International Law

Korea?s Own ?Sub-Prime? Housing Crash in Sight?

Posted on March 23, 2008
A faithful reader forwards this story of ominous portent—construction companies are going bankrupt, while unsold apartments are mounting even in Seoul (the unsold inventory leaped 50% in a month!) because buyers are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward purchase: Non-Banks Suffer From Housing Market Slump Korea Times, March 24, 2008 The ongoing housing market slump could hit construction firms and the non-banking financial sector hard, creating a crisis that may resemble the unfolding sub-prime mortgage debacle in the U...

?Easing Environmental Regulations? Not A Surrender to Pollution

Posted on March 22, 2008
I saw an interesting piece in the Dong-A Ilbo and dug up the English edition. Pres. Lee Myung-bak’s “business-friendly” government is easing environmental regulations to allow expansion of factories near water sources. This is part of a massive wave of deregulation and rationalization of government activity forecast to take place under LMB...

National Pension Service Puts Muscle Into Corporate Governance Reform (and Fails)

Posted on March 16, 2008
Day by day, it begins to look like President Lee Myung-bak, product of Korea Inc., and his band of advisors may be those bold reformers Korea needs to make the move to the next level of prosperity. Last week the JoongAng Ilbo English edition reported that the National Pension Service, a major institutional investor, declared its intention to vote its shares against convict CEOs of two major conglomerates...

David Mamet Comes Around

Posted on March 12, 2008
As if this wasn’t more-or-less obvious to anyone watching The Unit the past three seasons (it’s on cable here in Seoul now too), playwright/showrunner David Mamet has recovered from his persistent vegetative state.

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It?s a Housing Crash All Right

Posted on March 12, 2008
But not the type that will restore affordability to the expensive Korean housing market. As it turns out, former President Roh Moo Hyun taking economic advice from Karl Marx may not have helped the housing situation in Seoul after all: Apartment Supply on Sharp Decline Maeil Kyungjae (English edition) 11 Mar 2008 Aftereffects of the apartment price cap are being witnessed...

Dos Tacos Means Seoul Getting More Livable

Posted on March 09, 2008
I still remember when getting up to the McDonald’s in Apgujeong-dong was big news to us poor swabs stuck in Pyeongtaek. The JoongAng Daily has run a review of a Mexican restaurant—not exactly a new restaurant, but hey—that should be on the list of any expat resident of Seoul: Dos Tacos at Kangnam Station (between Kangnam Station Exit 6 and the Kyobo Building one looooong block to the north)...

Requiem for Hamsterdam: The Wire Producers on America?s Drug War

Posted on March 09, 2008
HBO’s The Wire is one of those only-on-cable dramas that make pay television compelling and the metastasizing spread of CSI on free-to-air TV all that more depressing. Violent and foulmouthed, yet incredibly smart, The Wire chronicles crime—mostly the drug war—in the bleak collapsed cityscape of Baltimore...

Remember Bill Kapoun: Enrollment for National Medical Insurance Program

Posted on March 08, 2008
Last week, news that Bill Kapoun, a handsome young English teacher, and his girlfriend had been burned in a house fire swept the expat community here in Seoul. A lot of people—including my family—opened up their purses to donate funds for his staggering medical expenses, as Bill Kapoun was not enrolled in Korea’s National Medical Insurance Program...

More Property Craziness Under MBnomics

Posted on March 05, 2008
Since the election of Lee Myung-bak, property prices have firmed or increased a little on the hope that punitive tax policies of the Roh administration will be repealed (part of the “MBnomics” he’s promising). Now a complex coming onto the market in the Ttukseom district—which abuts the “Seoul Forest” park—hopes to test the willingness of the market to absorb luxury apartments north of the Han River (English Dong-A Ilbo today)...

Weather Channel Founder Calls for Al Gore to be Jailed

Posted on March 05, 2008
Okay, not really. But Weather Channel John Coleman is calling for Al Gore and the other climate hucksters to be dragged into court to prove their “science” in an actual head-to-head contest instead of shouting down heretics. But I would still like to see Al Gore jailed...

Korea National Pension Becomes Eat-and-Run ?Vulture? Investor

Posted on March 05, 2008
Yesterday the National Pension Service (NPS)—manager of Korea’s Social Security-like retirement pension plan—announced its intention to invest $300 million in some private-equity funds operated by “TPG”, or Texas Pacific Group...

Happy Taxpayers Day

Posted on March 03, 2008
Here’s something you probably didn’t know: Today is Taxpayers’ Day in Korea. I’m not sure what kind of celebrations are held to mark the occasion of Taxpayers’ Day, but it’s good to know the government is thinking of us...

Mess with the Bull, Get the Horns, Son!

Posted on March 01, 2008
Found on the net yesterday, this little gem from a certain self-satisfied ersatz foreign “Professor of Constitutional Law” at some Korean university who’s been sniffing his own farts too long: A developer recently contacted me concerning a dispute with a supplier of building materials...

Hurray! LMB?s Labor Minister Suggests Rational Reforms

Posted on February 29, 2008
Apparently having survived his background-check scare, President Lee Myung-bak’s new Minister of Labor Lee Young-Hee declared his intention for a new labor-management relations paradigm: Management will no longer be denied by the state the benefit of the protection of law...

Favorite Story of the Week

Posted on February 26, 2008
Oops: Labor Minister Nominee Fabricated Career (Korea Times). What? They’re checking references now?!

900 Sq. Ft. Korean Apartment Construction Cost $150K

Posted on February 26, 2008
More real estate and housing policy-related news caught my eye today. From the Maeil Kyungjae (sorry no link because this paper has joined the execrable Korea Herald in the movement against deep-linking): 85? Apartment Basic Construction Cost to Rise 3...

