Category: Korea-Business

The dispute between the US and Korea over the Korean rejection of US beef is beginning to heat up:

Korean and U.S. officials held two days of talks until Thursday over how to deal with bone fragments found in shipments of American beef imports. They ended without progress. U.S. beef imports to Korea resumed in October last year, but the first, second and third batches of beef, weighing 22.3 tons in total have either been returned to the U.S. or disposed of because 11 bone fragments, each the size of a fingernail, were found in the shipments. Korea is stressing an agreement with Washington that only beef and no bones can be imported to minimize the threat of mad cow disease. The U.S. is saying this policy is unrealistic and translates into a virtual ban on American beef imports.

The shipments contained bone fragments measuring 0.3×0.6 cm and only 1 mm in width, which are too small to be detected by x-ray. It is virtually impossible to get rid of such small bone fragments during the processing of beef. Since last July, Japan has allowed bone of this sort of size to be included in beef imports from the U.S.

It is very important to protect the Korean public from the threat of BSE. But most experts say it is going too far to halt the import of tons of beef due to a few tiny fragments of bone. Moreover, some quarters here are fanning anti-American sentiment by playing up fears that importing U.S. beef is tantamount to spreading mad cow disease.

It is clear that the Korean government is protecting their beef market from US beef.  They will continue to find any excuse they can to ban US beef.  That is why I like this idea:

That is why one U.S. senator is saying that all of America’s 700,000 imports of Hyundai cars should be thoroughly inspected and all of them sent back if a single defective part is found in even one of them. U.S. free trade negotiators have said there will be no deal unless the beef issue is resolved.

If Congress actually did something useful like pass legislation authorizing the return of Korean vehicles due to one defective part, US beef would be on sale in Korea by next week.  However, just like with the timing of the delay of the Camp Humphreys relocation, the Koreans are betting that the US Congress is too preoccupied with finding ways to lose the war in Iraq without being blamed, to give scant notice to this trade battle over US beef.  They are probably right. 

The recent dispute between the Korean and US governments has heated up recently as after beef fragments were found in the first shipments of US beef to Korea in three years.  The Koreans say that bone chips in US beef is a health concern because of the case of mad cow disease in one US dairy cow a few years ago.  The US government is claiming that the mad cow disease fears are just being used as a ploy to stop US beef from entering Korea and protecting the domestic Korean beef market from cheaper US beef.  One US governmental official has even gone as far to accuse the Korean government of planting the bone chips:

Park Hong-soo, minister of agriculture and forestry, has not made any particular comment on the beef import war between Seoul and Washington, in contrast to aggressive words by U.S. policymakers including Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns and Deputy Under Secretary Chuck Lambert.

Foreign media quoted Chuck Lambert, as saying, “The U.S. beef industry is suspicious about where the fragments came from. Some people have suggested DNA sampling or other means of trying to determine the origin of those bone chips.”

A U.S. agricultural news service reported that U.S. beef officials, in off-the-record comments, have intimated South Korea may have “planted” the bone fragments as an excuse to keep American beef out of the Korean market. An Australian broadcaster said Chuck Lambert is not ignoring the possibility that the shipments may have been tampered with.

Conveniently after the bone chips were found and disputed by the US government than the Koreans found dioxin poisoning in the beef.  Dioxin poisoning isn’t as ominous as the Korean government would lead you to believe.  The small trace amounts of dioxin come from the environment from cattle breathing in for example burned plastic or smoke from power plants and factories.  If you have ever smelled burned plastic guess what, you have dioxin in you.  The trace amounts are not enough to harm anyone, but the Korean government is going to use whatever they can to keep the domestic beef market closed to the US cattle industry. 

Now on the heels of this controversy the Korean government will not begin inspecting agricultural products bound for USFK commissaries in Korea:

South Korean officials and U.S. military personnel will carry out joint quarantine inspections of agricultural products brought into the country for the United States Forces Korea (USFK) starting in April, the government said Thursday.

The U.S. military is currently responsible for quarantine inspections of food imports for consumption by American soldiers stationed here.

The move, agreed upon at a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) meeting last week, will involve quarantine checks at the U.S. Army’s main garrison in Yongsan in Seoul as well as logistics support bases in the port of Busan and Gimpo near the capital, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said.

"Inspecting agricultural products, even those set aside for U.S. soldiers, is important to prevent harmful pests from coming into the country and posing problems for the local ecosystem," said a ministry official.

I just have to wonder if this is at all related to the FTA and US beef rejections issues.  For decades the Korean government had no concerns about USFK agricultural products being inspected by USFK, but now all the sudden they want to inspect the products.  You can buy US beef in USFK commissaries that have bones in them.  These beef products are some of the most popular blackmarket items in the commissary.  Will these quarantine inspectors stop these beef shipments from being sold in the commissaries?  Will they find more dioxin poisoning?  I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

This is all beginning to remind me of the camp pollution issue where the closed out USFK camps are so polluted that the Korean government cannot take them back because of public health concerns and demand that USFK pay to clean up the camps.  Of course this whole issue is a fraud just like the US beef issue because the closed out US camps in their respective cities are a virtual oasis of green in the middle of densely populated and overly polluted urban cities.  Enough of an oasis in fact that many of these camp are being looked at to be turned into public parks, yet they are so polluted it is a public health issue despite decades of US soldiers including myself living on these camps and never having adverse health effects.

