As markets here continued to tumble, negotiators for South Korea and the International Monetary Fund worked overnight Monday to hammer out details of the terms for a massive financial bailout package for the country's troubled economy. The rescue plan will require Seoul to liquidate overextended financial companies, known here as merchant banks, and sharply lower its economic growth target for next year, state-owned television reported today.
Struggling to shore up its ailing economy, South Korea suspended five more shaky finance companies and announced measures to induce foreign investment. "The government expects that the measures will help ease spreading concern in the financial market," Finance Minister Lim Chang Yuel said. But analysts said the measures, expected for days, may fall short of expectations.
A South Korean civic organization's blacklist of 164 candidates in April elections has spurred a legal and political showdown that analysts say could fundamentally alter the face of this country's young democracy. When U.S. nonprofit groups cite candidates they dislike, few take notice. But a citizens movement launched here this month to expand voter oversight, fight corruption and, in effect, "throw the bums out" has rudely awakened the cozy world of South Korean politics.