Recent Blog Posts



All Recent Posts

Moscow Backs Pyongyang’s Play

Alexander Vorontsov, head of the Department for Korean and Mongolian Studies and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russia Academy of Sciences, offers Moscow’s perspective on its “hopes” for the current North Korean situation.

 

In Russia, we are convinced that the plans to force Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs by squeezing it with sanctions, pressure, and increased isolation are ill-founded and simply will not work. It is when North Korean leaders are feeling increased military and other threats from outside that they speed up the strengthening of their “nuclear shield.” They are also prepared to sacrifice much for its sake, including limiting their own economic freedom and reforms (in the North Korean understanding of those concepts, of course).

We have concluded that the only real, workable method to first halt, then gradually limit, and in the long run eliminate North Korea’s nuclear capability, is for the main players to enter into substantive negotiations on the issues as soon as possible. And while closely monitoring Pyongyang’s fulfillment of its obligations, we should not fail to meet our own.

The Six Party Talks mechanism in Beijing is a perfectly workable tool that has provided a store of useful experience. Therefore, it would be extremely desirable to restart the talks as soon as possible. However, it should also be noted that it would be imprudent to exclude other international institutions to deal with similar problems in the future.

As a final conclusion, it is worth recalling a truth that is well known in the nonproliferation community: work on nonproliferation and regime change policies are absolutely incompatible. Anywhere attempts at regime change begin, successful nonproliferation efforts come to an immediate halt.

In sum, Russia, like the other members of the Six Party Talks, is truly interested in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. It is also very much alarmed by the continuing unmonitored development of North Korea’s nuclear programs in recent years.

Recently, Moscow achieved an important success in addressing to Pyongyang the international community’s concerns. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin visited Pyongyang on March 11-14, 2011 and directly called on North Korea to come back into Six Party Talks without preconditions, to declare moratoria on new nuclear and long range missile tests, to include the uranium enrichment issue on the Six Party Talks agenda, and to provide IAEA inspectors access to the nuclear facilities, including those working on uranium enrichment.

The most significant outcome of this visit was that the DPRK leadership accepted Russia’s proposal, agreeing to return to the Six Party Talks and include its uranium enrichment program on the agenda. They indicated as well, a readiness to consider all other issues in the course of negotiations on the principle of “action for action.”[4] Thus Pyongyang via Moscow sent a clear signal to the international community that it is ready to demonstrate a much more flexible and constructive approach to engaging in substantive dialogue.

This is a testament to our hope that the Korean peninsula’s “pendulum swing” is now moving back toward negotiation.

Powered by ScribeFire.


Filed under: Korea, Russia, WMD Tagged: kim jong il, north korea, nuclear proliferation, six party talks

Carter Headlines Simultaneous North Korea Talks

There will be a lot of planes in the air tomorrow flying around the world just to deal with North Korea. Is this all just a way to max out on frequent flyer miles?

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday he and other former heads of state traveling to North Korea this week hope to meet with reclusive leader Kim Jong-il and his heir-apparent son to help break a deadlock in efforts to denuclearize Pyongyang.

Carter, however, said in an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency that he has yet to hear from North Korea whether such a meeting has been arranged.

In an earlier statement, the delegation, from a group called “The Elders,” said the former heads of state “aim to see how we may be of assistance in reducing tensions and help the parties address key issues including denuclearization.”

The group, scheduled to fly into Pyongyang on Tuesday, makes its trip at the invitation of the North as tension runs high on the Korean Peninsula since North Korea bombarded a South Korean island and killed four people last November. The North, which conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, also continues to turn a blind eye to outside calls for a “sincere and serious attitude” to reopen six-nation nuclear talks.

(…)Carter’s visit comes amid a diplomatic flurry to revive the six-party talks. A South Korean delegation will visit Washington Tuesday to meet with Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, and other U.S. officials to discuss the nuclear talks and other bilateral and regional issues.

Chinese chief nuclear envoy Wu Dawei will visit Seoul on Tuesday for talks on ways to resume the six-party nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

Really, this is a huge waste of jet fuel, to maintain the fiction of no direct talks – why President Carter is going – or to avoid the Six-Party framework.

Powered by ScribeFire.


Filed under: East Asia, Korea, USA Tagged: china, jimmy carter, kim jong il, kurt campbell, north korea, South Korea, wu dawei

Busan e-FM Week 25: Financial Trading in Korea

About 'Open Mike in Busan'

Introduction

This week I’m going to talk about my job. I’m a financial trader, and I work for myself.

