Loose change for December 9, 2009: You can Doo-ik!

 Economic news 

• The New York Times focuses on hedge funds that bet the South Korean government will not be able to keep the KRW weak.
• Evan Ramstad at the Wall Street Journal focuses on the "biggest-ever flurry of initial public offerings" to come out of South Korea, something that is seen as "reinvigorating the Korean market and helping it become more mature."
• The Bank of Korea of Korea is diversifying its foreign exchange reserves, but it says it has no interest in additional gold holdings, calling the precious metal "an illusion." Yeah, I saw that Twilight Zone episode, too.
• IMF raises South Korea's 2010 economic growth forecast to 4.5%.
• Jasper Kim of the Wall Street Journal worries about Korea's next credit boom and bust, citing a dangerous run-up in consumer credit-card lending. 
• KEPCO has signed a $1 billion deal with Georgia to supply hydroelectric power generation that will provide 13% of that country's total energy. 

 North Korea news and stuff 

• Several media sources, including the Los Angeles Times and AP, write about North Korea defending its abysmal human rights record at the UN in Geneva. 
• CNN asks if Stephen Bosworth is on a Mission: Impossible.
• Australia is in a row over censorship for denying visas to a group of North Korean artists who had planned to attend the Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, saying the studio they work for operates under the guidance of Kim Jong-il and glorifies the North Korean government. The AP also has the story.

• The Associated Press gives us a handy-dandy list of the high-profile people who have paid homage to the Dear Leader and his wise Juche ways visited North Korea this decade.
• Major Garrett at Fox News (the one guy on whom the catchphrase "fair and balanced" is based) examines whether North Korea will return to the six-party nuke talks.
• North Korea faces a daunting task in next year's World Cup and will have to do more than invoke the spirit of Pak Doo-ik and the fabled North Korea team of 1966. 

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• The coach for Team Korea says of going up against Nigeria and Argentina in next year's World Cup that he has "no reason to complain about our group." 
• If I'm reading this right, the current production of Dreamgirls originated in... Korea?!

 Miscellany 

• Are pillows filled with buckwheat hulls good for you or bad for you?
• Retired Colonel Van T. Barfoot, a ninety-year-old World War II Medal of Honor winner (for actions in Italy in 1944) and Korean War veteran, is being told to remove his flagpole from his yard and fly the Stars & Stripes on a pole attached to his house like everyone else. The White House press secretary has called it "silly" that a Medal of Honor winner should be forced to do that.