Posts tagged ‘risk’
The recently released Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2011-12 shows South Korea is ranked 44th in press freedom, falling below Botswana, South Africa and Ghana.
It was expected that Korea would fall in the rankings. In March 2011, the Reporters Without Borders country file on Korea was was less than positive:
A new article in the journal International Security by Bruce W. Bennett (Rand Corporation) and Jennifer Lind (Dartmouth College) entitled “The Collapse of North Korea: Military Missions and Requirement” (may require login) adds to the debate on the lack of preparation for the sudden collapse of North Korea.
The article focuses on military preparedness and the potential missions required. Importantly, it also highlights the lack of preparation in several key areas, including the lack of multilateral planning; the limited consideration of potential collapse in contemporary South Korean defence planning and the need to reform the South Korean reserve structure; and the need to establish more links with North Korean military and government officials. The article is the result of a comprehensive consultation process involving some of the best contingency planning resources.
A group of twelve lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties have introduced a bill into the National Assembly to allow for the establishment of a ‘unification tax’.
The bill calls for individuals and companies to pay 2 percent of their income tax towards the cost of unification; businesses to pay 0.5 percent of corporate tax as unification tax; and individuals to pay 5 percent of inheritance or gift taxes as unification tax.
The bill initiates legislative debate on practical measures to prepare for unification, as proposed by President Lee Myung-Bak in his Liberation Day speech, 15 August 2010. The proposal for a unification tax was not warmly welcomed at the time.
Lee has since reiterated concerns regarding the immanency of unification, which combined with North Korean behavior, have led to the tax proposal gaining wider acceptance. Practical measures to prepare for unification are becoming an increasingly frequent aspect of political debate, as concern regarding imminent and abrupt unification increases.
