Meanwhile, Ulsan's Mayor Shim is busy trying to tap the new thinking in Seoul to replace disappearing assembly line jobs. (He says he never promised zero job cuts.) He's slashing red tape to attract foreign capital. He wants to take advantage of tax breaks Seoul has promised to overseas investors who put money into new businesses. He also has plans to nurture start-up companies, with central government backing. The mayor has even won the right for Ulsan to host a match during football's 2002 World Cup, which Korea will co-host with Japan. Already, a big new luxury hotel is under construction. Says Shim: "The momentum from the current crisis can let us globalize Ulsan." That's if Korea's President can convince foreigners to invest in places like Ulsan. So far, there's no stampede, and there won't be one until the whiff of labor trouble clears. But Kim has made reversing Korea's traditional allergy to foreign investment one of the keystones of his presidency. Korea can't borrow its way out of the crisis--it needs foreign money and ideas to save jobs and create new ones. Since taking office, the President has eased limits on foreign ownership of companies and real estate. He has also wooed foreign investors, most recently during his trip to Washington in June. Says Kim: "We have to create a situation where foreign investment can come in, otherwise 100% of the people will be unemployed." Until last year, foreigners couldn't own more than 26% of a Korean company. Going it alone was a struggle, too, as France's Carrefour found when it tried to open a store in a Seoul suburb a few years ago. The discount retailer needed more than 200 official approvals, ten times the number required in permit-happy France. Traditionally, businessmen who didn't grease the bureaucratic wheels with "favors" found their approvals languishing. This spring Kim ordered the Ministry of Finance to slash its regulations across the board. When the mandarins came back with a plan to cut red tape by a third, Kim rejected it as inadequate. Now the ministry promises to trim the rulebook further. That's the kind of move that will shrink the government's role in the economy as Korea moves toward a free-market system. Kim has already started to downsize the country's cumbersome bureaucracy, the same kind of medicine he is prescribing to boost chaebol efficiency. The President is also pushing for a more open style of government--many Koreans blame a lack of transparency for the spectacular corruption that plagued previous administrations. Says Sakong Il, a former Finance Minister. "It was corruption that stopped us from moving ahead with reform." Kim startled his ministers by broadcasting his first Cabinet meeting live on radio and cable television. He has held Clinton-style town-hall meetings where citizens can question him directly. In one gathering, the wife of a handicapped man grilled the President on his pledge to promote the rights of the disabled. That kind of scene was unimaginable under previous authoritarian governments. Kim handled the exchange smoothly, reinforcing his image as a new kind of leader. -Warren G, DRU Hill, Graham Bonnet, Boyz List, Boston Kickout, Areosmith,Shawn Colvin, FireHouse, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Toni Braxton, Kenny G, Mark Owen, Donna Lewis, Scolpions, Gloria Estefan, REm, Suede, Enya, Take That...n' HUFSan