Category: Korea-Business

It looks like the KCTU trucker protest has been a failure for them:

The trucker strike is over 16 days after it started, a majority of union members voting to go back to work, and some just dispersing.  
   
In votes held at 16 locations nationwide, 62 percent of the 3,574 that cast ballots agreed to end the strike.  
   
The decisive climb down came a day after the government said it would order more truckers back to work, extending the legally binding orders to steel and petrochemical truckers. Cement truckers received back-to-work orders last week, and all but one complied or indicated the intent to do so. (…….)   

“We decided not to ask the opinion of our union members as asking the members to vote on whether to continue to strike is an attempt by leadership to avoid accountability and pass that responsibility to the members,” a Busan union official said. “The general strike didn’t end up with the results that we expected was because of the Yoon Suk-yeol government breaking its promise, oppression and anti-labor policies.”    
   
Truckers went into strike on Nov. 24. Cargo Truckers Solidarity, the trucker union under the militant Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), failed to rally public support amid concerns over the weakening economy and several reports of violence directed at  non-union truck drivers.    
   
The strikers were also swayed by the heavy penalties of the back-to-work order. They could face up to three years in jail and up to 30 million won in fines for not complying. Threats to end certain government subsidies were also made. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I think the threats the KCTU was making against trucker drivers trying to go to work really soured the public on the protests.

I don’t think this is a good analogy to compare truckers trying to get higher wages with the mafia state in North Korea:

President Yoon Suk-yeol has likened the ongoing truckers strike to North Korea’s nuclear threats, saying the government should respond sternly with principles like it does to protect the people from Pyongyang’s repeated actions of menace.

“If we had pursued (consistent) North Korea policies based on the principle of nuclear intolerance, we wouldn’t be facing North Korea’s nuclear threat as we do now,” he was quoted as saying by multiple officials, according to Yonhap News Agency on Monday.

“The vicious cycle will repeat if we give in to (their) illegal activities and violence,” he said, stressing union leadership should be sternly punished for blocking members from returning to work.

Korea Herald

What I can agree with is that the KCTU based on their past activities is sympathetic to the North Korean regime:

His party, the People Power Party, went further, claiming the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the umbrella group initiating the ongoing strike, “represents the interest of the North Korean regime.”

Park Jung-ha, a senior spokesperson of the People Power Party, accused the KCTU of taking orders from North Korea to initiate anti-US and anti-government struggles, denouncing that it should change its name to “Minrochong,” a North Korean way of referring to Minnochong, by which the KCTU is known in Korean.

Here is what the truckers are protesting about:

The truckers union has been on a general strike since Nov. 24, saying the government has failed to keep up its end of the bargain to continue the safe trucking freight rate system that both sides had agreed on in June to end an eight-day strike at the time. The safe trucking freight rate system is a measure that guarantees minimum cargo rates for truck drivers to prevent dangerous driving and overwork. It also imposes fines on shippers who pay less than the minimum rate. It was introduced as a three-year system in 2020 and expires at the end of this year.

I am supportive of higher pay for truck drivers, however what I don’t support is unions threatening and assaulting other truck drivers to prevent them from going to work.

Congratulations to Ms. Lee for her promotion:

Samsung Electronics appointed the company’s first female president during its annual executive reshuffle, indicating Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s intention to break the glass ceiling at his company.

The tech giant announced on Monday that Vice President Lee Young-hee was promoted to president to lead the global marketing office of the device eXperience (DX) division, which oversees the mobile device and home appliance businesses. She is credited for Samsung using purple, instead of blue, for its marketing campaign.

She also became Samsung Group’s first female president who is not related to late founder Lee Byung-chul. Hotel Shilla President and CEO Lee Boo-jin, the younger sister of the Samsung Electronics chairman, had been the only female president at Korea’s largest conglomerate.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

With the KCTU behind these protests I don’t know if these truckers are actually striking for improved pay or to crater the ROK economy because someone from the Korean right is President:

President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered his ministers, Sunday, to make preparations to expand executive orders to striking truckers in the refining and steel industries, with the government vowing to mobilize a maximum number of police to crack down on illegal protests by the unionized truckers.

“The government will not compromise with any forces that collectively resort to illegal acts and violence, and will hold them accountable for each of their infractions,” Yoon said during a ministerial meeting on the truckers’ strike. “Otherwise, damage stemming from chronic illegal strikes will be repeated in the future.”

Yoon added, “The government should crack down on these illegal acts and take stern measures by mobilizing the full administrative forces. … Also, ministers should prepare to expand the executive order to truckers who are involved in the refining and steel industries.”

The comments came after a strike by the Cargo Truckers Solidarity (CTS) stretched on for the 11th day as of Sunday. The CTS has been refusing to transport cargo since Nov. 24, demanding a permanent guarantee of a minimum freight rate by the government. 

