South Korea’s government will consider filing a complaint to the World Trade Organization against what they described as China’s trade retaliation after Seoul agreed to deploy a US anti-missile system, the ruling party said on Tuesday. Beijing is widely believed in South Korea to be retaliating against some of its companies and cancelling performances by Korean artists after South Korea’s decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. “We will actively consider whether China’s action is in violation of the South Korea-China free trade deal, while stepping up efforts to minimise damage on South Korean industries,” Lee Hyun-jae, chairman of the Liberty Korea Party’s policy committee, said after meeting senior government officials.

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China rejected applications by some Korean carriers, including Jeju Air, to add charter flights between the two countries in March, Yonhap News Agency said on Tuesday, in what is seen as China’s latest retaliation against South Korean firms. Their applications for charter flights to China were rejected for January and February, with no reason given, Yonhap said.

The Chinese government last week ordered tour operators in China to stop selling trips to South Korea, days after the Seoul government secured land for the THAAD system from Lotte Group.

Lee said on Tuesday the government had since agreed to provide an additional 50 billion won ($43.3 million) worth of “special loans” to tourism companies that are experiencing business difficulties.

Chinese authorities have also closed nearly two dozen of Lotte Group’s retail stores following inspections, Lotte said on Monday. China objects to the THAAD deployment, saying its territory is the target of the system’s far-reaching radar. South Korea and the United States have said the missile system is aimed only at curbing North Korean provocations.</s>Dozens of people holding posters showing late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong protested in northeastern Jilin province on Sunday, calling for a boycott of South Korean goods as part of a backlash against the country’s Lotte Group.

The retail giant has faced growing opposition in China since signing a deal last Tuesday to provide land for a U.S. missile-defense system.

The plan to install the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system was prompted by threats from North Korea, but Beijing fears the move will undermine its own military capabilities.

“Patriotism starts with me! Long live the Communist Party!”

Similar protests have sprouted across the country as Lotte suffers setbacks in several of its Chinese ventures — from last month’s government-ordered halt of a $2.6 billion theme park project to apparent cyber-attacks on company websites.

Citing fire violations, authorities in Liaoning Province’s Dandong City have also suspended the operation of Lotte Mart, the Yonhap news agency reported Saturday.

Earlier last week, major tour operators confirmed that trips to South Korea have been suspended “due to policy and safety factors.”

China has repeatedly denounced THAAD as a threat to its security, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman saying “the consequences entailed will be borne by the U.S. and the Republic of Korea.”

Calls are growing in China for Beijing to use the carrot and stick of its huge market to raise pressure on South Korea to abandon the THAAD plan.

The stakes are high for Lotte, which has invested more than 10 trillion won ($8.7 billion) in its Chinese operations since 1994.

Earlier Sunday, South Korea’s trade minister said the government’s responses against discriminating action by China toward South Korean companies will be strengthened and he feels “deep concern” over recent measures taken by Beijing.

Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan made the statement while visiting the United States, the ministry said in a statement.

South Korean media said last week Chinese government officials had given verbal guidance to tour operators in China to stop selling trips to South Korea days after the Seoul government secured land for the THAAD system from Lotte.

China objects to the deployment, saying its territory is the target of the THAAD’s far-reaching radar. South Korea and the United States have said the missile system is only aimed at curbing North Korean provocations.

“We will act according to international law against any actions that violate policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the free trade agreement between South Korea and China,” Joo said.

The Trade Ministry said it will start examining exports to China on a daily basis and any changes to South Korean exporters who do business with China in order to respond as quickly as possible against unfair action.

On Friday, it requested to the Chinese Embassy in Seoul that South Korean companies investing in China be protected and be shown care.

Data last week showed South Korean February exports to China, its biggest trade partner, posted the best growth since late 2010, driven by sales of intermediate goods such as semiconductors and display panels used for electronics manufacturing.

Economists say the THAAD-related backlash is not expected to significantly harm exports to China in the short term as a bulk of the shipments are intermediate goods, which China uses to manufacture finished products and ships to other countries.

However, government officials are warily watching if diplomatic tensions grow further between South Korea and China at a time when global protectionism is rising.</s>SEOUL, March 7 (Reuters) - South Korea's government will consider filing a complaint to the World Trade Organization against what they described as China's trade retaliation after Seoul agreed to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system, the ruling party said on Tuesday.

