A Trip to North Korea (additional info updated as a comment)

Gates to North Korea: End belligerent acts 

January 14, 2011

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visits Seoul on a final stop of a five-day trip
• The theme of the trip is to ensure peace and stability between the Koreas
• Gates says negotiations are still a viable option
• Seoul has taken a tough stance against the North with strong rhetoric

(CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday urged North Korea to end its belligerent acts and take concrete steps to meet expectations of the international community.

Gates was in Seoul, South Korea, the final stop of a five-day trip to Asia that included China and Japan.
The theme of the trip was to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, he said.
"The DPRK leadership must stop these dangerous provocations and take concrete steps to show they will begin meeting their international obligations," Gates said at an open session with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin.

"With regard to next steps on North Korea, diplomatic engagement is possible, starting with direct engagement between DPRK and the South."

DPRK refers to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.
The secretary said negotiations are still a viable option.

"When or if North Korea's actions show cause to believe that negotiations can be productive and conducted in good faith, then we could see a return to the six-party talks," Gates said.

During his trip, the secretary expressed concern about Pyongyang's military ambitions, saying that it had grown more "lethal" and "destabilizing," not only for the Korean Peninsula but also for the Pacific Rim and the international community.

Tensions between the Koreas escalated after the North's shelling of the South's Yeonpyeong Island in November, as well as the March sinking of a South Korean warship -- allegedly by a North Korean torpedo -- and recent revelations that it is enriching uranium for nuclear weapons.

North Korea has denied sinking the warship.
Seoul has taken a tough stance against the North with strong rhetoric.

Washington has been concerned about North Korea's efforts to develop its nuclear program. The United States, along with North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan and China, are part of the six-party talks.


Source: CNN

Economic Outlook for 2011!! :)

2010 didn't quite bring the economic recovery, and attendant jobs, many were hoping for. How about 2011? The Financial Times is only one of the publications publishing predictions like mad. Here's a roundup of some of the bets for the coming year in business and the global economy:

• U.S. House Prices Will Continue to Fall  Gary Shilling says they'll "drop another 20%." Bill McBride of CalculatedRisk puts it at more like 5-10%, with Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs, McBride points out, thinking it will be more like 5%. Reuters's Felix Salmon makes a broader prediction:

"I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the US homeownership rate fall a lot in coming years, back down below even its long-term mean around 64%. And if that happens, prices—both to rent and to buy--are almost certain to fall from current levels."

• Europe: the Euro Will Survive : Both Martin Wolf and Wolfgang Münchau, in separate pieces for the Financial Times, think the euro will outlast the year. Wolf says "the will of members to keep the eurozone functioning has proved strong enough to prevent an outright default, let alone a departure from the currency union." He thinks "the euro will surely survive, even in the long run, if in a diminished form, among the economies that are able to live with Germany." Münchau wonders "in what condition" the currency will survive, predicting "more funding crises," as well as "public backlash against ... austerity programs." Gideon Rachman, in fact, thinks these programs may cause significant "social unrest."

• China Will Remain Strong  "There is no China bubble, so it cannot pop," declares James Kynge at the Financial Times.

• WikiLeaks Will Face Competition from 'Copycats'  Says James Crabtree: "Just as Napster pioneered music downloading but was soon surpassed, in the next year one of WikiLeaks' imitators will overtake it."

• 'Seven Bets for a Better Year for Business in 2011'  This one's from the Financial Times' John Gapper. The bets include that the Oscar will go to "a big-budget film of the sort Hollywood depends on," perhaps to Inception instead of The King's Speech; "private stock exchanges will be hit by a scandal," so-called "Big Pharma" will drop "early-stage research" on one of their expensive and unproductive "potential blockbusters,"; and "China will overtake Silicon Valley in green energy." Particularly interesting for Americans: "The US will make a profit from AIG."

• Don't Celebrate Just Yet  Analyst David Rosenberg is pretty gloomy in his 2011 summary, reported at Business Insider by Leah Goldman and Gus Lubin. He thinks, for starters, the enthusiasm on U.S. equity is a little much. "In my view," he writes more broadly, "real GDP growth in the U.S.A. is set to slow from around 3% in 2010 to 2% in 2011, or possibly even lower." He sees rough roads ahead in China and Europe, too.

Source: Yahoo news

The Republic of Korea/South Korea

VANK is an cyber diplomatic agency of Korea . :)

Have you ever heard of this country?

Look at the changes that have been made in merely 50 years.
A 750% GDP increase.
From one of the world's poorest countries to one of the world's top 10 economies.
The only country that changed from a "receiver" of international aid to a "giver" of aid.

As a sidenote,  Korea was the hosting country of the 2010 G20 conference
and some well-known Korean conglomerates include Samsung, LG, Hyundai, KIA, and many more.
I hope this changed the many misconceptions you may have about Korea.
Korea is no longer the country it was 50 years ago.