• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-29
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• 2018

Models of South-North Korean economic integration have the problem of circular reasoning. While many studies argue that South-North Korean economic integration would contribute to alleviate security risks in the Korean peninsular, they emphasize the success of any economic model of inter-Korean economic integration is subject to favorable geo-political and security environment. It is a failure in distinguishing between goals and constraints. After identifying three major goals of South-North Korean economic cooperation, this study shows the trilemma among the goals; they are 1) formation of a complete economic community, 2) maintaining independent sovereignty of the two Koreas, 3) promotion of mutual economic interests. The trilemma suggests that it is theoretically impossible to achieve the above three goals at the same time. Only two goals are achievable simultaneously. This study argues that the most practical option is to pursue the combination of goals 2) and 3) considering the complex political and security environment around the Korean peninsular. Recognizing that North Korea is the least developed country in the Northeast Asia region, South Korea's initiatives for inter-Korean economic cooperation should focus on assisting industrialization and integration of the North Korea economy into the Northeast Asian regional production sharing structure. In view of the 'flying geese model' of the sequential industrialization in the region, the least developed economic status of North Korea can partially be explained by its failure to participate in the production network in the region as well as lack of effective implementation of appropriate industrial policy. Therefore, promotion of industrialization of North Korea should be the immediate goal of economic cooperation between North and South Korea. It is an interesting fact that North Korea has rapidly expanded its apparel exports in recent years. It could mean that the North Korean economy is actively responding to the dynamics of international comparative advantage structure, although the production activities are limited to exports to China since the closure of the Gaesung Industrial Complex. The recent increase in apparel export is a starting point for incorporating the Easy Import Substitution fulfilling both domestic and neighboring regional demand of North Korea. It could help integrate North Korea's industry into the production network of Northeast Asia. An immediate policy implication is that the economic cooperation between the two Koreas should focus on facilitating this process and supporting North Korea's industrial policy through South Korea's contribution of capital, technology, and service intermediary inputs.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.31-69
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• 2018

This study examines the role of science in resolving trade disputes. After the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011 that not only jeopardized the people of Japan, but also put the safety of an entire region at risk, the Republic of Korea (Korea) has imposed import bans as well as increased testing and certification requirements for radioactive material on Japanese food products. Japan has challenged these restrictions at the World Trade Organizations Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). This study aims to explain how international trade agreements and previous DSB rulings have dealt with different scientific viewpoints provided by confronting parties. In doing so, it will contrast the viewpoints espoused by Korean and Japanese representatives, and then analyzes the most similar case studies previously ruled on by the DSB, including the case of beef hormones and the case of genetically modified crops including biotech corn, both between the United States and the European Communities (EC). This study finds that science is largely subordinate to national interests in the case of state decision-making within the dispute settlement processes, and science has largely been relegated to a supportive role. Due to the ambiguity and lack of truly decisive decisions in the Appellate Body in science-based trade disputes, this study concludes that the Appellate Body avoids taking a firm scientific position in cases where science is still inconclusive in any capacity. Due to the panel's unwillingness to establish expert review boards as it has the power to do, instead favoring an individual-based system so that all viewpoints can be heard, it has also developed a system with its own unique weaknesses. Similar to any court of law in which each opposing party defends its own interests, each side brings whatever scientific evidence it can to defend its position, incentivizing them to disregard scientific conclusions unfavorable to their position. With so many questions that can arise, combined with the problems of evolving science, questions of risk, and social concerns in democratic society, it is no wonder that the panel views scientific information provided by the experts as secondary to the legal and procedural issues. Despite being ruled against the EC on legal issues in two previous cases, the EC essentially won both times because the panel did not address whether its science was correct or not. This failure to conclusively resolve a debate over whose science is more scientific enabled the EC to simply fix the procedural issues, while continuing to enforce trade restrictions based on their scientific evidence. Based on the analysis of the two cases of disputes, Korea may also find itself guilty of imposing an unwarranted moratorium on Japan's fish exports, only to subsequently pass new restrictions on labelling and certification requirements because Japan may have much scientific evidence at its disposal. However, Korea might be able to create enough uncertainty in the panel to force them to rule exclusively on the legal issues of the case. This will then equip Korea, like the EC in the past, with a way of working around the ruling, by changing whatever legal procedure they need to while maintaining some, if not most, of its restrictions when the panel fails to address its case on scientific grounds.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.111-130
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• 2018

In December 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted to cope with global warming caused by greenhouse gas emission and to prevent the average temperature of the Earth from rising. Renewable energy sources have become important to address environmental problems such as rising sea levels, depletion of forests and fine dust. In order to grow renewable energy, government support is needed. However, excessive government support for the renewable energy industry could pose problems that include undermining fair competition and raising costs. The WTO already has heard cases involving renewable energy subsidies. This article focuses on subsidies and countervailing tariffs as well as examines WTO disputes related to renewable subsidies, and also analyze legal issues that are problematic in granting subsidies for the development of new renewable energy industries. In WTO dispute involving renewable energy subsidies, legal issues are SCM Agreement article 2 Specificity, article 3 (b) import substitution subsidy and GATT article 20. This paper proposes improvement measures such as the reintroduction of article 8 Non-Actionable Subsidies or special provisions on energy subsidy. In addition, it is necessary to clarify the interpretation of Article 3 of the subsidy agreement. However, excessive government subsidies can lead to trade friction, so the WTO rules should be improved in line with the WTO goals of environmental protection, equity in free trade, and sustainable development.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.135-156
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• 2016

