A South Korean defense company will sign a deal with Poland, today, to sell 120 locally developed self-propelled howitzers, a military source said Tuesday.
“Samsung Techwin Co. will sign a contract with Poland’s defense ministry at 7 p.m. in Korea to export K-9 self-propelled howitzers,” the source said, asking not to be identified. “Under the contract, the company will directly supply 24 howitzers by 2017. The remaining 96 will be produced in Poland.”
The total export value is estimated at about $320 million (347 billion won), according to the source.
Samsung Techwin developed the 155-millimeter howitzer for the nation’s armed forces in 1998 to replace K-55 howitzers. Equipped with state-of-the-art firing and mobility systems, the K-9 has a maximum range of 40 kilometers. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but this arms purchase by Poland is definitely aimed at upgrading the country’s defenses in wake of Russian aggression in the region. Samsung Techwin ought to send a big thank you note to Putin for the increased business to the arms market that the South Koreans have been trying to expand for many years.
Via a reader tip comes this news that the daughter of the Chairman of Korean Air decided to have a airplane returned to the gate to boot a stewardess she was unhappy with:
The daughter of Korean Air Lines Co. Chairman Cho Yang Ho ordered a plane back to the gate so she could remove a crew member who gave an incorrect answer to a question on how to serve macadamia nuts, the airline said.
Heather Cho, 40, a vice president of the airline, ordered the head of the service crew on Flight 86 from New York to Seoul to deplane after an attendant earlier had served Cho macadamia nuts without asking, the carrier said. Cho then summoned the purser to ask a question about the airline’s policy on serving nuts. Cho ordered the man to leave the plane when he couldn’t answer. Under the carrier’s rules, passengers must be asked first before serving.
The purser didn’t know the company’s procedures and “kept on making up lies and excuses,” Korean Air said in a separate statement late yesterday.
The aircraft had already left the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport for takeoff on Dec. 5. It took no more than 2 minutes to return to the gate to deplane the crew member, according to the airline. The flight was 11 minutes late when it arrived in Seoul on Dec. 6.
Korean Air in its statement late yesterday apologized to passengers for the inconvenience the incident caused. It noted the plane was less than 10 meters from the gate at JFK when the decision to return was made. [BusinessWeek]
You can read more at the link, but I can understand her unhappiness because serving nuts for example to a kid without asking could cause an allergic reaction and open the airline to a lawsuit. So I understand where she is coming from, but with that said what gives her the right to turn around a plane? Shouldn’t the pilots due to an emergency be the ones to make that decision? I would not classify this as an emergency and just something that the airline could of took care when the plane arrived back in Korea.
It is anyone surprised the Korean leftists were not out protesting the ROK-China FTA like they were doing with the U.S.?:
Korea and China more or less concluded years of on-and-off talks about a free trade pact on Monday. President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping announced the conclusion of the FTA in Beijing on Monday.
The negotiations began in May 2012.
Once the FTA goes into effect, binding the world’s second and 15th-largest economies, it will create an economic bloc valued at US$11 trillion.
Korea stands to gain greater access to a W5,000 trillion (US$1=W1,085) market with a population of 1.3 billion.
Korea is only the third country along with Chile and Peru to sign FTAs with the U.S., EU and China.
The biggest gain for Korean negotiators is that most of the agricultural market, including rice, remains protected from Chinese imports. China in turn managed to maintain existing tariffs on Korean-made petrochemical products, steel and cars. (Chosun Ilbo)
Those looking to get their hands on the newest offering from Apple won’t have to wait much longer as they have announced the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will begin sales on October 31st in 36 additional countries and territories, including South Korea, as well as across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa have been added by the Cupertino, California company in a press statement yesterday.
Pre-orders by Korea’s three mobile carriers — SK Telecom, KT and LG U+ — will begin October 24th. [Busan Haps]
It looks like Samsung and Facebook may be trying to come up with some kind of partnership to take on their business rivals:
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Samsung Electronics Co. headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday, Samsung officials said, in an apparent bid to discuss new business models for the two firms.
A Samsung spokesman said Zuckerberg had visited the headquarters, without revealing other details including people he met with and the purpose of the visit. He is believed to have met with Samsung’s heir-apparent Lee Jay-yong, who was spotted entering the building shortly ahead of the spokesman’s remarks. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if Samsung is trying to better integrate Facebook services into other Samsung products like their TVs or appliances? Anyone have any other ideas on what partnership they could be forging?
I am not sure how this is considered opening the rice market when you put a 513% tariff on imports:
South Korea has notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it will open its rice market in January next year with a 513 percent tariff rate.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Tuesday submitted to the WTO secretariat its plan to revise the country’s tariff rate on rice imports. [KBS World]
The Global Post takes a look at the massage parlor culture of Korean business:
Not far from glitzy office towers of Seoul are the frenzied hangouts where business is really done: a cacophony of karaoke joints, shady neon-lit parlors, and cluttered barbecue restaurants full of drunken managers ordering their junior staff to pound shots.
To Koreans, the business districts of American cities appear staid, orderly and a bit dull. A shop-worn joke here has it that North America is a “boring heaven” while their country is an “exciting hell.”
No salesman (and the majority are men) gets far here unless he can sing mean, inebriated karaoke and then slug through negotiations the next morning with a thumping headache. South Koreans slam the world’s largest quantity of hard liquor, imbibing 11.2 shots of soju per week, more than twice the average Russian’s vodka consumption (although soju isn’t always as strong).
What happens when this macho after-hours culture goes too far, littering the company tab with payments to prostitutes and hostess clubs? “That’s the business model we depend on. When the Korean men are doing business together, they hang out at these places,” explained the sex industry consultant.
There’s a dark logic to the debauchery.
“When you’re a man and you do something dirty and sinful with your business partner around, you share your secrets, you share trust like brothers. You can always trust your new business partner.” [Global Post]
You can read much more at the link about the different levels of clubs, massage parlors, and karaoke bars that serve as fronts for prostitution to include how many aspiring celebrities work in the high end clubs in hopes of landing a wealthy patron to help their careers.
This is an example of how absurd the competitive between Korean companies can get when things get this petty:
Samsung washing machine image via Flickr user SamsungTomorrow.
Following recent news that Korean alcohol company execs personally orchestrated a rumor-mongering campaign against the competition on Korean home turf, the bizarre story of an LG executive allegedly vandalizing Samsung-made washing machines in two Berlin appliance shops earlier this month leads one to question whether the country’s highly-competitive industries are taking it all a little too seriously.
On September 3rd, sales staff at the two different appliance shops in Berlin found five display models on the showroom floor with broken doors. The sales staff called local police after CCTV allegedly showed Jo Seong-jin, the president of the Home Appliance Division of LG Electronics, heavily leaning on the door hinges of the Samsung Crystal Blue washing machines so that they would be unable to close properly. The LG team was in town for the 2014 IFA electronics show. [Busan Haps]
