SK government gets angry at Hyundai, LG

The South Korean government is putting pressure on LG Semicon and Hyundai to resolve their differences over management of the merged semiconductor company they will form. According to reports in tomorrow's edition of the Korea Herald, the Minister of Finance and Economy, Lee Kyu-sung said that ambiguities in the chaebols' ownership structures were certain to cause disputes. He is pushing LG Semicon and Hyundai to resolve their differences by the end of the month and threatened to appoint outsiders to manage the company if the disagreements were not resolved by then. At the same time, the newspaper reported that the World Bank would re-think $2 billion in rescue funds if the South Korean government gave the big five chaebols special treatment. Separately, Samsung announced it will create corporate bonds which will raise one trillion won in the next three years. The money is for financing redundancies and spin off plans it has. ®