Day: June 21, 2024

A Seoul court ruled Friday that an art museum headed by Roh Soh-yeong, the wife in divorce proceedings with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, should move out of the SK headquarters building in central Seoul as the company legitimately terminated the lease contract.

The Seoul Central District Court also ordered Art Center Nabi to pay 1.04 billion won (US$747,943) in compensation to SK Innovation Co., an SK subsidiary in charge of taking care of SK Seorin Building, as the museum has occupied the space even after the lease contract was terminated in September 2019.

SK Innovation filed the suit in April last year to demand the museum leave the building and pay compensation, arguing that losses were building up due to the museum’s unauthorized occupation of the space on the building’s fourth floor.

The museum, which moved into the building in 2000, claimed that the contract cannot be unilaterally terminated unless it committed acts that go against the purpose of the contract, and that SK’s demand is unfair becau
se it is related to the divorce suit between Roh and the SK chairman.

Roh has also claimed the demand for eviction is excessive, saying the value of the art center should be protected as a cultural facility storing artworks, and that she, as the director of the center, holds the responsibility to consider the interests of her employees.

But the court ruled in favor of SK, saying the company legitimately terminated the contract.

“As the plaintiff has terminated the contract with due process according to the predetermined end date, the defendant has an obligation to hand over the property,” the court said, adding SK Innovation had notified the defendant of the end date.

The court also ordered the museum to pay roughly 24.9 million won each month to the plaintiff as maintenance and rent until the eviction is complete.

Roh’s legal representative said they will deliberate whether to appeal the decision to a higher court.

In South Korea’s most expensive divorce suit, the Seoul High Court ordered Chey late las
t month to pay Roh 1.38 trillion won in property division, in addition to 2 billion won in alimony, the largest known property division for a divorce in the country.

Chey has appealed the decision with the Supreme Court.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Suffering from the prolonged walkout by junior doctors and the subsequent disruptions to the health care system, angry patients will hold a rally on an unprecedented scale next month, officials said Friday.

An association of patients’ groups said it is organizing a protest, together with other patients’ organizations, in Seoul on July 4 by bringing together around 1,000 people to urge doctors to end their walkout and call on the government to enact a law meant to prevent any recurrences.

There has not been such a rally by patients on this scale, as the members are either patients or their family members.

Patients have erupted in anger over a medical service vacuum after a majority of junior doctors have walked off the job since late February in protest of the quota increase.

Some community doctors held a one-day strike Tuesday, and a major doctors’ lobby group is threatening to launch an indefinite strike next week.

In support of the junior doctors’ move, the Seoul National University (SNU) hospitals su
spended their operations indefinitely Monday, except for emergency rooms and services for critical patients, and other senior doctors were to decide whether to join their SNU colleagues.

“It is really hot these days, but we’ve decided to make our voice heard,” Ahn Gi-jong, chief of the association, said.

“We’ve had meetings with high-ranking government officials and lawmakers, but nothing has changed. Nobody has listened to us, and we want to make an appeal directly to the people.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

North Korea’s vice sports minister has left for Russia to attend an international sports meeting, state media reported Friday, after the leaders of North Korea and Russia signed a treaty to expand cooperation.

A delegation, headed by Vice Sports Minister Kim Yong-gwon, departed for Russia the previous day to take part in a so-called BRICS Plus meeting of sports ministers in Kazan, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Russia, which assumed the rotating chairmanship of BRICS for this year, is hosting the BRICS Games, a multisports competition, in Kazan from June 12-23. North Korea appears to have been invited to the meeting to be held on the sidelines of the sports event.

BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — decided to accept six new members — Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — to increase its sphere of influence at the summit in Johannesburg in 2023.

In February, Russia invited North Korean athletes to take part in the BRICS Games w
hen the two nations signed a protocol on sports exchanges.

After summit talks in Pyongyang on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a partnership treaty that calls for the two nations to offer military assistance without delay in the event of aggression against either side.

The two leaders also agreed to boost exchanges and cooperation in agriculture, education, public health, sports, culture and tourism.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Ediya Coffee, South Korea’s third-largest coffee franchise by sales, said Friday it has signed a master franchise deal with a Malaysian company to open three outlets in the Southeast Asian country this year.

Malaysia is the second country to which Ediya is advancing to do its coffee chain business after opening its first overseas outlet in Guam in December.

The Malaysian partner, a joint company set up between a local restaurant franchise firm and a local distribution company, plans to open 200 Ediya outlets within the next five years, Ediya said in a statement.

Ediya did not provide the names of the companies.

“Our presence in Malaysia would help the company explore into other Southeast Asian markets,” Ediya Chairman Moon Chang-ki said in the statement.

Under a master franchise deal, the master franchisor allows the master franchisee not only to open franchise units itself in a specified area but also to sub-franchise them to third parties.

Established in 2001, Ediya Coffee is a homegrown, lower-price
d coffee franchise that operates around 3,000 stores in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Foreign currency deposits declined for the fifth straight month in May as companies withdrew part of U.S. dollar-denominated deposits amid the weakening won and to settle imports, central bank data showed Friday.

Residents’ outstanding foreign currency-denominated deposits reached US$88.96 billion at end-May, down $2.39 billion from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Residents include local citizens, foreigners who have stayed in South Korea for more than six months and foreign companies. The data excludes interbank foreign currency deposits.

By currency, dollar-denominated deposits fell by $2.12 billion to $72.21 billion, and Japanese yen-denominated deposits rose by $360 million to $10.07 billion last month.

Euro-denominated deposits also fell by $350 million to $4.47 billion, and Chinese yuan-denominated deposits increased by $180 million to $1.09 billion, according to the data.

Corporate deposits came to $73.95 billion as of May, down $2.56 billion from the previ
ous month, with individual holdings rising by $170 million to $15.01 billion.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

South Korea’s Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun met with Germany’s top economic policymaker in Seoul on Friday to discuss ways of enhancing bilateral relations on advanced industries, energy and broader economic ties, officials said.

Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, who doubles as federal minister for economic affairs and climate action, is in South Korea along with an economic delegation involving 13 companies, including Brainlab, Max Bögl Stiftung, Voss Holding, Haverkamp and Satorius, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

During the meeting, the two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation on standards and data sharing fields for digital transition and for the industrial use of artificial intelligence.

They also vowed to strengthen cooperation on the future mobility and other advanced industries through joint research and development projects.

“It is crucial for like-minded people to work together amid rising global uncertainties,” Ahn said. “South Korea and Germany have similar
industry structures and will become key partners in efforts for boosting industry competitiveness and achieving net-zero goals.”

Trade volume between the two nations reached an all-time high of US$33.9 billion last year, government data showed.

Source: Yonhap News Agency