LH scandal and conflict of interest in public sector

 The latest impropriety to roil the Moon jae-in government pertains to irregularities by Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) employees regarding large urban development projects near Seoul. State-owned LH was established in 2009 as a comprehensive organization responsible for the development, construction, renovation and management of land, housing properties and cities in South Korea. Since then, it has developed residential areas, new towns and industrial complexes, including the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial park in North Korea. Earlier this month, two civic groups – People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Lawyers for a Democratic Society -- alleged that LH employees bought land worth about 10 billion won ($8.88 million) in the cities of Gwangmyeong and Siheung in Gyeonggi...

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GameStop frenzy amid shorting debate in Korea

 Retail investors across the world, including South Korea, were captivated recently with the revolt targeting short selling by Wall Street hedge funds, which jacked up the stocks of a few firms, video game retailer GameStop in particular. Shorting refers to transactions when an investor borrows stocks and sells them soon in hopes of buying back later at a lower price, taking advantage of perceived arbitrage opportunities. In the case of GameStop, institutional short sellers got very greedy. They bet against the game retailer and hoped its price would plummet by shorting more stocks than were available through its float. Frustrated at watching the manipulations by big fish to rake in moolah, retail investors banded together -- through online brokerage apps and anonymous social media...

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