South Korea

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, accusing it of helping hackers, including from North Korea, to launder proceeds from their cyber crimes, Reuters reported. A senior Treasury Department official said that Tornado Cash, one of the largest mixers identified as problematic by the Treasury, has reportedly laundered more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since it was created in 2019.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering may face a court-ordered rehabilitation process unless action is taken on a month-long strike there, the company’s main creditor Korea Development Bank said Friday, the Korea Herald reported. “It would be more difficult for DSME to repay its debts as the strike drags on … we’re not going to help the builder unless it gets back to work,” an executive at the state-run bank said, suggesting that the country’s third-largest shipbuilder would have no choice but to ask the court for help if the strike results in a poorer liquidity.

South Korea's June inflation accelerated to the fastest pace since the Asian financial crisis, fanning expectations the central bank could deliver a 50 basis point rake hike for the first time next week to cool prices and curb capital outflows, Reuters reported. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.0% in June from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday, the fastest since November 1998 and exceeding the central bank's 2% target for the 15th consecutive month. The CPI also sped up from a 5.4% rise in the previous month and exceeded the 5.9% tipped in a Reuters poll.

The South Korean won hit its lowest point against the U.S. dollar in nearly 13 years on Thursday, opening at 1,299 won and weakening to more than 1,300 in intraday trading, the New York Times reported. The last time the country’s currency breached the 1,300-won threshold was in the summer of 2009, toward the end of the global financial crisis. The won also passed this threshold during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998. South Korea’s export-driven economy makes it particularly sensitive to conditions in the global economy, which have been deteriorating recently.

The South Korean government reached a deal with truckers to extend a minimum-wage plan, ending a weeklong strike that had snarled supply chains in one of Asia’s export powerhouses, the Wall Street Journal reported. The truckers union agreed to return to work immediately after reaching a deal with the transport ministry late Tuesday, bringing a close to the standoff over wages that had been aggravated by rising fuel prices. Under the deal, the transport ministry will extend a minimum-wage plan that was set to expire at the end of the year.

Thousands of South Korean truckers went on strike for a third day on Thursday to protest the sharp surge in fuel costs, disrupting production, slowing activity at ports and posing new risks to a strained global supply chain, Reuters reported. Presenting new President Yoon Suk-yeol with one of his first big economic challenges, about 7,200 members or roughly 30% of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity union were on strike, the country's transport ministry said. A union official said the number of participating members was much higher and they were also joined by non-union truckers.

A steady stream of Koreans in the prime of their working life have sought personal bankruptcy protection over the past few years, Chosun.com reported. Most younger people used to opt for personal rehabilitation, which involves debt restructuring, but now a growing number have no choice but to plumb for total bankruptcy as the coronavirus pandemic drags on. According to the Seoul Bankruptcy Court, 5.7 percent of applicants were in their 30s and 16.7 percent were in their 40s as of the end of last year.

South Korea's central bank is likely to hike its benchmark rate at a second consecutive meeting on Thursday to combat inflation running at more than double its target, taking rates higher by year end than previously thought, a Reuters poll showed. Inflation in Asia's fourth-largest economy rose to more than a 13-year high of 4.8% in April, as repercussions from the Russia-Ukraine war and a weakening won , down 7% this year, ramped up prices. Inflation has stayed above the central bank's target of 2.0% for more than a year.

Reckoning they have little to lose with prices so ridiculously low, South Korean speculators in recent days have piled into Luna, a cryptocurrency that lost 99.99% of its value last week after its paired stablecoin TerraUSD collapsed, Reuters reported. Both tokens are affiliated with Terra, a blockchain platform co-founded by Korean developer Do Kwon and, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, investors in them have lost around $42 billion.

The Seoul Bankruptcy Court on Friday selected a consortium led by chemical-to-steel conglomerate KG Group as the designated buyer of the debt-ridden automaker SsangYong Motor Co., the Yonhap News Agency reported. The decision approves the consortium between KG and homegrown private equity (PE) firm Pavilion PE as the new candidate to take over the automaker after a previous sales deal with local electric vehicle maker Edison Motors Co. fell apart. SsangYong has been under court receivership since April 15, 2021, after its Indian parent Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.