Last updated: August 2, 2026
Why This Page Exists
Most of what is written about Korean equities in English is either a machine translation of something else, or a rewrite of a rewrite. We think that is worth doing better than.
This page sets out where our information comes from, how we handle other people’s work, and what we will and will not do. We would like to be held to it.
1. Our Purpose
Korean capital markets are among the world’s largest, yet the information required to invest in them intelligently — regulatory filings, corporate disclosure, sell-side research, financial media — is published overwhelmingly in Korean.
Following the opening of direct KRX access to international brokerage clients, a growing number of investors can now buy these securities. Far fewer can read about them.
This site exists to close that gap: not by translating Korean sources, but by researching primary materials and producing original English-language analysis grounded in them.
2. Where Our Information Comes From
We work in three tiers. All three are citable, and the tier says what kind of document a source is rather than how far we trust it:
| Tier | Source | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Filings and disclosure systems — DART, KIND, and foreign equivalents including SEC EDGAR | Factual foundation |
| 1 | Statutes and enforcement decrees — law.go.kr and foreign equivalents | Factual foundation |
| 1 | Company IR materials — earnings presentations, transcripts, guidance, fact books | Factual foundation |
| 1 | Broker and intermediary terms — fee schedules, trading permissions and eligibility pages, for that firm’s own service only | Factual foundation |
| 1 | Exchange market data and issuer lists — KRX, and Nasdaq, the NYSE and the London Stock Exchange for their own listings | Factual foundation |
| 1 | Bank of Korea, Statistics Korea, ministry publications, and foreign equivalents | Macro and policy context |
| 2 | Regulator and exchange announcements, rulebooks and official policy documents — FSC, FSS, NTS, MOEF and foreign equivalents | Policy analysis |
| 3 | Financial media reporting, attributed | Cited freely, named and dated |
| 3 | Published sell-side and named research houses | Cited freely — see Section 3 |
3. How We Treat Third-Party Research
This is the section we are asked about most, so we will be direct.
Korean brokerage research is copyrighted work product, created at real cost by analysts who did the work. We treat it accordingly.
What we do
- Cite factual data points with attribution. Analyst price targets, published ratings, and consensus estimates are facts about the market, and we report them as such — always naming the institution and the date.
- Aggregate and compare across multiple institutions. Our value is in the comparison, the disagreement between houses, and what we think it means — not in any single firm’s view.
- Add our own analysis. Every article’s central argument is our own reasoning. If we have nothing to add, we do not publish.
- Link to original sources wherever they are publicly accessible, so readers can go to the source themselves.
- Redraw all charts from underlying data. We do not reproduce third-party graphics.
What we do not do
- We do not translate and republish research reports, in whole or in substantial part.
- We do not reproduce the structure, argument sequence, or distinctive expression of any single report.
- We do not summarize an individual report as a substitute for reading it.
- We do not reproduce third-party charts, tables, or graphics.
- We do not present another analyst’s reasoning as our own.
The standard we hold ourselves to
Facts are reported. Analysis is ours. Sources are named.
If an article could not stand as an original work without a specific third-party report, that article does not get published.
When we cite news reporting
Some of what we publish points readers at a development first reported by a Korean news organisation. Reporting is not brokerage research, so the rules above do not map onto it cleanly. These are the ones we apply, and they are narrower than the law requires rather than wider.
- We take the facts, never the writing. Figures, dates, who announced what, and what happened are facts. Korea’s Copyright Act excludes reporting that amounts to nothing more than the conveyance of fact from protection. The sentences are a different matter, so every sentence we publish is written from scratch.
- We do not translate and republish. Article 5 of the Copyright Act makes a translation a work in its own right and expressly leaves the original author’s rights untouched. A translated article is therefore the one thing we will not post — the same line we draw in section 4, where machine translation is a reading aid and never publishable output.
- We link only to the publisher’s own page. Article 124(1) treats linking to an unlawful copy as an infringing act in itself, so aggregator copies, forum reposts, and syndication mirrors are not acceptable destinations even when they are easier to find and more likely to stay up.