This study, with reference to data on economic conditions in Shandong Province, China, looked into trade and investment activities in Korea and major cities of Shandong - Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai and Jinan - and investigated claim cases between the two countries by type. In addition, we investigated the matter empirically by conducting a survey administered to 300 Korean companies investing in Shandong Province and, based on the data, tested hypotheses for inferential analysis. The findings are as follows: i) while hypotheses in which the size of a firm, represented by import and export volume, has a positive relation with the frequency of trade claim filings (H1) and with the financial value of the trade claims (H2) were quoted, company size proved to have a significantly negative relation with the time required to obtain a claim decision, which rejects the third hypothesis (H3) in which the relation was thought to be positive: ii) while products, as represented by the type of business, showed a clearly significant difference with the frequency of trade claim filings (H4) and with methods of preventing and responding to claims (H6), they did not show a significant link to the type of trade claim (H5). This study is a theoretical and empirical overview of Korean companies based in Shandong Province of China, and can be used to address the practical needs of the Korean companies looking to start business in Shandong Province.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.93-114
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• 2017

Under the FTA agreement, preferential tariffs between FTA members will result in tariff reductions. In order to ensure the stable use of the FTA tariff system, it is necessary for the customs authorities to determine whether the origin goods are clearly applicable. This study analyzed the procedure of appeal according to the origin verification system based on the decision made by Korea Customs Service and Tax Tribunal. From this, we examined whether the rate of re-claiming a case rejected in the 'Review System of the Legality Before Taxation' differs. In addition, we carried out a quantitative analysis using bootstrapping technique in order to overcome the scarcity cases of verification of origin among FTA members. The implications of this paper are summarized as follows: First, we tested the hypothesis that the re-claiming rate of Western countries is higher. Second, some issues represented higher re-claiming rate. Third, there was no significant difference between the verification group and the re-claiming rate. Finally, even if an applicant makes a claim again, there is a possibility of being rejected again.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.157-165
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• 2023

Seafood is a major source of protein in many countries and its consumption is increasing. In Korea, consumption of seafood is increasing, but self-sufficiency rate is decreasing, and the importance of safety management is increasing as the amount of imported seafood increases. There are hundreds of species of aquatic products imported into Korea from over 110 countries, and there is a limit to relying only on the experience of inspectors for safety management of imported aquatic products. Based on the data, a model that can predict the customs inspection results of imported aquatic products is developed, and a machine learning classification model that determines the non-conformity of aquatic products when an import declaration is submitted is created. As a result of customs inspection of imported marine products, the nonconformity rate is less than 1%, which is very low imbalanced data. Therefore, a sampling method that can complement these characteristics was comparatively studied, and a preprocessing method that can interpret the classification result was applied. Among various machine learning-based classification models, Random Forest and XGBoost showed good performance. The model that predicts both compliance and non-conformance well as a result of the clearance inspection is the basic random forest model to which ADASYN and one-hot encoding are applied, and has an accuracy of 99.88%, precision of 99.87%, recall of 99.89%, and AUC of 99.88%. XGBoost is the most stable model with all indicators exceeding 90% regardless of oversampling and encoding type.

• Journal of Korean Port Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.3-33
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• 1989

The amount of the Korean export & import in 1987 reached $88.3 billion which was 1.75% of the total world trade and the proportion of foreign dependence to G.N.P was 74.5%. From these facts, we can infer that the development of national economy is largely dependent upon trade. Therefore the role of transportation, especially Ocean transportation, as a basis of economic development through trade is one of the main factors that can not be passed over. Here, We can define that a port as a subsystem of transportation determines the efficiency of the total transportation system. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to contribute in improvement of the efficiency in port, reinforcement of the international competitiveness for exporting goods by the analysis of the cargo handling charges. In order to do this, this paper deals the case of B.C.T.O.C. Furthermore, this study gives some important informations related to the level of tariffs for establishing an autonomous port administration. The Summary of the conclusions of this paper is as follows ; 1) The object of port administration in Korea has been emphasized on the maximization of efficiency in using the port facilities. Nowadays, however, it should be moved to a direction that port is operated under the compound aims considering the public interests and economy. 2) For a criterian of tariff calculation, A tariff system based on the cost accounting is desirable. In general it is recommended that the cost for construction, management, and operation of port is compensated by the revenue from port operation. Therefore, it is necessary for the administration bodies of each port to establish a tariff system on the basis of the independent profit system. 3) For the investigation of actors of tariff adjustment by the Break-even point analysis, (1) When we conducted the B.E.P analysis using total cost as cost term, we got 3.8% discount in tariff at 12% of target profit rate and 1.5% discount at 15% of rate. when we set the target profit rate as 17% we could have the proper tariff level. (2) When using operating cost as cost term, we got 13.1% discount in tariff at 12% of target profit rate and 10.9% discount at 15% of rate. When setting the target profit rat as 28%, we could have the proper tariff level. 4) Comparing with the tariffs of foreign ports for the basic terminal rate, The tariff level of B.C.T.O.C showed 33% of stevedoring charge and 80% of marshalling charge incurred at Kobe port. The comparison with Singapore port gave 50% of transhipment charge and 17% - 20 % of stevedoring charge. 5) We found that the financial structure of B.C.T.O.C was better than those of other companies and the worth fixed assets ratio was too low. The fact of low worth fixed assets ratio implies that the cargo handling facilities should be increased. Moreover, The return of assets for B.T.T.O.C was good but non-operating expenses were still contained too much in. Therefore, we think that it is necessary for B.C.T.O.C. to rationalize business management. Although the present cargo handing charge for B.C.T.O.C is a proper level in terms of a public corporation, for the final recommendation in connection to the results, It is required to take the rationalization process for business management.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.2D
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• pp.235-244
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• 2009

