Summary of major stories moved by Yonhap

The following is the first summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency
on Tuesday.

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Swap deal with China imminent: sources
SEOUL -- South Korea is seeking a US$10-30 billion currency swap deal with China
as talks between the two nations are nearing an end, government and central bank
officials said Tuesday.
Currently, the two countries have a currency swap contract under which South
Korea could borrow up to $4 billion from China. The deal for an extended swap, if
realized, would provide an additional liquidity line for South Korea at a time
when its foreign currency reserves are on a decline.
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S. Korea's FX reserves fall to $212.3 bln in Oct.
SEOUL -- South Korea's foreign exchange reserves took their steepest monthly fall
since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis in October, mainly due to an increased
liquidity supply meant to ease financial jitters, the central bank said Tuesday.
The nation's foreign reserves reached US$212.3 billion as of the end of October,
down $27.4 billion from a month earlier, marking the seventh straight month of
decline, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.
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(LEAD) Parliament urges defense agency to reconsider German submarine deal
SEOUL -- Seoul should reconsider its decision to buy six 214-type German
submarines as their prices will likely go down in the coming years, a
parliamentary report suggested Tuesday, calling the contract "unreasonable."
The report said the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, a government
agency that supplies military equipment for the defense industries, would be
paying too much if its provisional contract with the German shipbuilder
Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) goes through, as discounts are expected when
several other countries in negotiations with the shipyard reach a package deal.
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(2nd LD) Fighter jet crashes north of Seoul, pilot ejects safely
SEOUL -- A military fighter jet crashed north of Seoul during a flight drill on
Tuesday, but its pilot is safe, a Defense Ministry official said.
The F-5E jet crashed in a rice field in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, at 10:25 a.m.
after taking off from a military airport east of Seoul for flight training. The
Air Force pilot, who was identified only by his family name Lee, ejected safely,
the official said, requesting anonymity because he was not in a position to
comment.
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Lee calls for nationwide campaign for exports
SEOUL -- President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday that the nation has virtually
overcome its foreign currency liquidity problem and should now focus its energy
on expanding exports as part of a nationwide effort to avert a slump in the real
economy.
Presiding over a government-private sector meeting convened to declare a revised
export target of US$500 billion for 2009, Lee called on Korean exporters to
reinforce efforts to diversify their overseas markets and develop new products to
produce "outstanding results" next year.
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(Yonhap Feature) Face readers try to divine next U.S. president
SEOUL -- Pollsters can predict all they want. But for some Koreans, victory is
written in the face.
South Korean physiognomy practitioners, or face readers, are betting this week on
who will make it to the White House, and watching intently to see the political
fate of a country so closely tied to their own.
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BOK forecast to cut key rate for November
SEOUL -- South Korea's central bank is widely expected to further slash its key
interest rate for November following last week's emergency rate cut in a bid to
prop up the cooling economy, a poll showed Tuesday.
A total of 17 economists at 21 financial institutions predicted that the Bank of
Korea (BOK) will lower the benchmark 7-day repo rate by a quarter percentage
point to 4 percent on Friday, according to the poll by Yonhap Infomax, the
financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.
(END)