US-Iran Ceasefire Extension.

• The ceasefire agreement was extended just hours before its expiration deadline.
• Donald Trump (US President) appears to have accepted Pakistan’s mediation, but the situation has worsened. Trump had said as recently as yesterday morning that he did not want to extend the ceasefire, but he changed his stance.
• JD Vance (US Vice President), the lead negotiator, postponed his visit to Pakistan, judging that Iran would not return to the negotiating table.
• Mahdi Mohammadi (Advisor to the Speaker of Iran’s Parliament) wrote, “Extending the ceasefire means nothing” and added, “The losing side cannot set the terms.”
• Al Jazeera assessed, “Trump has found himself in an awkward position.”
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What Matters Now.

Trump’s Dilemma.

• Trump wants to wrap up negotiations quickly, but the Iranian government has no reason to rush.
• Trump believes they will capitulate if pressured, but Iran is prepared to endure sacrifices.
• The 2015 deal under Barack Obama (then US President) promised sanctions relief in exchange for abandoning nuclear development.
• Trump (1st term) scrapped the deal in 2018, leaving Iran isolated ever since.
• Naturally, Iran will demand firmer guarantees—but Trump has nothing to offer.
• The dilemma: he must secure a better outcome than 2015, yet the conditions are far worse.
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KOSPI 6,388.

• The index has not only surpassed pre-US-Iran war records but also set a new all-time high.
• SK Hynix crossed 1.2 million won as analysts projected first-quarter operating profit around 40 trillion won. Since April, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have surged 31% and 51%, respectively.
• There are also expectations that Shin Hyun-song (Bank of Korea Governor) will hold interest rates steady. Shin, who began his term yesterday, stated, “Monetary policy will be prudent and flexible, prioritizing price stability and financial stability.”
• All three major US indices fell. The S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq dropped -0.63%, -0.59%, and -0.59%, respectively.

The People Power Party’s Burden.

• This refers to Jang Dong-hyeok (People Power Party Leader). Even in Daegu, they are bypassing Jang.
• In the US, he reportedly said, “Let’s stay one more day,” but fellow lawmakers traveling with him reportedly urged him, “Even with good results, we’ll face backlash if public sentiment is bad.”
• Kim Min-soo (People Power Party Supreme Council Member) responded to criticism of a smiling photo taken in front of the US Congress by saying, “Should I have taken it crying?”
• A party insider told a JoongAng Ilbo reporter, “The party actually felt more at peace while Jang Dong-hyeok was in the US.”
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Blame Game on Jeong Dong-young.

• The People Power Party needs an issue. They accuse Jeong Dong-young (Unification Minister) of leaking classified information, but there’s no substance.
• They keep fueling suspicions even after the Defense Ministry confirmed the USFK commander’s protest was untrue. Jang Dong-hyeok even posted on Facebook, “Deciding to break up with the US.”
• According to the Defense Ministry, it’s true the US restricted some North Korea-related intelligence sharing. Whether it’s linked to Jeong’s remarks remains unverified. Some speculate it’s due to other grievances, like DMZ access issues.
• The Hankyoreh criticized in an editorial, “We can only condemn the US for its crude attempt to halt policies that don’t suit its taste,” adding, “Misunderstandings must be resolved, but legitimate concerns shouldn’t be abandoned.”
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Deep Dive.

National Debt Risk? A Discourse of Fear.

• IMF warnings are being amplified and reproduced by conservative media.
• Kim Yong-beom (Blue House Policy Director) pointed out, “Debates surrounding national debt are often exaggerated or oversimplified by political framing.”
• South Korea’s national debt ratio of 54% is half the global average of 95%. Japan’s stands at 204%. Even Germany, with strict fiscal rules, is at 65%.
• Ryu Deok-hyun (Blue House Fiscal Planning Advisor) countered, “30% of national debt consists of financial liabilities such as foreign exchange reserves or recoverable loans,” adding, “The interest on government bonds relative to GDP is around 1%, a manageable level.”
• In an editorial, JoongAng Ilbo noted, “If active fiscal policy is to be pursued, structural fiscal reforms must accompany it.”
• The National Bureau of Economic Research also analyzed, “Argentina faced crisis with a debt ratio of 40%, while Japan, at 250%, did not—indicating that the debt-to-GDP ratio alone cannot fully explain such disparities.”
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Consolidating the ‘Shy Conservatives’? Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam Support Gap Narrows.