Beijing is widely believed in South Korea to be retaliating against some of its companies and cancelling performances by Korean artists after South Korea's decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

"We will actively consider whether China's action is in violation of the South Korea-China free trade deal, while stepping up efforts to minimise damage on South Korean industries," Lee Hyun-jae, chairman of the Liberty Korea Party's policy committee, said after meeting senior government officials.

China rejected applications by some Korean carriers, including Jeju Air, to add charter flights between the two countries in March, Yonhap News Agency said on Tuesday, in what is seen as China's latest retaliation against South Korean firms. Their applications for charter flights to China were rejected for January and February, with no reason given, Yonhap said.

The Chinese government last week ordered tour operators in China to stop selling trips to South Korea, days after the Seoul government secured land for the THAAD system from Lotte Group.

Lee said on Tuesday the government had since agreed to provide an additional 50 billion won ($43.3 million) worth of "special loans" to tourism companies that are experiencing business difficulties.

Chinese authorities have also closed nearly two dozen of Lotte Group's retail stores following inspections, Lotte said on Monday.

China objects to the THAAD deployment, saying its territory is the target of the system's far-reaching radar. South Korea and the United States have said the missile system is aimed only at curbing North Korean provocations. ($1 = 1,155.5000 won) (Reporting by Daewoung Kim and Hyunjoo Jin, Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Writing by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Paul Tait)</s>SEOUL, South Korea -- Scott Burcham's run-scoring infield single in the 10th inning led Israel to a 2-1 upset win over South Korea on Monday in the World Baseball Classic opener.

With a victory over Taiwan on Tuesday, Israel would be in good position to advance to the second round.

Tyler Krieger's bases-loaded walk from Chang Won-jun forced home Nate Freiman with a second-inning run, but South Korea tied the score in the fifth on Seo Geon-chang's RBI single against Jeremy Bleich, which scored Kim Jae-ho.

Ike Davis began the go-ahead rally with a one-out walk in the 10th off Chang-Yong Lim and took third on Ryan Lavarnway's single. Krieger popped out on a bunt, and Burcham, a 23-year-old in the Colorado Rockies organization, hit a three-hopper up the middle that Seo gloved with a sliding stop. The second baseman had no play as pinch runner Mike Meyers scored on the infield hit.

Winner Josh Zeid struck out two in a perfect 10th. Starter Jason Marquis allowed two hits in three scoreless innings.

First-round games also are being played in Miami, Tokyo and Guadalajara, Mexico. Second-round games will be in San Diego and Tokyo, and the championship round is at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles from March 20-22.</s>South Korean protesters attend a rally to oppose a plan to deploy the THAAD missile defense system in front of the Defense Ministry in Seoul on Feb. 28. Ahn Young-joon / AP

Yang Uk, a senior fellow at the Korea Defense & Security Forum, a private research group in Seoul, said: “THAAD installation will not be met with fully open arms but semi-open arms.”

“A majority of South Korean people do understand the need for installing the THAAD and also that it is better sooner than later, but China’s trade attack and pressure on South Korean people and businesses is [stopping] many South Koreans from welcoming THAAD,” Yang told NBC News.

“The reality is that China is opposed to THAAD deployment not because of South Korea, but because of the U.S., and so if the U.S. works closely with South Korea to alleviate China’s pressure against South Korea, more South Koreans will openly support THAAD installation,” Yang said.

But Kim Young-woo, chairman of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, rejected the idea that China’s opposition should influence the decision.

“China does not really have a say here, as this is about South Korea’s defense capability. It is against the principles of free trade to put economic pressure against South Korea,” Kim told NBC News.

“Just look at how North Korea’s threat is escalating,” Kim said. “We are faced with North Korea’s fanatical obsession over weapons of mass destruction. … The THAAD is a defense capability we need to defend ourselves.”

North Korea is banned from testing any ballistic missile technology under a set of U.N. resolutions. But it has threatened to conduct more missile tests in response to an annual two-month joint military exercise between Seoul and Washington, which continues through April.</s>Israel's Scott Burcham hits a RBI single against South Korea during the tenth inning of the first round game of the World Baseball Classic at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 6, 2017. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Scott Burcham singled in the winning run in extra innings Monday to lead Israel over South Korea 2-1 in the opening game of the World Baseball Classic.

Israel got on the scoreboard in the second inning on a bases-loaded walk but South Korea tied it in the fifth when Seo Geong-chan singled to left, scoring Kim Jae-ho from third.

Burcham's infield single to second base scored the runner from third in the 10th inning. Josh Zeid retired the side in the bottom of the 10th and was the winning pitcher.

