Today's Date:     Thursday, December 22, 2011

1. MARKETING ISSUES

Home Plus Announces Launching of Convenience Store Business [Korean, OSY]

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/economy/2011/12/21/0318000000AKR20111221040800003.HTML

Summary: Home Plus, the second largest hypermarket grocery chain in Korea announced on Dec. 21 that it had obtained an approval from the Fair Trade Committee on its business plan to start convenience store business.  In addition to the 130 hypermarket stores, Home Plus operates 257 grocery supermarket stores in Korea.  However, Home Plus has met strong opposition from small scale independent grocers while expanding its supermarket business.  For this reason, there is a speculation in the industry that Home Plus’s launching of convenience store business is a plot to go around the bottleneck in its supermarket business.

2. NORTH KOREA ISSUES

<Death of North Korean Leader J.I. Kim> Trade Between North and South Korea is Under Restriction since May Last Year [Korean, OSY]

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/economy/2011/12/21/0318000000AKR20111221152200003.HTML

Summary: All commercial trade between South and North Korea has been restricted, excepted for goods made by Korean companies in Gaesung industrial zone in North Korea, since May 24 last year when a Korean navy ship was sunk by North Korean attack.  Before the ban, significant amount of North Korean agricultural products were imported and sold in Korea, including fish, clams, mushrooms, bottled water, dried persimmons, walnuts, and natural herbs, many of which targeted special gift giving seasons.  Marketers comment that death of North Korean leader would have little impact on the situation in the short term.