BMW vehicles from Korean roads.

This makes 36 cases of BMWs bursting into flames in Korea this year, eight in the last nine days.

As some of the vehicles that caught fire in recent weeks are not even included in BMW’s official recall list, industry analysts are raising new doubts about the company’s description of the cause of the fires.

On Thursday, a 730Ld model caught fire on the Namhae Expressway in South Gyeongsang.

The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes, according to the local fire station.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but BMW is saying the fires are being caused by an exhaust gas recirculation issue.