hankyoreh

The Unification Ministry reported that airport officials of South Korea and North Korea re-opened their hotline on Monday following a proposal from North Korea.
“The control centers in Pyongyang and Incheon completed a test call at 9:30 a.m.,” Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing. South Korea imposed a ban on the hotline‘s operation on May 24 as part of its military response to the sinking of the Cheonan.
South Korean tenant companies part of the Kaesong Industrial Complex reported $26.9 million in products production in August, a 1.9 percent increase from the previous month, according to Unification Ministry.
Meanwhile, North Korean ships and boats have reportedly attempted to enter South Korean waters on 53 occasions since May, when the South Korean government banned North Korea from entering its territorial waters, Lawmaker Kim Ock-lee of the ruling Grand National Party said in a statement, citing data from the Navy.
　
Estimated 2.29M overseas Koreans eligible for 2012 elections
An estimated 2.29 million South Koreans living abroad become eligible to overseas vote in South Korean general election in 2012, the National Election Commission (NEC) reported on Sunday.
According to the NEC, there were 2.86 million overseas Koreans with South Korean nationality as of July of last year. Of them, 2.29 million will be 19, the legal voting age, or older by the April 2012 parliamentary elections in which the Overseas Voting System will be introduced for the first time.
The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) Chaiman Ahn Sang-soo said that GNP would propose a motion for a revised bill of election laws in order to enable the voter registration of overseas Koreans through mail or Internet on Monday.
　
Constitutional revision debate reignited
Kim Moo-sung, floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), renewed his demand on Sunday that political parties launch negotiations within the year to revise the Constitution.
Kim made the case once again that parties should jointly establish a special committee for the purpose. Politicians’ discussion over the revision of the Constitution was first reopened after remarks by Park Jie-won, main opposition Democratic Party (DP) floor leader, that he could discuss the establishment of the special committee in a general meeting of DP lawmakers.
　
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