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To: Paul Engel who wrote (65867)	10/6/1998 2:35:00 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Paul, It would be good to get a "personal" view of how Korea is faring in their new economic situation - as opposed to the "media" snap shots that usually available. I was just in Seoul last week for vacation visiting relatives. Although my grasp of Korean isn't as good as it should be, I do have some sort of idea about the economic situtation in Korea. As we all know, the IMF is the worldwide agency that's bailing out South Korea's economy. But "IMF" has also become an expression for the current Korean economic situation. Sentences like "You know, because of IMF, we all had to take a pay cut" are common. Everywhere I went, I saw banners above stores with the acronym "IMF", such as "We are having an IMF sale here!" or "In these IMF times, thank you for your business. We'd like to offer you these gifts." I remember one headline that showed President Kim Dae-Jung saying that he's confident the Korean economy will recover. I guess the only question is when. As of now, I didn't see much in terms of suffering on the street due to IMF, but I did find it much tougher to bargain with merchants out in the marketplace. ("No no no, I can't do that price. IMF.") I do know that there are some demonstrations out there by workers who were either laid off or protesting laws which would make it easier to lay off workers. Also, a lot more people want to migrate to America. Interestingly enough, those who are in the military (S.Korea has mandatory military service) are staying in the military longer than they need to, letting the Korean equivalent of Uncle Sam (Uncle Kim?) pay, feed, clothe, and shelter them. Despite the troublesome economy, I don't think any of my relatives lost their jobs. This is surprising considering that some of my uncles on my father's side are entrepreneurs whose small companies would have felt the worst from the economic recession. Everyone, of course, took pay cuts. Some of my cousins are also looking to migrate to America, but I wonder how tough immigration will be here. I don't know if this gives you a better picture of the Korean economy or not. But I personally have faith that Korea will recover in less than five years. Whether Korea learned its lessons or not is unclear to me. Tenchusatsu

To: Paul Engel who wrote (65867)	10/6/1998 10:40:00 PM
From: exhon2004	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Paul: re <<Is your brother-in-law located in Korea or the States?>> States, but he lives in Los Angeles which has a rather sizeable Korean community and they get a significant amount of news directly from Korea. Best Regards, Greg Gimelli