Business Channel 2007-02-06&08

Chung Mong-koo, the chairman of South Korea's largest carmaker Hyundai Motor, has been handed a three-year jail sentence in what many here believe is a compromise in a raging debate between those who believe that South Korea should improve its international, its corporate 1 governance standards to those at international levels, and those who are worried that any type of guilty verdict could have a negative impact on South Korea's carmaker as well as the South Korean economy. Now the prosecutors 2 here had been hoping to see a 6-year jail term. They had said that the Hyundai chairman had embezzled 3 money to the tune 4 of about 100 million dollars and ah, many of them had been hoping for that a harsher sentence. Now the defense 5 attorneys, though on the other hand, had been hoping to see a suspended sentence for the chairman. Er, they've said that he should not serve any jail time, and in fact, they were concerned that any negative impact it would have on the, count on the company itself would actually hinder the growth of Korea's economy as well.

Now at this point, a lot of people are saying that the decision could have a negative, will have a negative impact on Hyundai's operations and this comes at a very difficult time for the carmaker when it was hoping to double its sales of this year. However, that seemed as a, a problem for it going forward just because of the, a labor 6 problem that they had been facing, they had been facing severe labor issues which have resulted in production losses. Ah, they've also been hurt by the strength of the Korean won which has made a lot of their cars even more expensive compared to their Japanese counterparts.

And the company itself, though, has said that they intend to appeal this decision. They say that the operations of the company will not be affected 7. However, a lot of people here aren't sure how that would, how that would actually take place just because this is a man who has been credited with turning around the company. He is the one who has been focused on, very much on quality and turned a South Korea's Hyundai Motor from a laughing stock in the industries in the 1990s to the sixth largest carmaker in the world today.

Eunice Yoon, CNN, Seoul.


Vocabulary


embezzle v. If someone embezzles 8 money that their organization or company has placed in their care, they take it and use it illegally for their own purposes.
Two managers were charged with embezzling 9 $400,000.

hinder v. to make it difficult for something to develop or succeed
His career has been hindered by injury.