First-round games also are being played in Miami, Tokyo and Guadalajara. Second-round games will be in San Diego and Tokyo, while the championship round is at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles from March 20-22.</s>* Won seen heading to 1,125 per dlr; next would be 1,135-1,138

SINGAPORE, April 3 The South Korean won fell to its weakest level in more than six months on Wednesday as foreign investors sold Seoul shares and bonds and further losses are expected if tensions continue to escalate with the North.

The won fell as much as 0.5 percent to 1,123.5 per dollar at one point, its weakest since Sept. 20, before recovering some of its initial losses. It stood at 1,119.3 as of 0449 GMT.

Earlier, North Korea stepped up pressure on Seoul by closing access to a joint factory zone. More than 800 South Koreans had stayed overnight in the park, just north of the world's most heavily armed border, and Seoul demanded that it be re-opened.

That came a day after Pyongyang said it would revive a mothballed nuclear reactor able to produce bomb-grade plutonium, but stressed it was seeking a deterrent capacity and did not repeat threats to attack the South and the United States.

"I haven't seen it this bad... All you need is one stupid soldier on either side to launch something," said a senior U.S. bank currency trader in Singapore, adding the won has not fully priced in geopolitical tensions yet.

"If the North does something stupid and quickly fires 500 artillery shells across to Seoul, all of a sudden the economy is doing to implode and dollar/won has another try at 1,500," he said.

Seoul is about 50 km (30 miles) away from the demilitarised zone against North Korea.

In 2010, the North shelled a South Korean island, rattling financial markets. A South Korean warship sank, which Seoul attributed to an attack by the North.

The won has already been the emerging Asia's worst performer so far this year, with a 4.4 percent slide against the dollar.

Technically, the won is seen heading to 1,125.3, its high on May 2, which provoked a drop to 1,185.6 within a month, analysts said. The next target would be 1,135 and 1,138, they added.

With the increasing tensions, foreign investors pulled out a combined net 422 billion won ($377 million) from local stocks and bonds in March, according to financial regulator's data.

Foreign investors have sold a combined net of some 200 billion won in stocks so far this month, the Korea Exchange data showed.

They dumped a total of nearly 2 trillion won in bonds during the first two days of the month, Korea Financial Investment Association said.

The selling appeared to linked some foreign banks' unwinding of arbitrage trading, bond traders in Seoul said.

"We stay bearish on the Korean won," said Sameer Goel, head of rates and FX strategy at Deutsche Bank in Singapore.

Goel said there was a multitude of factors for that bearishness: a weaker yen, the central bank's reluctance to intervene to cap the dollar's upside, downgrades to growth forecasts and geopolitical tensions.

South Korea is seen as the worst victim of a weaker yen resulting from Japan's expansionary policy as the neighboring countries compete in major export markets.

Seoul stocks fell 0.2 percent by midday and looked set for a third straight day of losses.

However, some analysts and traders said it was too early to expect South Korean assets including the won to plunge further unless there is an actual military confrontation, noting the North has a long history of issuing belligerent statements.

"North Korea's rhetoric highlights long-standing geopolitical event risk which, however, has not had a material, adverse affect on market sentiment in Seoul or on South Korea's economic fundamentals -- this is a credit strength for South Korea," Moody's Investors Service said in a note.

"More importantly from a credit perspective, government borrowing costs have not been adversely affected by Pyongyang's provocations and rhetoric," the ratings agency said.

The credit default swap (CDS) premium on South Korea's 5-year global sovereign bonds extended its recent climb to 81.50 basis points, the highest since early October last year, from 78.75 basis points on Tuesday, according to a quotation by Markit Group.

That compared with a CDS premium of 76.67 on Japan's 5-year global sovereign bonds and 70.50 on China's counterpart, Markit Group quotation showed.

But the South Korea's CDS premium was lowest among the countries in November last year.

Some foreign central banks continued to increase their holdings of South Korean bonds in March, South Korea's financial regulator said earlier.

The won's implied volatilities fell from Tuesday and they were still lower than May last year with one-month volatilities at 7.70. The one-month volatilities stood at as high as 12.15 in May.

"Some indicators including the CDS premium have not suggested that investors are extremely worried yet," said Jeong My-young, Samsung Futures' research head in Seoul.

