WHAT IS HAPPENING IN KOREA?

1.  North Korea remains as screwed up as ever, but no noise is good news.  Seoul is only 35 miles from the border, so I'm happy.  Time has 10 things you might not know about new young leader Kim Jong-un.

2.  There was a nation-wide taxi strike the day I arrived in Seoul.  The drivers are demanding an increase in the base fare from $2 to $2.25 or so, plus price reductions on Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) and the opportunity to use other fuels (LPG is mandated).   According to reports, one liter of LPG jumped in price from $1.40/gallon in 2001 to $2.70/gallon last year, and is now at $3.64/gallon.  Wait a minute, Hawaii is thinking of importing LPG because the price has dropped.  What's happening?  Someone at the Gas Company should take a closer look at South Korea.  Anyway, here is one historical price graph (I did not convert the units as it is the trend that is important):

Pretty clear that the price of LPG is rising.  The drivers have a case, for I took a reasonably long ride that would have cost at least $25 in Tokyo and paid $3.50.  You don't need to tip in this country.

3.  The Korean Times just had a headline:  Korean society aging fastest.  To quote:  "Korea is moving toward an aged society at the fastest pace in the world..."  I thought Japan or Russia or countries in Europe were going downhill, fast.  But South Korea?  This sounds terrible, but it is a bit of an exaggeration, for the article goes on to say that "the average age of Korean workers is expected to be 50 by 2045 when it will be the highest in the world."  Further, the country today became the 7th nation to join the 20-50 club, reaching a population of 50 million at $20,000 in per capita income.  They had a population of 25 million 50 years ago and are projected to drop to 30 million in a bit more than half a century.   So,  immigration is one solution, and, surely enough:

In South Korea, more than 35 percent of fishermen and farmers who (recently) married took foreign brides, mainly from China and Vietnam, government statistics show.

By the way, it is interesting to note the following fertility rates:  USA 2.08, Russia 1.56, China 1.53 (or should this be 1.2--see #5 below), Germany 1.46, Japan 1.42 and SOUTH KOREA 1.23.

4.  Watch out Hawaii, for Korea aims to attract 20 million foreign tourists by 2020.  The number is 10 million this year, while Hawaii peaked at 7.7 million in 2006.  What has Hawaii done lately to improve prospects?  Nothing much except for minor enhancements to Waikiki.  Korea is hosting the Yeosu Ocean Expo and will open a $3 billion Universal Studios Korea Resort in 2014 (or 2016), to be larger than all their world parks combined.

5.  There is a new kind of immigration from China:  the Dragon Boom. The numbers are sketchy, and you need to be reasonably wealthy, for the cost could range from $14,000 to $127,000, but Chinese women who are six or seven months pregnant (airlines restrict travel at 8 months) are traveling to the USA to give birth, for the child immediately becomes a U.S. citizen, and when it reaches the age of 21, their parents can apply for green cards and emigrate.  This Year of the Dragon is particularly desirable, like the Golden Pig was in 2007.  Mothers to be also go to Hong Kong, for then, the baby's passport will give them access to more than 120 countries without the need of a visa.  Plus, it is much cheaper.  However, the number in 2011 was 44,000, and dropped this year to 35,000, with a possible cut to zero next year looming.  Also the U.S. Congress and some states are closely looking at this automatic citizenship provision.  So this is a great, and maybe final, year to do this.

6.  There is sudden concern that the Japan Diet snuck through without any real discussion a revision to the Atomic Energy Basic Law, provoking suspicions that the country now can build nuclear weapons.  My posting two days ago reported that Japan has sufficient plutonium to build 5,000 atomic bombs, and the Korea JoonAng Daily suggests that the number is closer to 10,000.  That photo to the right comes from another Korean publication, showing the War Flag used by the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second world War.  My gut feeling is that there will be too much local and external opposition for any serious attempt at bomb-making.  Plus, WHY???

-