Provenance

I read recently that seven out of ten Korean people regretted changing their jobs. Clearly there’s a lot of stress here connected with people’s working lives. It’s the same in England. In fact, there’s a word for it in English – we call it the “rat-race”, and it’s a race many people dream about dropping out of. There’s a book about trading by Alexander Elder, which begins with these words: “You can be free. You can live and work anywhere in the world. You can be independent from routine and not answer to anybody. This is the life of a successful trader.” It’s a good opening because it speaks to the dream of freedom and independence people have.

Job stress and the desire for a better life on fairer terms are big issues in modern society, and it’s part of the reason I quit my job working for a company. I think a lot of Korean people can understand the motivation. And as far as trading is concerned, it seems there’s quite a lot of it happening here.

Ants

I was both surprised and appalled to find out how much some Korean people were trading the financial markets. You know, I found out they call Korean traders ‘ants’, and I guess that sums all of us up. When I came to Korea in 2006 – before the Credit Crisis – everyone was talking about their investments, or their funds (‘pundue’), if they left the job to the bank. The percentage gains were enormous – I heard stories of people making 20-30% per year. This is scary... and unsustainable. They’re the kind of gains you usually see before a crash. But even before people lost so much money in the Credit Crisis – I saw TV stories here, and heard stories from my extended Korean social network, of people losing tens of thousands of dollars (or tens of millions of won) in the stock market.

Korean trading TV channels

You can tell it’s a serious business because of the dedicated Korean TV channels aimed at these ‘ants’. We don’t have those kind of TV channels in England. We have Bloomberg, which is a sorry excuse for a financial channel [In the hour running up to the London market opening, Bloomberg UK runs a heavy mix of adverts and sports/entertainment stories to the detriment of reporting on the morning’s corporate news releases]. The Korean channels feature lots of charts and chat-feeds like Twitter with viewer commentary. It’s intense stuff, it’s what trading is really about [sadly], and I think there might be three Korean channels just like this.

Financial trading in Korea

The market here – and the way people trade – seems to be different to England. There’s a lot of actual real stock buying, which means betting on upwards movements only, although there are also Equity-Linked Warrants (ELW) which are quite popular [if it’s anything like ‘covered warrants’ in Europe the deck is probably, by design, heavily stacked against the trader]. It’s easy to look clever in a bull-market with products like this.

I buy and sell financial contracts. In theory, it’s the difference between the price now and the price at some future point in time [but unlike most warrants, they don’t carry exponentially volatile expiry dates]. Think of it as the theoretical ownership of shares in a company, but you never actually own the stock. I might hold these financial contracts for weeks, minutes or even sometimes seconds. I also bet on downwards movements in the things I trade – which is called ‘short-selling’ or ‘shorting’. Overall, it’s not a term I’m fond of, but I suppose you could class me as a ‘daytrader’.

Trade what you know

I don’t trade any Korean companies. When I lived in England, I used to trade the UK and the US primarily, but I can’t really trade the US any more because of the time difference.

The problem with trading Korean companies is mostly the language barrier [although I suspect market liquidity isn’t as great either]. If I used a Korean securities company (or ‘broker’), even if I can overcome the Korean language interface – or they offer one in English – I can’t understand the news. I have to understand what’s happening with what I’m trading [another school of thought in the community differs on this point]. Anyway, as things stand, with my brokers and trading systems, I have no access to the Korean market. I’m not exactly sure why this is – I have access to many other global markets including Japan – but historically I think there have been lots of restrictive laws in Korea which make the whole business rather difficult.

The fn Hub

Of course, Korea has its ‘Financial Hub’ project – or ‘fn Hub’ as they [bizarrely] call it [or as I call it, ‘another fn hub’]. The fn Hub wants to create an environment where “domestic and foreign companies can compete freely (and thrive together)”.

One of the reasons London has been successful as a financial centre is that there is little regulation there. But here there are barriers – for example in foreign banks taking over domestic ones. The Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act 2009 broke down some of the regulatory barriers, but the government is still talking about whether to allow hedge funds to operate here – hedge funds [rightly or wrongly] are a fundamental part of the modern system in London and New York.

So some companies can’t operate here, even if they want to. Of the contracts I trade, which include stocks, commodities and currencies, none of my currency brokers will let me have an account in Korea, because of the Korean financial and banking rules. And I understand the difficulties, because my bank – [fn] HSBC – which is a global bank advertising a ‘global account’, doesn’t allow online UK to Korea money transfers. It all has to be done by phone. [I found this important fact out after they’d convinced me to open an account on the basis I could do my global banking over the Internet – which given I specified I wanted it for Korea, they should have known was impossible].