Bad News for Flashers and Sex Pests and Foreign Investors

Posted on February 21, 2008
Ripoff Korea makes it much more expensive to be a “Burberry Man” (the Koreanism for a flasher, based on the best-known brand of trenchcoat here) in Seoul—up to 52% more expensive than the appalling cost in Tokyo. The Maeil Business reports on the shocking cost of living in Korea: Maeil Business Newspaper and KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) jointly investigated commodity prices in Seoul, New York, Tokyo, London, Paris, Beijing and Hong Kong in January to discover a women?s trench coat from a major luxury brand, Burberry, to be most expensive in Seoul at 1...

Joint Venturing Tips: ?Veto? Rights for One-Third Shareholders

Posted on February 18, 2008
Today a question came in from a client apparently intending to form a joint venture in Korea—the question concerned what kind of “veto” rights a shareholder would have under Korean law if he held 1/3 of the voting rights in a Korean corporation...

China Law Blog on How to Learn Korean Legal Vocabulary

Posted on February 17, 2008
Dan Harris’ China Law Blog has another wise bit of advice to students of foreign laws—although Dan relates his partner Steve Dickinson’s view on how to learn Chinese law, the advice is (once again!) completely applicable to anyone studying Korean laws...

Super Staph Infection Free with One-Third of Fish at Large Korean Supermarkets!

Posted on February 17, 2008
Korea Beat today translates a Yonhap News report that a random check of fish on sale at selected large supermarkets in Seoul found almost one-third (16 of 50 samples) infected with Staphlococcus Aureus, or “Golden Staph”: The Korean Food and Drug Administration (????????) announced on the 14th that it took 50 samples of fish and squid seasonings from four major supermarkets in January, finding 16 cases of Staphylococcus aureus (???????), also known as ?Golden Staph?...

Super Staph Infection Free with One-Third of Fish at Large Korean Supermarkets!

Posted on February 17, 2008
Korea Beat today translates a Yonhap News report that a random check of fish on sale at selected large supermarkets in Seoul found almost one-third (16 of 50 samples) infected with Staphlococcus Aureus, or “Golden Staph”: The Korean Food and Drug Administration (????????) announced on the 14th that it took 50 samples of fish and squid seasonings from four major supermarkets in January, finding 16 cases of Staphylococcus aureus (???????), also known as ?Golden Staph?...

Citizens Reject Charity for Namdaemun Restoration, Demand Government Money

Posted on February 14, 2008
Sometimes I really have to wonder about the Korean public’s understanding of how exactly government works. Check out this flap reported in the JoongAng Daily concerning who’s going to pay for the loss of National Treasure No. 1, the Sungnyemun (Namdaemun) gate—which was torched over the weekend by a disgruntled citizen: After an alleged arsonist destroyed Namdaemun, the 610-year-old southern gate of Seoul on Sunday night, President-elect Lee Myung-bak suggested the next day that the gate?s restoration be funded by citizens? donations...

More on Land-Use Regulation and Housing Prices, Plus News From Seattle

Posted on February 14, 2008
On the Marmot’s Hole today guest blogger R. Elgin noted a recent press report about another theme park to be constructed near Seoul. A commenter “frederick” opined rather predictably: This is sickening. Land is sparse in Korea. Korea doesn?t need any more theme parks that will only use up valuable land space...

Flash! Non-Compete Covenant May Require Compensation

Posted on February 13, 2008
In late January the Seoul District Court issued a judgment holding for the first time that “reasonable compensation” must be made to employees subject to a non-compete covenant if the employees have not had access to “trade secrets” of the employer...

First Korean ?Jury Trial? Concludes

Posted on February 13, 2008
Law.com reported today that Korea’s first-ever criminal trial held with the participation of a panel of citizens concluded Tuesday in Taegu with a guilty verdict for a 27 year-old man who broke into the apartment of a 70 year-old lady to rob her, injuring the old woman in the process...

Tragedy of Bob Costas? Youthful Looks

Posted on February 11, 2008
I am going to start posting comments on things that interest me—Korean legal topics and perspectives will probably remain the dominant theme here, but the legal world doesn’t produce Earth-shaking news every day. Over the weekend I caught the latest episode of HBO’s political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher...

Intense Competition for Lawyers Seeking Employment at KFTC

Posted on February 09, 2008
Since I know at least one of the lawyers who’ve applied for these posts, this report in the Korea Times seems relevant. Korean-licensed lawyers are taking greater interest in working for the Korea Fair Trade Commission, which has for some time been recruiting small numbers of attorneys to join its staff: As many as 109 lawyers have applied for five posts at the Fair Trade Commission, a government regulator on fair trade of businesses, making the competition ratio 22:1, the commission said [February 9]...

Paul Hastings on Korean Legal Market Opening

Posted on February 06, 2008
With the Korean legal market opening a Done Deal For Next Year?, as it has been since I started following the issue in 1991, I thought I’d post this Korea Herald article from November 2007 which I clipped and saved (Korea Herald makes it really hard to directly link to their content)...

Another Step Toward Legal Market Opening

Posted on February 05, 2008
The Foreign Legal Consulants’ Act cleared a cabinet meeting today, reports the Korea Times. Next stop is submission to the National Assembly for an up-or-down vote. According to the proposed timetable, initial market opening will take place “from 2009”—which often means Jan...

United States? Hands Tied by Unfair SOFA

Posted on January 13, 2008
The Korea Times reports that in August Korean aircrews and planes will be training at Nellis AFB, Nevada for the first time. As for me, I am halfway hoping that one of the Korean military members gets into a traffic accident, or even flips out and commits some sort of crime...

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