Open for (risky) business

Business leaders and politicians alike say they want to make Korea a "good country in which to do business."

In fact, Korea is a "good place in which to do organized crime."

For example, Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-koo was just sentenced to three years prison time for embezzlement and breach of trust, but was not taken into custody at the time of his sentencing, allowing him to remain an essentially free man while he appeals his case. It is also possible his sentence will be reduced or suspended so that he never sees the inside of a prison cell.

Accross the way, notorious gangster Kim Tae-chun makes a threatening phone call, eyeing a knife hidden in a Bible. At one point in his life he briefly became a church deacon, and it looked as if he might have been walking the straight and narrow. But it was recently revealed that Kim phoned actor Kwon Sang-woo and threatened to turn his house "into a sea of blood" if he didn’t attend a potentially lucrative event hosted by the gangster’s friend.

(Hankyoreh Geurimpan, 7 February 2007)