So some companies can’t operate here, even if they want to. Of the contracts I trade, which include stocks, commodities and currencies, none of my currency brokers will let me have an account in Korea, because of the Korean financial and banking rules. And I understand the difficulties, because my bank – [fn] HSBC – which is a global bank advertising a ‘global account’, doesn’t allow online UK to Korea money transfers. It all has to be done by phone. [I found this important fact out after they’d convinced me to open an account on the basis I could do my global banking over the Internet – which given I specified I wanted it for Korea, they should have known was impossible].

So with HSBC – and other banks I suppose – I can’t bring money into Korea electronically, or move it out. So, no electronic movement of money. I think I understand why this is – it’s probably a legacy of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which created a fear that money moving in and out quickly could lead to a rapid economic collapse. But restrictions are the enemy of capitalism. I’m not ethically justifying this kind of global capitalism – it’s responsible for lots of problems in the world like the Credit Crisis. But it’s the way things are. Modern global capitalism means the free movement of capital, money in other words.

Korea as an ‘Asian Financial Hub’

I think the government here is trying to head in the right direction, and working sincerely towards their goal of making South Korea an ‘Asian Financial Hub’. But clearly it’s slow progress, and I think people have to be realistic about this idea. Look at what you’ve got right now – Singapore and Hong Kong are financial centres of sorts because they use English [for business at least]. Japan is a major financial market because of its financial power and the financial infrastructure it built up as part of that. You get the impression with the ‘fn Hub’ that it’s being talked about as some kind of replacement for these other financial centres. But what’s Korea’s unique selling point?

I don’t see that Korea will ever be the kind of Asian Financial Hub they are dreaming of. First of all, politics is a problem I’m afraid. Can you persuade companies to come here when this country is regularly threatened by an aggressive neighbour? Then there’s the language barrier and the anti-foreign rhetoric which private hate groups and the government regularly engage in [the latest is that apparently Ulleung Island could be 'militarily threatened' by Japan, in addition to the 'foreigners are spreading AIDS' political issue which I've previously mentioned. It's not that Japan is necessarily any less xenophobic of course - but they already have a financial hub whereas the government in Korea is trying to attract foreigners in to build one up].

No more hubs

But the bigger issue might be the whole idea of financial hubs and international financial centres in the first place. These days markets are consolidating, becoming increasingly electronic-only and speed of execution is an issue [high-frequency trading]. In the past, financial traders had to be near where the action was, but increasingly you put your computers there (or actually at the geographical mid-point between two markets) and you sit somewhere else. If anything, one day, there might be no financial hubs of any kind.

Don’t try this at home

I wouldn’t recommend trading as a job. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy. Longer term investing can be sensible, although nobody knows what the future is going to bring.

Links
Busan e-FM
Inside Out Busan

Air date: 2011-04-13 @ ~19:30

Busanmike.blogspot.com
 
Twitter:  @BusanMike
YouTube: /BusanMikeVideo
Flickr:  /busanmike
 

Korean Contemporary Art

Sorry I haven't updated much lately, I have been working on my research which focuses on the identity of contemporary Korean art. Not much time to write but here are the works of some Korean contemporary artists:



Kyoung Tack Hong, Gisaeng


Dongi Lee, Fountain


Lee Jung Woong, Brush



Lee Gil Woo, Irrelevant Answer-Ronald on Tour



Kim Hyun-soo, Breik



Hyoungkoo Lee, Animatus - Tick, Trick and Track


Ahn Sung Ha, Candy
 

Annual Daegu Pet Expo

Sunday 24th April, 2011

I was excited I was going to a Pet Expo in Korea. I get excited over anything animal related. The only problem was I had never been anywhere outside Changwon by myself so it would be a challenge for me. I've caught buses and cabs before, so how hard could it be?

I went prepared. I got reception to write for me in Korean the following things: Daegu Bus Terminal, Changwon Bus Terminal and Exco Convention Centre, which is where the pet expo was going to be held. I left around 9am and walked over to the Changwon Bus Terminal and bought my ticket to Daegu. The bus arrived at 9.10am and I hopped on. I settled in and made myself comfortable as this was going to be a 1.5 hour ride. 15 minutes into it, I fell asleep.

The bus arrived at the station at 10.45 am. I woke up just as it pulled in and I saw that everyone started to get off, so I soon followed. As I got off, I tried to remember landmarks, just in case I got lost later on. As I turned around, I noticed the station was called Seobu Bus Terminal. Had I gotten off at the wrong station? Freaked out, I went inside the terminal and asked the cashier girl if this was Daegu Station. She was having abit of trouble telling me, so she pulled out her trusty Galaxy English Translator and type in what she was trying to tell me. Apparently Seobu was the West Terminal in Daegu. I was sort of close. Nothing a cab couldn't help me with. With a sigh of relief, I walked outside to the cabby rank and jumped in a cab. I showed him my notebook where I'd written down Exco and luckily enough, he knew exactly where to take me. So far so good. I'll be happier once I get to the pet expo.
Welcome to Daegu Pet Expo!!!