• In Busan, Jeon Jae-soo (former Minister of Oceans and Fisheries) and Park Hyung-jun (Busan Mayor) trail at 40% and 34%, respectively—within the margin of error. This is according to a Korea Research Institute-KBS Busan survey.
• Kim Kyung-soo (former Gyeongsangnam-do Governor) and Park Wan-su (Gyeongsangnam-do Governor) also remain tightly matched at 44% and 40%.
• While the Democratic Party still leads, speculation grows that ‘shy conservatives’ are rallying.
• Chosun Ilbo emphasized the undecided voter factor: 24% in Busan and 35% in Gyeongsangnam-do responded, “No preferred candidate.”
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CU’s Five-Tier Subcontracting Structure and Its Tragedy.

• CU delivery workers labor over 13 hours a day, completing two rounds.
• The multi-tiered subcontracting structure runs: BGF Retail → BGF Logistics → regional logistics centers → subcontracted transport companies → delivery workers.
• Since four years ago, delivery workers formed a union and requested negotiations, but were rejected.
• BGF Retail claims, “The logistics center contracts with transport companies, and transport companies contract with delivery workers—so we cannot be the negotiating party.”
• A delivery worker interviewed by The Hankyoreh said, “Instructions for delivering everything from winter hot-bun machines to special promotion items come directly from headquarters.”
• During a rally demanding collective bargaining at a BGF Logistics center, a delivery worker was struck and killed while trying to block a replacement vehicle.
• Some media outlets frame the clash as caused by the “Yellow Envelope Law,” but the Labor Ministry states, “It has no connection to the Yellow Envelope Law.” The Cargo Workers’ Union explains, “This is not a union issue—it’s a problem beyond negotiations between original contractors and subcontractors.”
• Oh Min-kyu (Liberation Research Institute Director) noted, “The revised union law’s core is recognizing entities that substantially control and decide working conditions as employers, imposing negotiation obligations. The Labor Ministry’s ruling that this isn’t an original contractor negotiation issue is an overly narrow interpretation of the law’s intent.”
• This is no time to blame the Yellow Envelope Law. In an editorial, Kyunghyang Shinmun pointed out, “If the Yellow Envelope Law cannot regulate such issues, alternative institutional solutions must be explored.”
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Another Take.

Coupang Lobbying Effect? “Security Talks Stalled.”.

• According to SBS and others, the US State Department has conveyed that “high-level negotiations cannot proceed unless Kim Beom-seok (Chairman of Coupang INC)’s legal safety is guaranteed.”
• “If Kim Beom-seok visits Korea, they demand a promise that his personal safety will not be affected—otherwise, high-level discussions on security issues like nuclear-powered submarines cannot continue.”
• Indeed, schedules for security negotiations, including nuclear-powered submarines, have been repeatedly delayed.
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Powell and Warsh.

• Jerome Powell (Federal Reserve Chair) did not yield to Trump’s pressure to cut rates.
• Kevin Warsh (Federal Reserve Chair nominee) might be different. The New York Times believes Kevin Warsh won’t resist as strongly as Jerome Powell.
• Trump has openly declared, “I will appoint someone who will bring rates down.” Kevin Warsh once told Fox last year, “I sympathize with Trump’s frustration”—implying the timing for rate cuts was missed.
• US inflation has risen to 3.3%, exceeding the 2% target.
• The New York Times warned, “Kevin Warsh is more interested in pleasing Trump than addressing inflation,” adding, “When a central bank chief tries to appease the president, everyone suffers.”
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“Without Korean Oil, It’s a Disaster.”.

• Japan has requested South Korea to lift export restrictions on diesel. The US has asked for assurances that aviation fuel supply disruptions will not occur.
• South Korea produces no oil domestically but imports and refines crude oil for export. 71% of US aviation fuel imports are South Korean.
• In 2024, it exported 520 million barrels—worth $48.2 billion.
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Samsung + Nix: Double Leverage ETFs Emerge.

• The revised Enforcement Decree of the Capital Markets Act has passed the State Council.
• ETFs are typically designed to track indices, but leveraged ETFs are funds that aggressively follow specific stocks.
• Only those with an average market cap ratio of 10% or higher and an average trading volume ratio of 5% or higher are eligible.
• Due to high investment risks, prior education at the Financial Investment Education Institute is mandatory. The term “ETF” cannot be used in the product name.
• Investors must fully understand the negative compounding effect before entering. If an index drops 20% and then rises 20%, a regular product would see 1 million won drop to 800,000 won and rise to 960,000 won—but a leveraged product would fall to 600,000 won and rebound to 840,000 won.
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Ending Distinctions for Children from Blended Families.