"But some foreigners are reducing exposure, pricing more uncertainties about North Korea in," Jeong added. ($1 = 1118.1000 Korean won) (Additional reporting by Vidya Ranganathan, Se Young Lee in SEOUL and Reuters FX Analyst Krishna Kumar; Editing by Kim Coghill)</s>Following is an excerpt from a book by WorldTribune and Geostrategy-Direct columnist Donald Kirk and the Korean author Kim Ki-Sam, “How South Korea’s Kim Dae-Jung bought his Peace Prize and financed Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear program”.

While the governments of South Korea and the United States helped suppress publication of this book in both countries, it has been published to acclaim in Norway, the home of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Clearly, South Korean officials, while Kim Dae-Jung (DJ) was president, wanted to go after the person who had done the most to expose the dark side of his sunshine policy of reconciliation. They appeared to have had no trouble enlisting the support of their friends in the U.S. Embassy in Seoul and the State Department. …

[In view of the information and insights from that person, former South Korea National Intelligence Services officer Kim Ki-Sam, Don Kirk was glad to testify as an “expert witness” at his immigration hearing before Judge Honeyman.]

Judge Honeyman wrapped up his summary of Kirk’s remarks by saying that Kirk had “testified” that he was “not being paid to testify.” Nor did Kirk pay Kim Ki-Sam for the wealth of information he supplied for Kirk’s book or articles. Kirk was glad to have done all that was possible to support his case. Kim’s material, the judge quoted from Kirk’s testimony, “gave a whole point” to the book.

“Surprisingly,” as retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel and Vietnam veteran James G. Zumwalt noted, the decision “received little attention.” Zumwalt, younger son of Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, former chief of naval operations, who had commanded U.S. naval forces in Vietnam, believed “the decision is big for two reasons.”

Not only was the asylum seeker from South Korea, but also, he wrote, “the underlying facts as to why he sought asylum puts the lie to what supporters of South Korea’s decade- long appeasement policy toward North Korea hail as its greatest moment.”

Zumwalt summarized Ki-Sam’s dilemma: “The concern for his safety stemmed not from persecution at the hands of a vengeful North Korea but a vengeful South.

For a citizen of an ally to be granted asylum by the U.S. is highly unusual in its own right. But Kim had reason to fear for his life — for he had gone public with evidence of major fraud perpetrated by Seoul upon the international community. It was done solely in the interests of furthering the legacy and wealth of one man — at great cost to his fellow countrymen.”

In fact, Kirk was the first to have exposed the payoffs over the Summit. In an article published by the International Herald Tribune (IHT) on Jan. 31, 2001, Kirk revealed the transfer of several hundred million dollars to persuade Kim Jong- Il to agree to receive DJ in Pyongyang in June 2000.

The article, which Kirk wrote at the request of IHT editor David Ignatius, focused on Lim Dong- Won as the central operative in forming DJ’s sunshine policy of reconciliation.

“The South Korean Spy Chief Who Paved the Way for Thaw with North,” ran the headline across the top of page two of the IHT. The spy chief in question was Lim Dong-Won, whom DJ had appointed as director of the NIS in order to bring about the Summit and also to promote his campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Although the payoff remains unconfirmed,” Kirk wrote, “it was believed that it was necessary in a society where bribery, often in the guise of gift giving, is a longstanding tradition in both Koreas.”

The mere mention of a huge financial transfer to North Korea was deeply upsetting to Korean officials. A Blue House spokesman said menacingly, “We take extra care when dealing with inaccurate and misleading articles appearing [in] foreign mass media because they are guests,” but the IHT article “went too far” and “we are considering all options.”

The local media saw the case as a test of “how far the government is willing to go in order to correct what it thinks are wrong reports in foreign press,”

In the end, Kim Myong- Sik, assistant minister in charge of the Korean Overseas Information Service (KOIS), called Kirk into his office and told him, politely, that he was “making a lot of trouble.” Kirk officially was viewed as “distinctly skeptical” and “hard to persuade,” but Kim said he did not believe in the old system of expelling or denying visas for correspondents.

Instead, he wrote a lengthy letter to the IHT, which published it without apology or retraction, denying any such deal. (Kim Myong-Sik, saving face, would later say that the publication of the letter was “tantamount to a retraction.”)

The mystery, though, was what the South Koreans were telling their American friends about Kim Ki-Sam. Had the NIS gone to contacts at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asking them to block Kim’s asylum application? Or was the State Department, in the interest of preserving relations with a military ally, responding to a request by the South Korean foreign ministry?