Welcome to Daegu Pet Expo!!!

The 20 minutes ride took me all over the city. I had no idea where I was and was just trying to go with the flow. From the distance I could see the big Exco sign and soon enough we pulled up around the corner and I could see the entrance. My ticket to the expo cost me W5,000 and once inside it was doggy haven! They had every dog product imaginable. From food to clothes to prams, they had it all. I looked around to see if there were any new products, especially in the grooming section to see if there was anything I could buy to take back home. Once I go back home I will start operating my dog grooming business again, so it's always good to see what new ideas and trends are available. Unfortunately I didn't see anything different, so I continued onto the dog show arena. I absolutely love this. One day I would love to breed and show my own dogs so it's good to be able to see what the competition is like and what the judges look for.
I want this!!! It's a walk in dryer

I want this!!! It's a walk in dryer

Getting ready for the show

Getting ready for the show

Waiting to showoff

Waiting to showoff


Pomeranian pup

Pomeranian pup


Little Bull Dog pup

Little Bull Dog pup

Shiba Inu pup

Shiba Inu pup

Standard Poodle getting ready to show

Standard Poodle getting ready to show

All dolled up

All dolled up

Girls and their pups

Girls and their pups

Scooby snacks

Scooby snacks

I later went over to the interaction corner where the University of Daegu Veterinary Science department had brought in some of their animals to show. They had a skunk, prairie dogs, a lot of big snakes, lizards, macaws, a wallaby and baby black bears. They were the cutest things ever and it was the first time I'd ever seen baby cubs before.
El skunko!

El skunko!

Beautiful earthy red colouring on this snake

Beautiful earthy red colouring on this snake


a happy macaw

a happy macaw

A little prairie dog

A little prairie dog

And a very sleepy ferret

And a very sleepy ferret

I you brought your pet, you were guaranteed to get freebies. There were staff members walking around giving out doggy snacks and sample products, which was a great way to get their name out there. They also had competitions to win food, animal products and pets! I saw atleast 3 'Win a Pet' competitions where you had to put your details into a barrel. I assume at the end of the day, if your name got picked out, then you'd be going home with a new friend. On offer, they had two hedgehogs, snakes and turtles.
Albino Burmese Python- soooo beautiful

Albino Burmese Python- soooo beautiful

I can't explain why he is dressed like a cow.... and holding a lizard

I can't explain why he is dressed like a cow.... and holding a lizard

Lizard AKA Chub Chub from The Simpsons

Lizard AKA Chub Chub from The Simpsons

Walking around you also noticed how much Koreans or Asians in general LOVE dressing up their dogs and cats. Almost everywhere you looked some dog was wearing booties, or had their hair dyed a bright shade of orange. There were a few clothes stands and I must admit, I bought my little dog, Monty a new hat for the silly season. I can't wait to put it on him when I go home. I just know he'll look so damn cute in it!!
Doggy fashion avenue

Doggy fashion avenue

A girl and her cat

A girl and her cat


One of many dressed up pups

One of many dressed up pups


Dressed up pup

Dressed up pup

Pup taking a break..

Pup taking a break..

Twinsy pups!!!

Twinsy pups!!!

Bright orange hair dye!!! ohhhh yeaaaa

Bright orange hair dye!!! ohhhh yeaaaa

Two guys and their little white dogs..

Two guys and their little white dogs..

Like owner, like pup

Like owner, like pup

A schnauzer pup trying on Monty's hat for me

A schnauzer pup trying on Monty's hat for me

Afghan hound

Afghan hound

Little French Bulldog pup having a snack

Little French Bulldog pup having a snack

It's a herd of sheep!!!

It's a herd of sheep!!!


The expo

The expo

I spent about 2 hours at the Pet Expo and was impressed with the variety of animals on display. On the way back, I caught a cab back to Seobu Station. I figured it would be easier just to go the same way back as I got here. As I was walking towards the terminal, I got distracted by an accessories store I saw....

Half an hour later, I came out with 4 bags and ready to go home. A perfect way to finish my Sunday
x

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

New Website Coming Soon!

A new website is coming at the end of May!

It will feature lots of great Korean cooking recipes with helpful tips and beautiful pictures.
The new website will be fun, intuitive and user friendly.
Are you excited? We are!