• Until now, children from a former spouse were listed as “spouse’s child” on resident registration documents.
• The revised system will classify all children and parents—excluding the spouse—as household members.
• If uncles or others live together, they will be listed as cohabitants.

The Fix.

“Better Employee Buyouts Than Private Equity Sales.”.

• Lee Jae-myung (President) made this remark at a recent meeting with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. It was a proposal for the government to lead in revitalizing employee stock ownership plans (ESOP).
• If private equity funds are going to acquire companies through leveraged buyouts (LBO) using corporate assets as collateral, there’s no reason employees can’t pool their resources to do the same.
• Countless companies have been sold to private equity, only to see layoffs, asset sales, and eventual collapse. When considering who truly ponders a company’s sustainability, institutional support for employee ownership could be a viable recovery option for struggling firms.
• Lee Dong-han (Policy Committee Member, People’s Livelihood Solidarity) emphasized, “Tax incentives must be generous when owners sell to employees.” Owners need motivation to choose this path.
• Long-term financial support systems with low-interest rates are also essential.
• Answering the age-old question, “Who does a company belong to?” Lee Dong-han says, “If the true owner is the one who stays and endures when a company faces crisis, I believe it’s the workers.”
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Naver Acquires Stake in Wind Power Plant.

• It is the first direct investment among RE100-member companies.
• Naver has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with GS Wind Power and agreed to acquire 30% of a 180GWh wind power plant in Yeongyang County, Gyeongbuk.
• The plan is to convert 46% of Naver’s total electricity consumption to renewable energy by 2029.
• Im Dong-ah (Naver ESG Policy Leader) said, “As data center power demand grows rapidly, securing renewable energy is an essential task.”
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“Bravery Gets You a Discount.”.

• Cheongju City operates a personal container packaging reward system. If you bring your own bowl (container) to a restaurant, you get a 2,000 won discount on your meal. The discount is returned as Cheongju Pay after verifying the receipt.
• There are 91 participating restaurants, and the system has been used 620 times since October last year.

Seoul Medical Center’s Reusable Container Experiment.

• Reusable containers at funeral halls reduced waste by 80%. The number of trash bags per funeral site dropped from 6.3 to 1.3. Over three years, 522 tons were cut.
• Single-use waste from funeral halls reaches 2,300 tons annually.
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An Era of One Million Electric Vehicles.

• Last year alone, 220,000 new units were added. Electric vehicles now account for over 20% of new car sales.
• This year, nearly 110,000 units have already been registered as of April 17.
• There are 500,000 EV charging stations, including 140,000 fast chargers.
• Battery manufacturer stocks surged. Samsung SDI jumped nearly 20% in a single day yesterday, buoyed by news of a battery supply deal with Mercedes-Benz.
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ICYMI.

The Difference Between Cigarettes and Social Media.

• Half of American adults were once smokers; now it’s around 13%.
• Unfortunately, smoking rates remain higher among low-income groups. In the UK, smoking rates in economically vulnerable areas were over three times higher than in more affluent ones.
• What about social media addiction? For one, parents struggle to reduce their own usage while telling their children to cut back.
• Cigarettes are universally harmful, but social media’s impact varies by individual.
• Sarah O’Connor (Financial Times columnist) warned, “Addictive products can survive long after being pushed out of the mainstream.
• If a product combines addictiveness and harm, it can become a driver of deepening inequality.”
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When Silicon Valley Touches the News, This Happens.

• Marc Andreessen (a16z founder) launched an X (Twitter)-based live-streaming service called MTS (Monitoring the Situation).
• “CNN, which broadcasts all day, keeps repeating the same news until something major happens. MTS tracks issues as they pour in on X and assigns meaning (sense-making). It might be a concept similar to Korea’s cable news channels.”
• Since Elon Musk took over, news on X is consumed like sports. Axios pointed out, “It has turned news into a commodity to be traded and monetized.”
• OpenAI acquired the live-streaming talk show TBPN. It’s a startup that covers tech news in the style of ESPN (a sports channel). It set an advertising target of $15 million this year, and according to the Wall Street Journal, sales are already nearly exhausted.
• Peter Thiel (PayPal founder) invested in Objection, a service that reviews media reports, accepts challenges to their veracity, and determines their truthfulness. Objection charges $2,000 per case. Is it trying to act like a private press arbitration committee or fact-checking center? Critics argue that under the guise of fact verification, it could attack critical media and provide those in power with tools to suppress the press. (This feels like Byun Hee-jae’s Truth Verification Center. Thiel openly supports Trump.)
• TechCrunch questioned, “Do Silicon Valley entrepreneurs even have the capacity to assess what serves the public interest?”
• What does this signify? As legacy media loses influence, the barrier to entry for issue-fighting has lowered. Since journalism isn’t profitable, wealthy individuals who can spend freely are adding a bit of technology to seize influence.
• Aaron DeSua, who created Objection, is the “hit man” who, alongside Peter Thiel, took down Gawker. While Gawker was a problematic yellow paper, there are concerns that attacks justified by “verifying truth” could undermine the credibility of mainstream media. Their business model even threatens to lower scores if sources aren’t disclosed—a coercion disguised as a service.
• Commercializing and weaponizing the journalistic norm of fact-checking is a terrifying prospect.
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Healthy Pleasure.

