Articles from The Last Two Weeks in Korea

Halloween festival turns into a disaster

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S.Korea in mourning with 153 lives lost from the crowd crush in Itaewon, Seoul, during the Halloween festival at 10:15 pm Oct 29Sat). A Halloween costumed crowd estimated at 100,000 was jam-packed in Itaewon district of 82,000 sq.m (20.2 acres) during Halloween revelry. People departing the area ran into people arriving in tightly packed alleyways around Hamilton Hotel. The crush occurred when a group chanted "push, push" to make their way, and the people in front fell.

Last Two Weeks: South Korean defense industry goes into hey day

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 The S.Korean defense industry hit a jackpot to export tanks and howitzers to Poland as Hyundai Rotem and Hanwha Defense signed contracts with Poland to respectively supply 80 K-2 battle tanks, and 212  K-9 howitzers, which totals $5.76 billion.  Korea Aerospace Industries is also in negotiation with Poland to ship 48 FA-50 supersonic jet fighters.

GM shows no plan for EV production in Korea

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 A key GM official threw a wet blanket on the Korean auto industry that has hoped GM may manufacture electric vehicles in its two plants in Korea. Steve Kiefer, GM International President, said in a press conference on Nov 12 that GM Korea will launch 10 new EV models in Korea by 2025, but none will be made locally. Mr.Kiefer added GM Korea will launch a new crossover model in 2023 at its Changwon plant.

LTW: Supersonic Son wins FIFA Puskas award for his stunning goal

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Good morning & Merry X-Mas, 

S.Korean Son Heng-Min of Tetterham Hotspur won the 2020 FIFA Puskas Award for his fancy goal on Dec 17, 2019 against Burnley. Son picked up the ball on the edge of the Spur's penalty area, ran the entire length of 80meters for 12 seconds with 12 touches, ridiculing 6 Burnley defenders. You gotta see the video below as words cannot describe this "Sonsational" performance. 

LTW: Korean Economy in Good Shape?

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While the global economy has been tanking from the Corona crisis, S.Korean economy has been relatively hit softer. The latest OECD survey showed Korea's GDP will drop only 0.8% in 2020, the best among the 37 OECD nations with average forecasted to be negative 7.5%. The second best was Turkey with minus 4.8%. Hyundai also did fairly, making 590 billion Won($494M) operating profit in Q2 this year, while all other major car makers are bleeding red, thanks to strong sales of luxury brand Genesis models and no shutdown of Hyundai plants in Korea.

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