Path to prosperity? South Korean soldiers open the border for a train bound for the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where 20,000 North Koreans work in South Korean
For two decades, South Korean entrepreneur Kim Cheul Young has struggled to keep his manufacturing business from unraveling. Kim's company, Sunghwa Trading, makes socks for familiar Western brands including Calvin Klein and Gap. His is a business that competes on cost and not much else, which is why the majority of the world's sock supply comes from countries such as China and Vietnam where labor costs are low. Five years ago Kim opened a factory in Qingdao in northeast China to combat intensifying competition from Chinese garmentmakers, but that move wasn't enough to keep his profit margins from eroding....