• “Sober Curious” means you can have fun without getting drunk.
• HiteJinro’s sales and operating profit fell 4% and 17% last year. Lotte Chilsung’s liquor division also dropped 7% and 19%.
• Park Dong-him (accountant) analyzed, “Healthy Pleasure companies seem to keep improving their performance.”
• Lululemon and Andar (sports apparel) saw sales rise 5% and 27%.
• Nova Rex (health food) grew 36%, while Buffet Ground (gym brand) surged 46%.
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Worth Reading.

Tired of Jang Dong-hyeok’s Incompetence.

• “The shabbiness has gone too far.” This is the column by Kim Young-soo (former Yeungnam University professor, TV Chosun advisory board member) published in Chosun Ilbo.
• Regarding the claim that “key U.S. figures treated Jang Dong-hyeok as a potential future presidential candidate,” he criticized, “It’s as if they think the public are fools.” Chosun Ilbo had already distanced itself from Jang Dong-hyeok, but its tone is growing increasingly harsh.
• The assessment of the People Power Party as a “far-right host party” also caught attention. Oh Se-hoon (Seoul mayor) reportedly believes the race would tighten by about 3 percentage points if Jang Dong-hyeok were gone. Kim Young-soo emphasized, “For the conservative party to survive, it must open channels for supporters to return.”
• Will Jang Dong-hyeok, who enjoys the support of 300,000 responsible party members, heed Chosun Ilbo’s advice?
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Judgment and Discernment Matter.

• When forced to choose between A and B, an AI can generate 100 reasons to pick A and 100 to pick B. Ultimately, it is the questioner’s responsibility to verify the data, assess the evidence, and make the final call.
• Jeong Ji-woo (author) emphasized, “If everyone can use AI as a secretary that generates and uncovers ‘infinite justifications’ in decision-making, the ability to integrate, interpret, and judge those countless reasons becomes all the more critical.”
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A Simple Solution for Two-Year Fixed-Term Contracts.

• Proposals to extend the non-regular worker limit to three or four years are under review, but workers oppose them first.
• Ha Jong-kang (professor at Sungkonghoe University) suggested, “The regulation should apply to the job position, not the individual worker.” After two years, even if the person changes, the worker in that position should be hired as a regular or indefinite-contract employee.
• After the 2016 Guui Station accident, Seoul Metro directly employed 400 screen door maintenance workers. What happened?
• Screen door malfunctions dropped from 20,196 in 2015 to 3,495 in 2018. They reportedly held over 100 meetings after becoming regular employees. Productivity rose because it became a lifelong job.
• One cannot help but wonder: Could the Sewol ferry tragedy have been prevented if the crew had been regular employees?
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Feedback.

Can Lawmakers Really Abandon Their Seats So Casually?

• “With local elections approaching, we see elected lawmakers abandoning their seats to run for local executive roles. I wonder why the media doesn’t critique this phenomenon more critically.
• Is there no instability caused by lawmakers resigning after the vast resources and manpower spent on their elections? To become a lawmaker, one is elected using taxpayer money and labor (even with holidays suspended for voting!), then entrusted with national authority to shape the country’s foundation.
• Abandoning such a resource-heavy position seems like a grave betrayal of public trust. Considering this responsibility, switching from lawmaker to local executive feels like a national waste. It also clashes with the philosophy of local autonomy—these moves often seem driven by political calculation rather than genuine commitment to regional policy or understanding.
• Lawmakers’ career shifts are nothing like ordinary job changes. Yet, I see few critical articles on this. Online searches yield columns explaining why lawmakers abandon their seats for local roles, but these don’t clarify why such a weighty position should be so readily discarded.
• As a local voter, I’d never support politicians weighing electoral advantages. But maybe most citizens feel differently?”