Design Value Engineering (VE) has become an import part of the daily design process since it has been introduced in the construction industry. Design VE is usually conducted in the general and execution design stages respectively. In order to increase the effectiveness of the VE process, the outcome from the general design VE activities should be integrated into execution design. The outcome from the execution design should be used again for construction. In this study, a consecutive VE process model has been presented as a way to improve the current practice of design VE activities in the construction industry. In the presented model, follow-up activities are emphasized to increase values from the life-cycle perspective of a construction project. The model was tested in a case study of an actual design VE process. The result of the study demonstrates that the model can: 1) effectively incorporate owners requirements; 2) assist decision making in selecting better construction; 3) increase the interface between general and execution design stages; and 4) trace the value flow more efficiently. Overall, the study results indicates that a the consecutive VE process model can be effectively applied when construction project are contracted for the life-cycle management of construction projects.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.613-630
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• 2009

This thesis, which involves honest life stories of members of the ìtraditionalî Korean generation that lived through the turbulent times of the first half of the twentieth century, assesses the meaning and import of Korean cuisine during an individual Korean's lifetime, as well as the relevant properties of the culinary culture of the traditional generation and how those properties continue to influence the present generation of Koreans. Thus, traditional Korean culinary culture was subdivided into the following four aspects, each of which were exemplified by representative examples. The first of these is slow-food dietary life, which is exemplified by fermented foods. The development of side dishes (panchan) based on fermentation - kimchi, different types of soy and bean paste, salted seafoods, dishes of dried radish or cucumber slices seasoned with soy sauce, and so on - made the quantitative and qualitative supplementation of food possible for traditional Koreans. The second of these aspects, referred to as friendly dietary life, is exemplified by self-sufficiently produced foods. The system of many species and small production suitable with the season made it possible to produce food from sustainable ecological systems and to maintain locally grown food-cultures, each of which was distinguished from others by a local specialty product. The third aspect of the traditional Korean culinary culture involves the same use of medicinal roots and plant materials for foodstuff, and this is exemplified by the use of foods to cure and prevent diseases. The notion, for example, that 'boiled rice is an invigorant' is characteristic of the notion that diet can function in a preventative medical context, and other similar Korean notions illustrate the importance, also, of the curative properties of food. The fourth and final aspect of traditional Korean culinary culture identified herein is creative dietary life, which can be viewed essentially as a Korean adaptation to the turbulence of life during the early $20^{th}$ century in Korea. This trend is exemplified by many Korean foods that were created in response to foreign influences, such as onions, cabbages, curry, etc. which found their place in overall Korean culture through the age of Japanese settlement, as well as the Korean war.

• Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.552-559
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• 2011

China is a one of the largest agricultural countries in the world. China consumes around 12.5 billion kilograms of seeds each year. Suchhuge demand for seeds has made the Chinese seed market more and more attractive for investment. Through analysis on the present situation and existing problems of the seed industry in China and based on the current Chinese seed industry development, some future prospects for investments are indicated. This investigation was carried out to propose the appropriate strategies on the development of the Korea seed industry as it considers its entry into the China seed market as a new growth engine in the agricultural sector. The basic law regulating the Chinese seed industry is the PRC Seed Law that generally refers to the protection of germplasm resources, verification of varieties, seed quality issues, the import and export of seeds, seed administrative management, and various rights and obligations. The regulations were aimed at the protection of the rights concerning new varieties of plants. China has two main industry associations, the National Seed Association and the China Seed Industry IP Union, that are non-profit associations consisting of entities and people engaging in the seed scientific research, production, operation and management. The China National Seed Group Co., Ltd. ("Sino Seeds") is the market leader in China regarding the seed industry. The chinese government, however, encourages investment from multinational companies as well as importation of modern crop planting management technologies and equipment. It supports the entry of investors with proven experiences in breeding and germplasm resources expansion and R&D. There has never been a better time for multinational companies with proven seed industry experience to look at building relationships with the Chinese government and enterprises.