Loose change for April 24, 2010

 Economic and business news 

• The ROK government is set to increase the amount of money it spends to buy unsold homes.
• The Wall Street Journal has an article on the US's attempts to "outfox the counterfeiters" with the high-tech $100 bill I highlighted yesterday.
• And we have reports that fake $100 bills are flooding the PRC-DPRK border region.
• Japan has confirmed its first case of foot-and-mouth disease in a decade. In response, South Korea has banned imports of Japanese meat from cloven animals.

 North Korea news and stuff 

• UPI has an article on the "growing suspicion" that North Korea is responsible for the Chonan's sinking.
• The Blue House is considering the creation of a position of "Special Secretary for National Security" who would deal with emergency situations like the sinking of the Chonan.

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• Goo Hara (really? Goo? Did you run that by anyone?) of pop group Kara gets a mention in the Orange County Register over her confessions of plastic surgery.
• McDonald's Korea employee Hur Jin won second place in the "Voice of McDonald's" singing contest. Brian has been following this carefully, so go read about it there (see here and here).
• The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry is ready to test its "TOEIC killer." Frankly, as a long-time critic of ETS and their protected monopoly that allows them to foist onto the public overpriced tests that often don't measure what they're purported to measure, I hope they succeed and I hope others follow.
• In an article asking why there are so many oil spills, the Christian Science Monitor notes that South Korea has had thirty-two such incidents since 1960.

 Americana and miscellany 

• Like their South Korean counterparts, US students are also addicted to the Internet.