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Korea Report - February, 2013.

Topics.

² Park Geun-hye took oath to become Korea’s 18th president on 25th.

² President Lee left office on 24th with a mixed scorecard of his 5-year term.

² After nearly 5 years, the South Gate is officially to open to the public in April.

² NK on 12th conducted a third nuclear test, more powerful than the previous.

² USA and China apparently face policy dilemmas over Pyongyang.

² President Park pledged to intervene in currency market in response to a weaker yen.

² Fitch Ratings has maintained its sovereign ratings on SKorea despite heightened geopolitical tension.

² SKorea’s content industry is forecast to grow 9.5% this year with surplus in trade of cultural products.

² Growing M&A market anticipated this year with DSME, Woori Financial Group, Korea Aerospace Industries, STX PanOcean, Korea Line Corporation and Dongyang Group.

² Combined market capitalization of top 20 companies reached $553.3 bil in Dec 2012.

² More than 1 in 3 North American smartphone owners use a made-in-Korea device.

² Apple failed to persuade a US appeals court to stop SEC selling the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

² SKorea retained its position as the world’s fifth largest automobile producer last year.

² The global market share of HMC and Kia Motors hit a record high 8.8% in 2012.

² NK`s nuclear test on 12th had no substantial impact on SKorean financial markets.

² Korean Air is to develop a, 1,100 ft office-and-hotel tower in downtown Los Angeles.

² The exchange rate of KWon against USDollar maintained stable, despite JYen’s aggressive weakening.

² Korea’s employment rate continued to drop for the third straight month.

² Shipbuilding market started to show dynamic move.

² China is to order 50 VLCCs to local yards.

² Korea’s financial institutes move to support the industries with the encouragement of new government.

² Cido boss arrested for the tax evasion.

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