Loose change for March 20, 2010

 Economic and business news 

• Samsung is predicting double-digit growth for 2010, but Japanese rivals are expected to strike back.
• South Korean and Japanese agriculture ministers will meet next week to discuss a Kopanese FTA. (I'm trying hard to get "Kopanese" to gain traction, so please use it. I'd go with Jarean, but that sounds like a character from the Star Wars franchise.)
• The Seoul Tourism Organization is launching an "After You" campaign designed to get foreign tourists killed while crossing the street make foreign visitors feel more welcomed. The STO's president says South Koreans are "the most hospitable people in the world," but if you have to launch a courtesy campaign like that, then maybe it's not so true all the time.

 North Korea news and stuff 

• Sunny Lee of the Korea Times has a piece talking about whether or not Kim Jong-il will visit China, complete with her go-nowhere telephone call to the North Korean embassy in Bejing (which I once visited).
• Mexico beat North Korea, 2-1, in a pre-World Cup soccer friendly.
• AFP has an article on North Korea's threats, which I reported yesterday, to seize South Korean assets if Seoul doesn't re-allow tours to Mt Kŭmgangsan.
• Eighty percent of South Koreans, according to a recent survey, support an inter-Korean summit. Wouldn't it be funny if Kim Jong-un (the Dear Leader's son) showed up instead?

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• FIFA says Indonesia has been dropped from the competition to host the 2022 World Cup, meaning South Korea has one-in-nine odds instead of one-in-ten.
• Whoops! Honduras has rescinded their ambassadorship to a Korea-born Honduran when they realized her nomination violates Honduran law not to have diplomats serve as ambassadors in their country of origin. Way to go, Korean media!

 Americana and miscellany 

• A curator from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will head the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco's new Korean wing, one of the most comprehensive collections of Korean art outside Korea. 
• A kyopo who launched GamersFirst in 2001 as the first US massively multiplayer online game publisher, based on South Korean business models he saw, has been named Orange County's entrepreneur of the year.