South Korea banned imports of U. S. table eggs last year after the United States grappled with its own bout of bird flu.
If a new agreement is reached, U. S. shipments could bring some relief to South Koreans who have faced soaring egg prices and rationing since the outbreak there began last month.
The egg shipments also would help U. S. farmers cope with an oversupply that is depressing prices.
About 26 million birds, more than a quarter of South Korea’s poultry stock, have been culled to control the outbreak, and most of the birds have been egg-laying hens.
The opportunity to profit by filling the resulting shortfall with U. S. eggs has sent brokers and traders into overdrive.
Strains of bird flu, which can be spread by wild birds, have been detected across Asia and in Europe in recent weeks. Two people in China and one person in Hong Kong have died in the outbreaks.
The United States could reach agreement to resume trade with South Korea as early as next week, said Mark Perigen, national supervisor for shell eggs for a division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
„Everybody’s working hard to get it done,“ Perigen said in an interview on Friday, adding that USDA employees had worked during holiday vacations on the issue.
„They’re desperate for eggs over there, and the government realizes that,“ Perigen said.
South Korea’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Glenn Hickman, chief executive of Hickman’s Eggs in Arizona, has received calls from brokers searching for U. S. eggs to ship to South Korea.
„Everybody in Korea who needs eggs has Googled everybody in the world who might have eggs,“ Hickman said.
„We’re getting calls from brokers who have no idea even the right questions to ask us,“ he added. „It’s just somebody who knows how to freight stuff from the U. S. to Korea. “
With no agreement yet between the two countries, Hickman is asking employees to take contact information for the potential customers.
United States Egg Marketers, a cooperative of farmers that was established to export eggs, has received „numerous inquiries about this already, including from people who have never exported anything in their lives,“ said Eka Inall, the group’s president.
„Our phone is blowing up, our email is blowing up,“ she said.
Last year, U. S. food companies imported eggs from Europe after bird flu ravaged domestic chicken flocks and sent egg prices to record highs.
Since then, U. S. prices have tumbled as farmers have ramped up production.
The United States produced 7.44 billion table eggs in November, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier, and there were 312 million hens laying table eggs on Dec. 1, up 8 percent from a year before, according to USDA.
On Dec. 26, the average price for a dozen large white U. S. eggs was $1.17, down from a high of $2.88 in August 2015, according to market data firm Urner Barry.
„Current conditions in the U. S. are definitely a motivating factor to get this thing done,“ Brian Moscogiuri, an Urner Barry analyst, said about U. S. efforts to ship eggs to South Korea.
In South Korea, the average retail price for 30 eggs has risen nearly 25 percent to 6,781 won ($5.68) since the outbreak began on Nov. 18. That is the highest price in more than three years, according to state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp.
If South Korea begins importing U. S. eggs, its residents may need to adjust to a different appearance of the food staple.
Jim Sumner, president of the U. S. Poultry and Egg Export Council, said many Koreans prefer brown colored eggs, while the United States mostly produces white eggs.
„As they say, beggars can’t be choosers,“ he said.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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In this Wednesday, Dec. 28 photo, a boy sits on a screen showing Korean traditional characters at the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, South Korea. Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname is „Park,“ right? Nope. In Korean it’s closer to „Bahk. “ Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like „Chwey“ than the way it’s rendered in English. There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
(The Associated Press)
In this Wednesday, Dec. 28 photo, high school students take a selfie in front of a screen showing Korean traditional characters at the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, South Korea. Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname is „Park,“ right? Nope. In Korean it’s closer to „Bahk. “ Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like „Chwey“ than the way it’s rendered in English. There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
(The Associated Press)
In this Thursday, Dec. 29 photo, a dual-language street sign written in Korean and English is displayed at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea. Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname is „Park,“ right? Nope. In Korean it’s closer to „Bahk. “ Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like „Chwey“ than the way it’s rendered in English. There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
(The Associated Press)
SEOUL, South Korea –   Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname is „Park,“ right? Nope. In Korean it’s closer to „Bahk. “ Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like „Chwey“ than the way it’s rendered in English. And Samsung’s ailing chairman, Lee Kun-hee? That English „Lee“ is more like „Yi“ or „Ii“ in Korean.
There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound.