- We take no images. No photographs, no charts, no screenshots of tables. This is the same rule as above, and it has no exception for news.
- We handle exclusives with more care, not less. Where a fact exists because a reporter went and found it, we state it in one or two sentences and send the reader to the original. Original newsgathering written in a reporter’s own words is the case where protection is most likely to attach.
- Every item carries our own read. A development we cannot say anything useful about is a development we leave alone. This is how the rule above — if we have nothing to add, we do not publish — applies here, and it is deliberately the hardest of these to satisfy.
If you are a rights holder and believe we have fallen short of this, tell us: [email protected]. We will review promptly and act. We would much rather correct something than defend it.
4. On the Use of AI
We use AI-assisted tools in our workflow — for reading and translating Korean-language sources, for assembling first drafts from sourced material, for building charts from published figures, and for producing the illustrative images that head our articles.
We want to be precise about what that does and does not mean:
- Nothing is published without a person reading it first. Every article is reviewed before it goes live. There is no automated publishing on this site.
- We decide what we cover. Topic selection and the decision to publish are editorial judgments, not model outputs.
- Every factual claim is tied to a named source. Filings, IR releases and regulator statements are cited in the article so you can check them against the original. Where we could not reach a primary source, we say so in the article rather than smoothing over the gap.
- Analysis, judgment and conclusions are ours. The opinion sections carry our view, and the accountability for it sits with us.
- Illustrative images are AI-generated. They do not depict real people, real places, or the actual facilities of any company we write about, and they are not photographs of the events described.
This policy was revised on 14 September 2026. An earlier version stated that we did not use AI to assemble drafts from source documents. Our workflow changed, and we have updated the page rather than leave a description that no longer matches how we work.
We take the view that using a tool does not change the authorship question. If a machine did the thinking, it isn’t research — and it wouldn’t be worth your time to read.
5. Accuracy and Corrections
We will get things wrong. When we do:
- Material errors are corrected promptly, with a dated correction note appended to the article. We do not silently edit and move on.
- Minor errors (typography, formatting) may be corrected without notation.
- Substantive updates to a previously published thesis are marked with the update date.
To report an error: [email protected]. Corrections from readers are welcome and will be credited if desired.
6. Independence
- No company, issuer, broker, or third party pays for coverage on this site. No exceptions.
- No party covered on this site reviews content prior to publication, or has any right of approval or veto.
- Advertising and affiliate relationships are disclosed and have no bearing on editorial judgment. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
- Where the author holds a material position in a security that is the primary subject of an article, that position is disclosed within the article.
7. What We Do Not Publish
- Price predictions presented as certainties
- Anything framed as a guaranteed or risk-free return
- Personalized investment recommendations
- Non-public or unverified inside information
- Content intended to influence a security’s price
- Rumor, unattributed claims, or speculation presented as fact
- Content produced primarily to rank in search rather than to inform
8. Limitations We Acknowledge
Honest work requires stating what it cannot do:
- We are not a registered investment adviser. See our Disclaimer.
- We do not have management access. We are not on earnings calls with the privileges of institutional analysts.
- Translation introduces risk. Korean financial and legal terminology does not always map cleanly to English. Where a term is contested or has no clean equivalent, we flag it.
- We can be wrong. Analysis is judgment under uncertainty, not fact.
9. About the Author
This site is written and edited by one analyst, based in Seoul, publishing under the John & Lee Equity Research name.
Background. Seoul National University; financial consulting at EY; equity research at a boutique Korean securities house.
Language. Korean is a first language. Every Korean-language source cited on this site — DART filings, KIND disclosures, IR materials, domestic brokerage research, and Korean financial media — is read in the original, not in translation. Where an English rendering of a Korean accounting, legal, or regulatory term is contested or imprecise, we flag it in the article rather than paper over it.
Byline policy. Articles are published under the site’s name rather than a personal one. Editorial accountability rests with John & Lee Equity Research, and correspondence sent to the address below reaches the author directly.
Position disclosure. Where the author holds a material position in a security that is the primary subject of an article, that position is disclosed within the article itself.
10. Contact
Corrections, source questions, rights inquiries, or feedback: [email protected]