Who among the Americans had pressed to have the case heard in an immigration court, where the U.S. government rarely loses? The answers to those questions were as elusive as the exact amount that South Korea gave the North to get Kim Jong-Il to invite Kim Dae-Jung to Pyongyang. No South Korean government has commented on the significance of the asylum granted to Kim Ki-Sam.

For more than a decade, South Korean authorities have avoided saying a thing about Kim Ki-Sam’s struggle for asylum. One powerful politician and tycoon, however, expressed his concerns in a column published by Dong A Ilbo, a leading newspaper.

Chung Mong- Joon, former chairman of the Grand National Party (since renamed Sae-nu-ri or New Frontier Party) ranks as one of Korea’s wealthiest men thanks to his ownership of a controlling stake in Hyundai Heavy Industries, the shipbuilder founded by his legendary father Chung Ju-Yung. He was characteristically blunt in his remarks about the case.

“The U.S. court decision makes us face an ‘inconvenient truth’ on our North Korean policy, which we had kept undiscovered,” he wrote. “I cannot help but ask how our government behaved in the court process and why this disgraceful ruling came out.”

Chung was dumfounded. “Political asylum,” he noted, “is in itself a big problem between strong allies such as South Korea and the U.S.”

Chung Mong-Joon’s indignation mounted as he considered the implications of the ruling. “The problem is that we are avoiding discussing these issues,” he wrote, “Our reality is that the person who raises these issues has to go abroad for asylum. Mr. Kim said he would come back any time if the government investigates correctly. However, our government denied his passport renewal two times, and the charge of violation of the NIS personnel law is still pending for many years.”

Considering the circumstances, said Chung, “further testimony and investigation might be inevitable.” Chung saw the entire case as a lesson for further study. “We have not made any in- depth and objective discussion or assessment on the effect or influence of the Sunshine policy,” he went on. “Mr. Kim’s case urges us to adopt a more responsible posture on North Korean policy, on which our national fate is at stake.”

He concluded in an emotional tone, quoting “Mr. Kim Ki-Sam’s voice” as having said, “We have to pay any sacrifice in confronting the cruel North Korean regime, while embracing our wretched North Korean brethren at any cost.” Those words, Chung wrote, “still echo in my ears.”

Part 1: How South Korea’s Kim Dae-Jung bought his Peace Prize and financed Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear program, Feb. 2

Part 2: South Korean intelligence officer had to fight both Seoul and DHS for asylum, Feb. 12

Login To Your FaceBook to Make Comments</s>Scott Burcham's go-ahead RBI single in the 10th inning secured Israel's first win at the World Baseball Classic on Monday in Seoul. Scott Burcham singled in the winning run in extra innings Monday to lead Israel over South Korea 2-1 in the opening game of the World Baseball Classic in Seoul.

Start the conversation, or Read more at CBC News.</s>The 2017 World Baseball Classic is upon us. The tournament begins early Monday with Game 1 of Pool A at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. Pool B will be played at Tokyo Dome, Pool C will be played at Marlins Park in Miami, and Pool D will be played at Estadio Charros de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Here’s how you can watch the tournament’s opening game:

Israel and South Korea are in a pool with Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands. South Korea finished second in the 2009 WBC and third in the 2006 WBC. They failed to make it out of the first round in 2013. Israel qualified for the tournament for the first time by winning their qualifying pool in September .

The only MLB player on South Korea’s roster is Cardinals closer Seung Hwan Oh. The rest of the roster is made up of players from the Korea Baseball Organization. Also on the roster are Samsung Lions outfielder Hyung Woo Choi, who led the league with a .371 batting average and 136 RBI in 2016, and lefties Won Jun Jang (Doosan Bears) and Hyun Jong Yang (Kia Tigers). They’re two of the best pitchers in the KBO.

Israel’s roster includes several big leaguers and former big leaguers. Craig Breslow, Ike Davis, Scott Feldman, Sam Fuld, Ryan Lavarnway and Jason Marquis are among those on the roster.

Here are the betting lines on the game, via SportsBook.ag:

As for my official prediction, I’m taking South Korea in a blowout. They have a more talented roster top to bottom, including a deeper bullpen. Starters are limited to 65 pitches in the first round, and Israel’s lack of high-end relievers won’t be able to hold back the talented South Korea lineup.

Here is the full 2017 WBC schedule as well as the full rosters . The championship game will be played March 22 at Dodger Stadium.
2017 World Baseball Classic begins at the Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul, South Korea, as tournament debutant Israel upsets host nation South Korea 2-1 in extra innings.