Even the ubiquitous „Kim“ — the moniker of beloved South Korean Olympic figure skating champion Yuna Kim and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un — belies: It’s pronounced „Ghim“ in Korean.
While the flubs of foreigners who take the Romanized spellings literally cause smirks for the bilingual, the mispronunciations can also create confusion and embarrassment among visiting politicians, tourists and business people.
The disputed reasons behind the discrepancies are linked to a complex mix of history, American influence, herd mentality and individual quirks.
Here’s a brief look:
___
THE HISTORY
South Korea’s guidelines for converting the Korean language into the Roman alphabet were last revised in 2000 to try to get road signs, places, internet domain names, guidebooks and surnames closer to their actual Korean pronunciations.
When those rules are applied to surnames, „Lee“ should be „I“ (pronounced „Ii“), „Kim“ should be „Gim,“ “Park“ should be „Bak“ and „Choi“ should be „Choe. “ But because people can decide how to spell their own names, many simply go with the way everyone else does it, which means they follow what their families have favored for generations.
So Kim, Park and Lee still dominate.
Experts differ about the origins of these English spellings of Korean surnames.
Some think that when South Korea was briefly under U. S. military rule following the end of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial occupation, Americans chose existing English names or words — such as Kim, Lee and Park — for Korean pronunciations that sounded similar. Others say it was South Koreans who started borrowing those recognizable English words.
When there wasn’t any easy match in English, South Koreans simply settled for spellings that „felt O. K.,“ according to Brother Anthony of Taize, a British-born scholar and prolific translator of Korean literature.
The spellings of some names are linked to a 1939 Romanization system invented by two Americans that was widely used before the 2000 revision.
Isolated, proud Pyongyang uses a variant of the old system. „Kim“ is the same in both Koreas, but the southern „Lee“ and „Park“ are „Ri and „Pak“ in the North.
___
THE MISTAKES
English mispronunciation, of course, happens in many languages that don’t use the Roman alphabet, but the list of foul-ups by foreigners relying on the confusing Korean system is long.
During a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Washington in October 2015, President Barack Obama called her „Park,“ just as it sounds in English, not „Bahk. “ When he held another joint press conference with Park’s predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, in 2012, he pronounced his name as „Lee,“ not „Ii. “
If Obama, who has a staff of Korean experts, couldn’t get it right, your average visitor to South Korea is doomed.
In some ways, the new Romanization rules are as bad as the old ones.
For instance, an affluent southern area in Seoul, and the inspiration for the world-dominating 2012 song by South Korean rapper PSY, is spelled „Gangnam. “ The first part of this word will look to many English speakers without any Korean like the first syllable of the word „gangster. “ But a better spelling is „Gahngnam. “
A southern town famous for traditional red pepper paste is spelled „Sunchang. “ Many English speakers pronounce the first part of the word as „sun“ from „sunshine;“ it’s actually „soonchahng. “
The rules are simply too far off from the reality, according to Yaang Byungsun, a linguist at South Korea’s Jeonju University. „It’s a system that no one, except for South Koreans, can pronounce,“ he said.
South Korean officials defend their Romanization rules by saying they are for all foreigners, not just English-speakers.
___
THE BIG THREE, AND BEYOND
The National Institute of Korean Language says it’s working to come up with a recommended standard for spelling surnames.
But it’s probably too late.
The English spellings of the three surnames that account for nearly half of South Korea’s 50 million people — Kim, Park and Lee — are firmly in place.
A study by the institute that ended in 2015 showed that about 99.5 percent of South Koreans with the country’s most popular surname spelled it „Kim,“ while the rest used „Gim,“ “Ghim“ or „Khim. “ For the second most common surname, about 98.5 percent favored „Lee,“ overwhelming „Yi,“ “Rhee,“ “Li“ and „Yee. “ In the case of the third most popular surname, „Park“ was used by about 96 percent.
For other surnames, some English spellings are meant to avoid embarrassment.
Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang stayed away from the awkward „Gang,“ which is what South Korea’s Romanization suggests.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun used to spell his surname as „Noh“ in English, which is how it’s pronounced. But during his 2002 presidential run, he reportedly switched to „Roh“ to stay away from the negative sounding „Noh. “
There are calls to overhaul the current, awkward Romanization system to avoid problems for foreigners who do businesses and travel here.
But it would be expensive.
