North Korea has artillery which could devastate Seoul, the capital of South Korea, in the event of a war.
The loss of confidence in South Korea's capital markets is of particular concern because corporate bonds worth some 60 trillion won mature next year.
One reason is that North Korea has two-thirds of its 1.2m-strong army and thousands of artillery pieces dug in within easy striking-distance of South Korea's capital.
Most experts believe its claims to have enough conventional firepower from its artillery units to devastate the greater Seoul area, South Korea's bustling capital of 24 million.
This week, in another event of interest to the Americans, a group of government ministers from South Korea is in Pyongyang, the North's capital, for four days of talks with their counterparts, which started on Tuesday October 14th.
If capital is lent or invested honestly, without corruption or coercion, the real story in South Korea may be the success of foreign capital in reforming the chaebol.
Protesters in South Korea's capital, Seoul, burned portraits of Kim Jong-un, his father Kim Jong-il, and grandfather Kim Il-sung on Monday.
Mr Kim does not need his bombs to wreak havoc in South Korea, whose capital, Seoul, has long been within range of the North's artillery dug into the hills just over the border.
More developed economies, such as South Korea and Singapore, where both the rate of investment and the capital-to-labour ratio are relatively high, are probably not underinvesting.
Total factor productivity, which measures how efficiently labour and capital are combined, is only 42% of the level in America, or 82% that in South Korea.
Many Brazilian companies avoided capital spending in the days of protection and hyperinflation, leaving Brazil with only a third as much capital equipment a head as South Korea.
Fireworks lit up the skyline in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, while South Korea ushered in the new year with the traditional ringing 33 times of the 15th Century Bosingak Bell in the capital, Seoul.
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