The president signed an executive order last week to get unionized truckers to return to work. The strike, involving 2,500 truckers transporting mostly cement products, caused significant damage to the country’s construction industry. Losses have also been reported in the refining and steel industries. (……)

Referring to a nationwide strike by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) scheduled on Tuesday as “politically motivated,” Yoon ordered his ministers to crack down on illegal acts by “mobilizing the full administrative forces.”

Having more than 1 million members, the KCTU is one of Korea’s largest labor unions. It is also the umbrella organization of the CTS and plans to stage the nationwide strike on Tuesday to support the truckers.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Yoon administration has a good argument that this is politically motivated because why didn’t the KCTU conduct this strike when Moon Jae-in was president? Yoon has only been president for a few months and now they launch their strike?

For people that own iPhones in Korea, Apple Pay appears to finally be on its way and Apple has Hyundai to thank for it:

Despite earlier market expectations that Apple Pay would be launched in Korea from Nov. 30, it is estimated that the starting date of the payment service in the country will be delayed to sometime around December.

Hyundai Card, which is a key partner in bringing Apple Pay to be available in Korea, remained tight-lipped about the matter, in a phone conversation with The Korea Times on Wednesday. 

“As of now, we cannot confirm any matters regarding Apple Pay,” an official from Hyundai Card told The Korea Times. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

2045 is a long ways off so I will believe it when I see it, however I do agree the space economy will be the next big economic driver for those who have the technology to access it:

Korea will launch a space mission to Mars no later than 2045, according to a roadmap for the nation’s space mission unveiled by President Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday. 

“A country having a space mission will lead the world economy and be able to resolve challenges human beings are facing,” Yoon said during an event to announce the country’s roadmap for the space economy at the JW Marriot Hotel in Seoul.

The space economy refers to the economy beyond our planet, including exploring deep space, extracting resources that are rare on Earth and developing technologies necessary for space exploration.

“The dream of becoming a powerhouse in space is not distant. It will be an opportunity and hope for children and the youth,” he added.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Who would have imagined that the bankruptcy of the Legoland Korea amusement park could lead to such negative economic impacts in South Korea:

Gangwon Province Governor Kim Jin-tae has been facing criticism from both the ruling and opposition parties for his “hasty” decision not to fulfill a payment guarantee for the developer of Legoland Korea, creating a liquidity crunch in the nation’s corporate bond and commercial paper markets. 

During the ruling People Power Party’s (PPP) emergency committee meeting, floor leader Rep. Joo Ho-young blamed Gangwon Governor Kim Jin-tae and warned of a butterfly effect.

“The Gangwon governor’s announcement not to fulfil the payment guarantee, despite its capability, has sowed distrust and created a big stir in the market,” Joo said.

He was also critical of Kim’s predecessor, former Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), saying Choi pursued the Legoland project “without considering the financial status of the province, whose financial independence stands at a mere 27.4 percent this year,” while adding that Governor Kim is also responsible for amplifying the market concerns. 

“We have to remember that a butterfly flapping its wings sometimes causes a storm,” Joo said. 

Joo’s remarks came a day after the government said it would expand the provision of liquidity to over 50 trillion won ($34.7 billion) hoping to ease jitters in the country’s bond market stemming from the “Legoland shock.” 

Gangwon Jungdo Development Corp. (GJC), the developer of Legoland Korea, established a special purpose company to fund the construction of the Legoland resort, but declared bankruptcy on Oct. 6 after missing a payment of a 205 billion won asset-backed commercial paper issued by the special purpose company. 

Gangwon Province had guaranteed the commercial paper’s payment, but on Sept. 28 it declared that it would file for GJC’s bankruptcy to a local court, instead of paying the debt.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing the consternation the loss of Kakao services for about two days has caused in South Korea and now the government is ready to step in and regulate them to prevent another “digital platform disaster”:

The ruling and main opposition parties lashed out at tech giant Kakao Corp. on Monday, branding a massive service disruption that occurred over the weekend as a “digital platform disaster” and summoning its founder to a parliamentary audit.

On Saturday afternoon, a fire started at a SK C&C building that houses the data center that Kakao uses, prompting a power outage that disrupted the company’s namesake messaging service KakaoTalk, as well as ride-hailing and public services tied to the app that more than 40 million use. 

The blaze also affected Naver, the country’s top internal portal, which uses the same data center.

“The point of this crisis was that the business did not have appropriate backup systems in order to cut costs,” Rep. Park Hong-geun, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), said, accusing Kakao of failing to “think about responsibilities while maintaining the market dominant position.”

“Considering that digital services provided by the private sector have deeply permeated into the people’s lives, we can no longer leave things to individual companies,” he said. “We will swiftly provide legislative measures so that we will not again become helpless against such digital platform disasters.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.