Donald Kirk

South Korea’s top financial policy-makers see Korea weathering the storm of financial upheaval on world markets but acknowledge that continuing to do so won’t be easy. “A short-term effect is inevitable due to the increase of volatility from overseas uncertainties such as the debt crises in the US and Europe,” Finance Minister Bahk Jaewan told a forum staged by The Economist in Seoul in September.

The American sailors who once flooded the streets of the raucous Philippine city of Olongapo on shore leave are no longer around, except on brief visits during military exercises. With the departure of the U.S. Navy, the base on Subic Bay was converted into a huge industrial and shopping complex with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and sports and entertainment for people of all ages.

Kim Jong-il returned in August from his first visit to Russia in nine years with promises for vastly expanding economic ties with his great northern neighbor. Now the question is whether or not North Korea and Russia can fulfill the deals they agreed on at Kim’s summit in Siberia with Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev.

The crowds watching the news at twenty minutes after midnight in the heart of South Korea's "snow country" exploded in cheers and tears like a fizzy blast of champagne bursting from a freshly uncorked bottle. "I had to cry when I heard," said Koh Seung-hee in the lobby of a luxury hotel in South Korea's winter wonderland. "We have been waiting so long."

The sparks are flying in what has been a diplomatic and propaganda war for a little-known island chain claimed in whole or in part by half a dozen powers, notably China but also Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. Mysterious sightings of Chinese warplanes over distant islets, atolls, and reefs in the South China Sea have fueled reports of China's expansionist aims in these troubled waters. They have assumed importance with the realization that a fortune in oil and gas lingers beneath the shallow sea. The contest most recently has involved a strange realignment of interests in which big brother China, Hanoi's main ally in the war that culminated in the victory of North Vietnam's forces in 1975, is now Vietnam's foe.

Egypt and North Korea have long and historical ties. Around the time Hosni Mubarak was taking over, Egypt and North Korea began dealing in missiles – though Egypt was seen by Washington as a “good” Arab state and North Korea, then as now, as the incarnation of evil. Mubarak, when he commanded the Egyptian air force, got North Korea to send pilots to train Egyptians before the fourth Mideast war with Israel in 1973.

Hyundai Engineering and Construction, the original company of the mighty Hyundai empire, is about to enter a new phase of its history as Korea’s biggest builder, both at home and abroad.

It is now emerging from under the grip of the creditor banks that took it over after the 1997-1998 financial crisis, and returning to the Hyundai fold.

The Korean economic miracle said as much about Korea’s rise from the devastation of the Korean War as it did about rising pressure for democratic reform.

In Seoul for USA Today, writing about the 1988 Olympics, I had another mission in mind, that of a book about Korea’s leading business empire, one of the “engines” of the miracle. The result was Korean Dynasty: Hyundai and Chung Ju Yung, published in 1994 by M..E. Sharpe in New York and Asia2000 in Hong Kong.

The Seoul “Group of 20” Business Summit, a gathering of tycoons from around the world, has provided a framework for revitalizing global business at a time of increased economic tensions and fears.