Monday, April 7, 2025

South Korea edges back to normal

Trump tariffs still loom
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The fallout from President Donald Trump's tariff announcement continues this week, with US stock indexes on a wild ride after markets around the world fell earlier in the day. Keep up with the latest from Bloomberg News here. Meanwhile, after months of turmoil in South Korea following its president's declaration of martial law and subsequent impeachment, the country's constitutional court has issued its final ruling in the case: Yoon Suk Yeol is permanently barred from the presidency. Seoul bureau editor Denny Thomas explains. Plus: Cursor becomes an artificial intelligence hit through word of mouth, and an MBA student triggered the end of a $2 billion deal.

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For almost a half-hour on Friday, South Korea's Constitutional Court held a deeply divided nation in its thrall. At 11 a.m., the acting chief justice slowly started reading through the court's reasoning in the case of Yoon Suk Yeol, the disgraced president who in December declared martial law, only to rescind the order six hours later. Justice Moon Hyung-bae said Yoon had violated the constitution, undermined the neutrality of the military and fallen short in his duty to unite the country. Then at 11:22, he read the unanimous verdict—"The defendant President Yoon Suk Yeol is removed from office"—closing the book on four months of political turmoil.

Yoon's opponents danced and chanted "long live South Korea," brandishing signs saying "democracy prevails." His die-hard supporters, camped outside the court overnight, were in tears. Although polls have shown that most South Koreans had expected and wanted Yoon to be dismissed, the unanimous verdict helped keep a lid on more protests.

A march against Yoon in Seoul on Friday after the Constitutional Court ruled to remove him from office. Photographer: Woohae Cho/Bloomberg

The government was prepared for far worse. More than 14,000 riot police had been called into duty in Seoul. The court was barricaded, and a no-fly zone was declared over the building. Prominent tourist attractions such as national museums and the Gyeongbokgung Palace—the heart of Korean power and culture for centuries—were shuttered.

Yet the tension dissolved into surprising calm soon after the verdict, and by Friday evening, the streets of Seoul felt, well, almost normal. Commuters made their way home on the subways and buses, with no protesters blocking roads. Through the weekend, the bars in Itaewon and Hannan-dong teemed with people eating, drinking and flirting. Around Myeong-dong railway station downtown, foreign tourists were filling shopping carts with cosmetics.

With cherry blossoms in full bloom, the wounded nation took a deep breath. But the road ahead won't be easy.

A presidential election must be held within two months (Yonhap News today said it will be on June 3), and at least a half-dozen people are expected to be on the ballot. The electorate remains sharply divided, with 35% saying they back Yoon's People Power Party and 41% supporting the opposition Democratic Party, according to a Gallup Poll released on April 4.

The top contender is Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung. Lee is a polarizing figure whose support—34%—is lower than that for his party. That may be because he has legal challenges of his own, facing indictments on charges including bribery and misuse of public funds. Often compared to Bernie Sanders for his progressive positions and fiery rhetoric, Lee lost to Yoon in 2022 in one of South Korea's closest races ever. And like US President Donald Trump, he survived an assassination attempt—a stabbing on a visit to a construction site last year.

Lee is far ahead of the second-most-popular candidate, Kim Moon-soo, who has just 9% support. He served as employment and labor minister under Yoon, and unlike many of his cabinet colleagues, he has refused to apologize for the government's role in the martial law declaration.

Whoever wins will have to grapple with Trump's tariffs: At 25% they're among the highest rates of any of the US's purported allies. On the strength of global giants such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG and SK Hynix, South Korea has become America's sixth-largest trading partner, with a trade surplus of $56 billion last year, up 25% from 2023.

The next president will also need to navigate the shifting security landscape as the American military commitment to the region becomes increasingly shaky. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's growing nuclear ambitions, coupled with Trump's unorthodox diplomacy and the prospect of direct talks with Pyongyang, further undermine South Korea's position.

But for now, most Koreans—from top politicians to common citizens—simply want the country to get back on a forward trajectory, leaving behind months of bitterness and division. Former President Moon Jae-in, who isn't eligible to run because of term limits, took to Facebook to express hope that the anxiety and unease sparked by martial law will now give way to unity and stability and serve as an opportunity to advance toward a "more mature democracy."

In Brief

Anysphere Is an Early Winner in the AI Era

Illustration: Aaron Fernandez for Bloomberg Businessweek

Many artificial intelligence startups are still struggling to find paying customers, but not Anysphere Inc., the maker of AI-powered coding assistant Cursor. Despite not having spent a single dollar on marketing, it's become one of the fastest-growing startups of all time, not to mention part of the daily routine for software programmers at businesses ranging from deep tech companies like OpenAI to consumer brands such as Instacart, Spotify and Uber to organizations not generally associated with software, including Major League Baseball.

Cursor is an AI-infused code editor that can analyze a programmer's actions and suggest the next few lines. It also offers a chatbot that users can prod with code-related questions. Cursor is neither the only coding assistant available nor the first. But users have taken to its interface, which was built atop Microsoft Corp.'s popular code editor Visual Studio Code, and its support for a wide range of large language models, including its own and those of OpenAI and Anthropic. "It just makes a thing that you do every day better and faster," says Anysphere President Oskar Schulz.

The intense interest shows how attention in the AI industry is shifting toward tools that can harness AI models rather than just staying focused on the models themselves, Rachel Metz writes: AI Coding Assistant Cursor Draws a Million Users Without Even Trying

An MBA Student and a Whistleblower

Nelson Amenya in France on Feb. 13. Photographer: Evgeniy Rein for Bloomberg Businessweek

When Nelson Amenya decided to enroll in HEC Paris business school in the fall of 2023, he thought the MBA program would provide a good education in how businesses are run and how the corporate world works. "It would give me an opportunity to move from midlevel management to the C-suite," Amenya says. After more than four years working in retail in his native Kenya, where he felt he'd taken the job as far as he could, he was ready for a bigger challenge.

Amenya also planned to take what he's learned in school back to his homeland, citing what he sees as a need for establishing good governance as Kenya's economy develops. "I want to see my country move away from tribal and kingpin politics," he says. But once he receives his MBA in June, Amenya will have to be a force for good from afar. Last July he blew the whistle on a proposed $2 billion airport construction project in Nairobi involving Adani Group, triggering a chain of events that subsequently led to the deal's cancellation. (An Adani Group representative declined to comment.) As a result, Amenya says he has received threats that will keep him out of Kenya for the foreseeable future.

Dimitra Kessenides spoke with Amenya in late January about his interests and goals, and making it back to Kenya someday. You can read the interview here: How One MBA Grad Blew the Whistle on a $2 Billion Deal

Riches Lost in Asia

$46 billion
That's how much the fortunes of Asia's richest individuals plummeted on Monday, as markets declined in reaction to President Donald Trump's tariff announcements. Notable billionaires hit by losses include Pony Ma ($6.8 billion) and Lei Jun ($7.8 billion).

Palm Beach's Wealthy Party On 

"If they lose a hundred million, you think it's going to make a dent in their pocket? No, they are in it for the long haul."
George Sharoubim, 74
Owner of Giorgio's, a tailor and leather boutique that dresses many Palm Beach billionaires, including Trump
The president's neighbors in the wealthy South Florida enclave are wary of his markets-jolting trade moves. Read the full story here.

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