A 2011 study showed that revising public signs and government-issued publications and performing other changes needed under a new system would cost 300 billion won ($250 million).
Some also question whether a perfect Romanization of Korean is even possible.
„It’s confusing and stupid, but that’s the way it is,“ Brother Anthony said.
___
Follow Hyung-jin Kim at www.twitter.com/hyungjin1972 and Kim Tong-hyung at www.twitter.com/KimTongHyung

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SEOUL: More than half a million South Koreans marked New Year’s Eve with a massive protest Saturday (Dec 31) calling for the immediate arrest and ouster of impeached President Park Geun-Hye.
Candle-carrying and banner-waving protestors marched towards key buildings in Seoul including the presidential Blue House and the prime minister’s office.
Police figures were unavailable but organisers estimated crowd numbers to be more than 600,000.
„Park Geun-Hye step down. Go to prison now,“ they chanted.
Parliament voted on Dec 9 to impeach Park over a corruption scandal in which she allegedly colluded with her friend, Choi Soon-Sil, to wrest donations from large conglomerates to two dubious foundations.
The case is now being considered by the Constitutional Court, which has up to 180 days to rule on the impeachment.
„I came here to help usher in a new year that has no Park Geun-Hye“, Kang Jae-Chun, who was at the protest with his two children, told AFP.
Demonstrators also planned to take part in a midnight ceremony in which a large bronze bell in the city centre is rung to herald in the new year.
It was the tenth protest calling for Park’s immediate departure from office.
But Park, who has been suspended from her duties since the impeachment vote, has remained defiant, declaring she will wait until the Constitutional Court arrives at a decision.
Earlier on Saturday, former health minister Moon Hyung-Pyo was arrested under a court order in a widening probe to determine whether Park and Choi took bribes from businesses including Samsung.
Moon, who is now head of the National Pension Service (NPS), admitted to pressuring the state-run fund to back a controversial merger of two Samsung units – Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T – last year when he served as health minister.
The acquisition was seen as a crucial step to ensure a smooth father-to-son power transfer to Lee Jae-Yong, scion of Samsung’s founding family.
Critics said it undervalued Samsung C&T stock but NPS – the world’s third largest public pension fund and a major Samsung shareholder – backed the deal, allegedly incurring hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for NPS subscribers.
Investigators reportedly plan to question Lee next month to determine whether he told Samsung Electronics executives to funnel millions of dollars into questionable foundations and companies controlled by Choi in return for NPS‘ backing.
Lee said at a parliamentary hearing this month he was not aware of the money transfers.

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South Korea’s government closed its website that drew fury for showing the number of women in childbearing age by each city district and region. The Ministry of the Interior’s website featuring the pink birth map remained closed on Friday, a day after its launch, showing instead a notice that the site is undergoing corrections to reflect public opinion. The website had gone offline after just a few hours following criticism the government is trying to shame women for not having babies. Some said the government treated the birth rate issue as concerning only women, pointing out that no picture of men was used on the website. Using pink as the main colour, the site contained information on birth rates, benefits from local governments on child rearing, average marriage age and other data. On top of the website, it showed a picture of a woman kissing a little girl. In the birth map, the regions with a higher number of female residents aged 15-49 were coloured in dark pink while the regions with a lower number of such women were shown in light pink. The site also featured a ranking of regions by the number of women aged 15-49. Users could look up how many women who can have a baby resided in their neighbourhood for the past 10 years. Many users reacted with wonder and anger, saying they do not understand what the number of women who can get pregnant has to do with encouraging people to have more babies. “I felt so angered that it blatantly showed how the government saw women’s body as the country’s reproductive tools, not that belonging to the woman,” said Lee Min-kyung, a 24-year-old feminism writer. “I felt like nothing has changed and the hatred of women that I have experienced appeared again.” The government had touted it as a tool to increase the public’s understanding of the country’s low birth rate and compare the benefits from local governments for having a baby or raising a child. “It was established to encourage local governments to learn and compare other governments’ benefits and to promote free competition,” the ministry said in the press release distributed at the time of its launch. Calls seeking comments were not answered on Friday. South Korea is struggling to boost its rock bottom birth rate, one of the lowest among rich countries. This year, the country also saw growth of vocal feminist movements protesting misogynist views reflected in government policies and pop culture.

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