Now we are to believe that the food especially the beef that US soldiers eat in Korea is infected with mad cow disease and dioxin poisoning and just like the closed out camps, is a public health issue thus the general Korean public needs to be protected from it.  If I am to believe the Korean government, I must currently be infected with mad cow disease and dioxin poisoning from US beef plus whatever else they find from these agricultural inspections, in addition to being exposed to radiation poisoning from living for years on USFK camps in Korea and not believe that both of these issues are nothing more than Korean demagoguery being used for political and economic advantage against the United States.

The Koreans have once again rejected US beef now for, alleged dioxin poisoning.  Here is a good article about how the Koreans are finding every excuse they can to close their market to US beef.  The US beef industry should hire scientists to test Korean beef for dioxin and publish their own findings. 

CBS News has run an article about the US beef rejection in Korea as well the Lone Star witch hunt. Interesting read if you don’t know much about the Lone Star or US beef issues with Korea.

It looks like America will be introduced with cell phone technology that is currently being perfected in Korea and Japan:

In South Korea, E-commerce features already let consumers pay for things using their cell phones. Many of the phones have been integrated with banking systems so people already are buying groceries and soft drinks from vending machines with them.

Japanese consumers also use “wallet phones” with contactless FeliCa cards from NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading mobile communications company. Wallet phones are not just used as credit cards—they can contain entrance tickets, metro tickets, loyalty cards, air tickets, and employee ID cards, according to SmartTrust’s recently published “Mobile Trends” guide.

The technology will likely make its debut in the U.S. in the next six to 18 months, says Osmo Hautanen, CEO of Magnolia Broadband Inc., a chip developer that puts “smart” antennas into cell phones sold by top service providers in Asia.

In fact, earlier this month Motorola unveiled its M-Wallet product, which will let people make purchases using their cell phones. Additionally, the technology will allow merchants to issue virtual loyalty or gift cards to customers’ phones. Motorola says the M-Wallet will work with almost any device or cellular network.

There are some draw backs though:

That means cell phones will become much more valuable not only because they’ll come with more capabilities, but also because they will contain sensitive information like payment mechanisms. “People will value and guard their phones the way they guard their wallets,” says Valentine. So, losing a phone in a taxi will a much bigger deal than it is today.

Another problem I foresee is that in the states you can’t get a cell phone signal in many buildings which will effect your ability to use your phone to shop. What if you are in a roaming zone; do have to pay extra then to shop? I think I will just stick to using my debit card.

This is about the sanest comments I have heard about the Great Kimchi Crisis of 2005 between Korea and China:

He even said he liked kimchi:

China’s Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing has downplayed a growing trade rift with South Korea over the import of Chinese kimchi, saying he had no fear of eating the spicy cabbage dish loved by Koreans. “Three days ago when I was in Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK (North Korea), I had very good kimchi, it was delicious,” Li told journalists.

“Two days ago in the capital of the Republic of Korea, Seoul, I had very good kimchi as well and the day before yesterday, when we were talking about the Middle East issue on the question of Syria at the United Nations (in New York) … I ordered kimchi.”

I doubt this will stop the Great Kimchi Crisis because of the domestical political reasons behind it in Korea, but at least someone is speaking sanely on this issue.

Unsurprisingly South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, one of North Korea’s useful idiots, has sided with North Korea over the current controversy between Hyundai and North Korea’s joint tourism projects:

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young met with Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun on Sunday to discuss a spat between the company and North Korea over a tourism project Hyundai Asan operates in the Kumgang Mountains.
A source connected to the matter said Wednesday the two discussed North Korean demands to reinstate Hyundai Asan vice chairman Kim Yoon-kyu, who was ousted over corruption charges, but the differences in opinion were wide. That suggests Chung asked for the disgraced executive to be reinstated.

It was the following day that Hyun posted a statement on the Hyundai Asan homepage saying that Kim had been removed due to corruption and rejected calls to reinstate the man who had for many years coordinated the tourism projects with the North.

I am beginning to like Chairwoman Hyun more and more. It is about time someone stood up to the Norks and blew off Chung.

