This is going to be quite the tax bill for whoever takes over Samsung after the death of Lee Kun-hee:

As Samsung chief Lee Kun-hee passed away, his heirs, including his only son, Jae-yong, and his sisters will shoulder a record high amount of inheritance tax, industry sources said Sunday.

Lee Kun-hee, who led South Korea’s top family-controlled conglomerate Samsung Group, died at a hospital in Seoul on Sunday at age 78, leaving behind stock assets of some 18 trillion won (US$15.9 billion).

The senior Lee is survived by his wife, Hong Ra-hee, and only son, Jae-yong, and two daughters — Boo-jin and Seo-hyun.

Korea Biz Wire

You can read more at the link, but the article says the tax bill will be about 10 trillion won which is about $9 billion dollars.

Sad news for the family and friends of Samsung architect Lee Kun-hee who passed away yesterday:

 Lee Kun-hee, who had transformed Samsung Group into one of the world’s major tech giants from a small trading firm, died at a hospital in Seoul on Sunday at age 78, leaving a thorny succession challenge for his children.

The chairman of the flagship Samsung Electronics had been bedridden since May 2014 following a heart attack.

“Chairman Lee passed away on October 25 with his family, including Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, by his side. Chairman Lee was a true visionary who transformed Samsung into the world-leading innovator and industrial powerhouse from a local business,” Samsung said in a statement.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Lee took over Samsung in 1987 at age 45 from his father and his turned it into one of the world’s largest and most respected name brand companies.

It will be interesting to see how the succession plays out with the Moon administration busy trying to throw his son in jail.

It seems to me instead of erasing the history, the Bank of Korea should just put a plaque there explaining the history to people:

Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol said Friday the bank is in talks with the Cultural Heritage Administration to possibly remove the engraving of the word “priority” written in Chinese on the cornerstone of the bank’s former headquarters in downtown Seoul.

“The BOK will be very quick in addressing the issue about Hiromubi Ito’s calligraphy and the strokes slanted down from the left to the bottom right which were found in the two characters of ‘jeong’ and ‘cho’ engraved on the foundation stone. The bank is exploring three options. After thorough discussions with the CHA, the bank will resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” the central bank chief told lawmakers on the sidelines of his participation in this year’s annual Assembly audit of the BOK.

Lee didn’t elaborate further, but he issued a public apology over the matter. The apology came a day after the CHA confirmed the writing engraved on the bank’s former headquarters was Hirobumi Ito’s handwriting. 

Ito was the first resident general of Korea prior to the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of the peninsula. Ito was assassinated by Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun in Manchuria in 1909.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Just another sign that winter is near:

Seoul observed the first frost and freeze of autumn Saturday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

The temperature dropped to 3.2 degrees Celsius in the capital during the morning as a cold front swept across the country, the weather agency said.

The first frost and freeze in Seoul this fall were spotted in the morning, arriving three days and 15 days earlier than last year, respectively, as well as two days and six days earlier than the long-term average.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest shot fired in the never-ending Dokdo debate:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday refuted Japan’s renewed claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo and warned of stern a response to the unsubstantiated claims.

“Dokdo is our inherent territory, historically, geographically and by international law,” the ministry said in a statement. “We want to make it clear that whatever attempt Japan makes cannot have an influence over our firm territorial sovereignty.”

Earlier in the day, the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) unveiled on its website aerial charts from the 1950s made by the United States Air Force in what it claimed to be evidence that South Korea was illegally occupying the islets.

The JIIA is a security think tank affiliated with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also collects and studies materials related to their history, territory and sovereignty.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Here is some more standard Chinese propaganda that people scoff at outside of China, but all Emperor President Xi cares about is what his domestic audience thinks and they believe this:

It was a time of Chinese sacrifice and bravery in the face of U.S. aggression. It was a just war in which the hardscrabble, newly established People’s Republic reluctantly stood up to American imperialists – and the Americans, richer but hardly tougher, were beaten.

That may not be the complete story of the Korean War, a major 20th century conflict that touched off when North Korea invaded the South in June 1950, drawing in the United States, the United Nations and eventually China.

But this week, that tidy narrative has overwhelmed China’ state newspapers, dominated the airwaves and even filled box offices as the Communist Party rolled out an unprecedented week of commemorative events and coverage to mark 70 years since Chairman Mao Zedong sent Chinese forces across the Yalu River and ground the Americans to a stalemate.

With U.S.-China tensions at the highest point in years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping hammered home the message in a blistering televised address about the “magnificent” War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, as the Korean War is commonly referred to in China.

Washington Post

You can read more at the link.