Crazy Koreans~

Follow Crazy Korean Cooking

 

Spotlight Blog: foodgawker

For those who have not stumbled upon foodgawker yet... consider yourself forwarned, you may spend hours upon hours of "gawking" at this site and never even scratch the surface!

This site is the dumping grounds for all foodbloggers. You can find recipes for anything you could possibly want as well as providing you with a few new favorite food blogs. Each recipe is submited by a different foodie, which leads you to thier individual blogs. There are top dogs like howsweeteats, lovefromtheoven, and browneyedbaker. And then there are the lil' pups like, well... me. :)
You can create your own login to submit recipes and/or create a "favorites" list of recipes to try out in your own kitchen.

If you ever find a recipe that needs modification in order to work in your ovenless kitchen and don't have the time or patience to try it out yourself.... send it my way. I will see if I can work some of my steamerific powers on it, or create something new altogether using the same flavors!

Now go get lost in the abyss I like to call foodgawker.

Kimchi (Cabbage) and Kkakdugi (radish Kimchi)

WHAT'S IN IT?

Napa Cabbages - 4
Radishes 무 - 2.5 (1/2 for seasoning, 2 for radish Kimchi)
Coarse Sea Salt 천일염 - 3-4 cups
Flour or Sweet Rice Flour 밀가루/찹쌀 - 1 cup
Water 물 - 6 cups
Red Chilli Pepper Flakes 고추가루 - 8 cups
Anchovy Fish Sauce 멸치젓 - 1 cup
Shrimp FIsh Sauce 새우젓 - 1 cup
Green onions 잔파 - 14
Sugar 설탕 - 2/3 cup
Minced Garlic 다진 마늘 - 8 tablespoons
Minced Ginger 다진 생강 - 4tablespoons
Dropworts (OPTIONAL) 미나리- a handful
Oysters (OPTIONAL) 굴 - 2 cups
Clean Rubber Gloves 고무장갑 (highly recommended for your hands)

HOW DO I MAKE IT?


Preparation for Cabbage Kimchi:

1. Cut Napa cabbages in to halves and put an 3 inch incision at the end.
2. Immerse the halves in the water briefly and take it out.
3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt all over getting in between leaves.
3. Leave for 4-6 hours.
(* Flip the cabbages after 2-3 hours)
4. Tear them in quarters and wash them thoroughly 3-4 times.
5. Drain all the water out by placing them over a strainer upside down.

Preparation for Radish Kimchi:

1. Cut 2 radishes into cubes.
2. Place them in a big bowl and sprinkle with coarse sea salt (about 1/2 cup) and mix it well.
3. Leave them for 2-3 hours.
(* Give it a mix in the middle)
4. Wash thoroughly 3-4 times and drain in a strainer.

Seasoning Preparation:

1. Mix 6 cups of cold water with 1 cup of flour (or sweet rice flour) without any lumps.
2. Cook on low heat while stirring until it reaches "cream soup" consistency.
3. Take it off the heat and leave it for at at least 15 min.
4. Add 8 cups of red chilli pepper flakes into the flour soup.
5. Leave it for 20 min for vibrant color.
6. Cut green onions into 2-3 inches.
7. Shred 1/2 of radish. (or fine julienne)
8. Wash dropworts in cold water and drain.
9. Wash oysters in cold salt water and rain.
10. Add the following into the mix and mix well.
1 cup of anchovy fish sauce
1 cup of shrimp fish sauce
green onions
dropworts
shredded radish
8 tablespoons of minced garlic
4 tablespoons of minced ginger
2/3 cup of sugar

Making Cabbage Kimchi (application of seasoning):

1. In a big bowl, place some seasoning mix at the bottom.
2. Place each cabbage quarter on the bed of seasoning and add seasoning mix in between leaves.
3. Embed 1-2 oysters in each layer.
(*Oysters are only good if you plan to finish Kimchi within a month. Otherwise, it will give bitter taste.)
3. Place seasoned cabbages in a container for storage.
4. Leave it out in room temperature for a day or two for proper fermentation. (until it has sour taste)
5. If you are not eating them right away, refrigerate immediately.
(Then, leave it out a day of two before you want to eat)

Making Kkakdugi - Radish Kimchi (application of seasoning)

1. In a big bowl, mix radish cubes and seasoning throughly.
2. Place them in a container for storage.
3. Leave it out in room temperature for a day or two for proper fermentation. (until it has sour taste)
4. If you are not eating them right away, refrigerate immediately.
(Then, leave it out a day of two before you want to eat)

Pages

Subscribe to Koreabridge MegaBlog Feed