It appears that the Hyundai tours to different North Korean locations may end:

Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun on Monday publicly rejected a North Korean demand to reinstate Kim Yoon-kyu, the disgraced vice chairman of Hyundai Asan who had dealt with the North for many years in arranging their joint tourism projects. “I now seem to stand at a crossroads of whether to continue or quit our North Korea projects,” she said. Since Hyundai’s ouster of Kim, Pyongyang has applied pressure on the group by slashing the quota for the Asan’s Kumgang Mountains tours and blanking requests for negotiations on stalled projects to Kaesong and Mt. Baekdu. When Hyun visited the Kumgang Mountains, she says, authorities forced her to open her handbag, a gesture she interpreted as contempt, and she concluded, I’ll choose honest conscience rather than opportunistic servility.”

It is standard practice in inter-Korean economic cooperation to put up with Pyongyang’s demented behavior. That makes Hyun’s statement all the more significant. Her resolve not to allow North Korean pressure to meddle in her corporation’s managerial rights is the natural choice for a top executive, but in the reality of inter-Korean relations things rarely take their natural course.

I think this is great that someone is finally taking a stand and not kissing the North Koreans butts continuously. The Korean government can learn something from Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

The Japan Times is reporting that the Korean fishermen who were caught fishing in Japanese waters and were boarded by the Japanese Coast Guard, are accusing the Japanese Coast Guard of using excessive force.

Tokyo on Friday dismissed accusations that Japan Coast Guardsmen used excessive force when they boarded a South Korean boat suspected of poaching and roughed up one of its crew members.
“I think they acted correctly,” Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said when asked if the coast guardsmen had acted unreasonably.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that a member of the fishing boat crew was hospitalized with injuries after he was beaten by Japanese authorities during the confrontation Wednesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said the coast guardsmen smashed the glass window on the door to the boat’s wheelhouse after the crew refused to unlock it and shut off the engine.

The order to cut the engine was a “necessary and minimum measure,” Hosoda said. “When the crew resisted, they got into a scuffle.”

South Korean patrol boats were summoned from off the southern city of Ulsan early Wednesday when Japanese patrol boats entered South Korean waters in pursuit of the fishing boat they said had been operating 8 km inside Japanese territorial waters.

The 77-ton eel boat Singpung-ho had refused JCG orders to stop and sailed off with two Japan Coast Guardsmen still on board. Japanese authorities contacted the South Korean Coast Guard, which helped stop the boat.

The similarities between this case and the 2002 subway incident continue. Make accusations of abuse and have pictures taken of you in the hospital to appeal to Korean nationalism to make it look like the big bad foreigners in this case the Japanese are beating down the Koreans again. A proven formula for getting out of trouble.

I would think that breaking the window of the boat to get the Captain to stop the boat would be reasonable since the boat was escaping with the Japanese Coast Guardsmen still on board. Plus when they did get in the cabin I’m sure the Captain wasn’t to helpful and resisted stopping the boat thus leading to the injuries he received. If he would of stopped the boat like he was directed he could of avoided any alledged injuries. He couldn’t do that though because then he would of been caught in Japanese waters.

So it was better to run with the coast guardsmen on board and get back into Korean waters where he knew nothing would happen to him and he could appeal to Korean nationalism against the Japanese, go to the hospital, claim abuse, and I bet he yelled “Dokto is Korea’s” at some point too for added emphasis of his innocence. I hope they make him pay the illegal fishing fine but that is about as likely as someone being arrested in the 2002 subway abduction.

UPDATE: Go check out Jeff’s site for some more info and clips from this car show and judge for yourself if it is specifically anti-Korean or not.
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Why do Koreans get so worked up about something like this? A British car show, Top Gear, that satires many automobiles poked some fun at Korean cars.

An industry official said that the program was relentlessly provocative, with presenters claiming that Korean cars were cheap because they were built with inferior materials and parts. At one point, viewers were recommended to opt for a two-year-old Volkswagen Golf instead of a new Korean model if they wanted to buy a cheap car.

The program hosts even brought a refrigerator on wheels into the studio, remarking that this was how cars were made in Korea.

On hearing the news, Korean carmakers such as Hyundai, whose “Getz” (Click) suffered concentrated derision at the hands of the program’s hosts, rapidly contacted their UK offices to confirm what was said and ascertain what the program’s intentions were.

In the case of Hyundai, Korea’s flagship carmaker, the firm was perplexed after it received a report on the matter from its UK branch, which played down the report by descibing the program as a purely entertainment-based show – more intent on making viewers laugh than conveying the facts.

The program doesn’t always pick on Korean cars either:

“The program dealt with our Tiburon and the Lexus SC430 during a recent broadcast, praising the Tiburon as the best sports car under US$100,000 [W104.1 million] while seriously deriding the Lexus.

“Despite this, not one famous foreign carmaker that has been slated on the program, including Lexus, has ever responded with a lawsuit or anything of that nature,” he added.

So Korea chill out I’m sure they have picked on American cars at some point to if they have picked on a quality car like a Lexus. No need to have candle light vigils and send the hackers to hit their website, or claim this is an insult to national pride. How about Korea make their own car show satire and make fun of Jaguars if that will make everyone feel better. Has anyone from Britian seen this show? I’m curious about what other cars they have picked on.