City Life

20 June 2009

Morning calm in financial markets despite mad Kim’s nuclear endgame

For all Seoul’s thrusting commerce and feisty independence, you need only turn on the telly to see who secures it all. North Korea’s belligerence reminds us that the Pentagon still has more than 20 bases in South Korea and 30,000 troops, many of them crammed into a redoubt called Camp Coiner that occupies 60 acres of prime central Seoul real estate. Coiner’s residents are entertained by the ‘Armed Forces Network’, which offers a bizarre and revealing way for the curious visitor to wile away a few hours. Actual news is disturbingly absent, and broadcasts are punctuated by public service announcements for US military personnel. ‘Pick Up After Your Dog’, ‘Learn Your Host Country Customs — They Will Make You Appreciated’ and ‘Try Something New, Eat Where the Locals Eat’. Illustrated by folksy little skits — one African-American grunt discards his Big Mac in favour of garlicky bulgogi — it’s all designed to win Korean hearts and minds, if the Middle American soldiers can drag themselves away from last night’s Letterman show and beat-’em-up Chuck Norris repeats.

Businessman D.H. Park isn’t too fussed about North Korean confrontation, or financial peril. He reckons the way out of the mess is for everyone to love each other. Park spent a decade in London as a City screen-jockey, ‘making the most incredible bonuses’. Then he returned to Seoul to set up a boutique private-equity fund, IWL Partners, in an office so chic it would impress the most jaded Wallpaper editor. IWL? Hmm, I’m wondering as I chat with him — the initials of his partners? ‘No,’ Park says proudly, ‘Invest With Love.’ And so far he has, showing 50 per cent year-on-year returns in his first three years. Crisis, what crisis? There’s little sign of one in Seoul.