[LETTER TO THE EDITOR]Kim is no Genghis

Regarding Song Ho-keun’s “Outlook” column, “Policies led to Daewoo’s fall” (June 28), let me respond by referencing to Alice of Wonderland fame, just as Mr. Song refers to Gulliver. Kim Woo-choong could have saved the thousands of investors who lost money because of the Daewoo bankruptcy, myself included, if he had clicked his metaphorical heels together and cared less about market share and borrowing billions and more about profit.
Perhaps Mr. Song should stick to his field of expertise before commenting on economic or business matters. Mr. Song, please click your heels together as well, with your comparisons of Kim Woo-choong to Genghis Khan; frankly, they are as absurd as your oft-repeated mantra of a conspiracy between foreign funds and the International Monetary Fund to buy bankrupt Korean companies.
In the end, businesses need to make money; they can’t survive on borrowed money. The bottom line is that if Koreans don’t want foreigners to buy their bankrupt companies, bankrupted due to gross mismanagement, then they shouldn’t run them into the ground by going on a corruption-laced borrowing spree.
Sadly, I find it irresponsible and difficult to understand that Mr. Song should write such a conciliatory article about Kim Woo-choong, when the majority of investors who lost money due to his incompetence were Korean residents or citizens.

by Mike Sluchinski