South Korea had mid-term elections today, and the result was a shock to the current administration, as the Grand National Party of President Lee Myung Bak (left), was able to garner only 6 of 16 major provincial posts. Party leader Chung Mong Joon resigned. The media projected that the sinking of the South Korean frigate by, purportedly, North Korea, was sufficient enough of a crisis for the ruling party to sweep these elections.
This means that President Bak will now soften his stand on the North. Younger and more liberal voters favor the opposition, so, to insure for his reelection in two years, look for increasing accord. If anything, tensions in Korea should now ease, unless North Korea goes nuts. Looks like now it will be safe for me to visit that region in October.
While in Korea, I will follow-up on Project Green Enertopia with Professor Kiryun Choi, the founder of the concept. While his personal interests are mostly focused on fossil fuels, and bit of nuclear, he has much to gain from the renewables if Peak Oil and Global Warming begin to affect decision-making. We are targeting Cheju Island as the symbol of sustainability for Korea.
Daegu (also known as Taegu, which means seasoned codfish) has more than twice the population of Hawaii, and features both a Technopolis (future look, left) and Solar City. It is located 146 miles southeast of Seoul, about 75% of the way to Busan. Thus, the Korea Train eXpress (KTX, at up to 200 MPH) should take less than an hour to reach the city from Seoul when operational later this year. A 250 MPH version is expected in 2012.
My next stop after Korea will be Shanghai.
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After an up and down day, the Dow Jones Industrials eased up 6 to 10,255, while the Japan Nikkei zoomed 311 to 9914 and world markets generally also increased. Gold dropped $16/toz to $1207 and crude oil is just under $75/barrel.
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Tropical Cyclone Phet has weakened to 120 MPH, and is just about set to strike Oman. Then, at landfall, there will be a further weakening, but an expectation of some strengthening upon return into the Arabian Sea, heading towards Pakistan.
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