Friends said he had been particularly happy at the dinner because he had just received news that one of his sons had gained admission to a South Korean university.Richard Newby, managing director of Daewoo Electronics South Africa, a unit of Daewoo Corp South Africa, said Mr Yong’s killer or killers did not appear to have stolen anything: “His cellphone and wallet were still there.”A representative at the South Korean trade centre in Johannesburg said the circumstances of the killing were doubly mysterious because Mr Yong had driven his car through the gates into the grounds of the house before he was shot.”We are sure it was not just a simple car hijacking. About 700 South Koreans are currently resident in South Africa.Mr Kwon’s murder is the second such incident involving a senior foreign businessman stationed in the country. It reported a loss in the first six months of last year of $7m (pounds 4m) on sales of $15m.A South Korean trade official said his country’s investment in South Africa was currently worth about $80m a year, mainly in the electronics, motor and heavy industry sectors. The killing “did not send out a message of confidence”, he said. C Y Kim, a counsellor at the South Korean embassy, said the attack could damage South Korean investment in the country. “Without security we cannot do anything,” he said.Daewoo has been operating in South Africa for 30 months, and accounts through its imports for 3.5 per cent of the car market. Surely it’s a kind of assassination, but I don’t know why he was killed,” said a spokesman.Johannesburg is South Africa’s commercial nerve centre, but it also has a reputation as the world’s murder capital.

Many wealthy people employ armed guards and live in villas bristling with alarms and ringed with electrified fencing. Motorists run the daily risk of being shot for their cars by young men wielding guns.Daewoo’s general manager, Pieter Coetzee, said Mr Kwon was well-liked and had no known enemies. Friends said he had been particularly happy at the dinner because he had just received news that one of his sons had gained admission to a South Korean university.Richard Newby, managing director of Daewoo Electronics South Africa, a unit of Daewoo Corp South Africa, said Mr Kwon’s killer or killers did not appear to have stolen anything: “His cellphone and wallet were still there.”A representative at the South Korean trade centre in Johannesburg said the circumstances of the killing were doubly mysterious because Mr Kwon had driven his car through the gates into the grounds of the house before he was shot.”We are sure it was not just a simple car hijacking. On behalf of the South African government, I would like to express our sincere condolences and sympathies to Mr Kwon’s family, colleagues and friends.”Mr Kwon had been at a farewell dinner for the Korean ambassador on Tuesday night, leaving at around 10pm (2000 GMT) He was found at 3am. Others speculated that the killer or killers fled when the car rolled down the driveway and the electric gates closed.South Africa’s Safety and Security Minister, Sydney Mufamadi, said everything would be done to hunt down the killers “I was shocked when I was informed of the fatal shooting.

“This murder can affect the business community.”Car-jackings in South Africa, already at epidemic levels, increased by almost 9 per cent last year. But Perumal Naidoo, head of the police anti- car-jacking unit, said the killing did not seem to be an ordinary attempted theft and could have been an assassination. Yong Koo Kwon, 50, president of Daewoo Motor South Africa, was killed in a pre-dawn attack that police described as a possible car-jacking attempt. They said, however, that it could have been a contract murder.
“We are worried about the crime situation in South Africa,” said a spokesman at the South Korean embassy in Pretoria. THE HEAD of operations for Daewoo, the South Korean car giant, was shot dead in a Johannesburg suburb yesterday in the latest blow to South Africa’s attempts to attract foreign investment and tourism. Generators and satellite dishes have provided evening entertainment, with public video parlours offering international news, soap operas and the sport.But the stresses of disaster are already evident – fighting in the displaced camps between townspeople and villagers during distributions; rising prices in the markets; and the daily struggle to find firewood and shelter as more people arrive.”It’s like crossing an invisible line,” says Ms Geldof “One day it’s bearable, the next day it’s a disaster.”. Local radio stations act as a telephone and banking system, allowing businessmen to make out-of-town money transfers – even to relatives abroad.

The family walked for seven days to get to Bardera, leaving behind most of their belongings, and have built a tiny temporary dome hut next to the banks of the River Juba. Mr Mohamed tried to find casual labour at one of the irrigated maize farms on the river bank, but found himself among thousands of others willing to work for less than the price of a cup of tea.Bardera has become “a relatively safe haven”, says a Unicef officer, Roger Carter. But it is becoming rapidly over-burdened by the exodus from the villages, which sees 10 to 12 new arrivals every day. With a functioning local authority, it is one of Somalia’s more successful regions, with the breakaway northern territories of Somaliland and Puntland.Townspeople now see local militia “more as protectors than looters”, says Mr Carter.

“We know it is for the children but we have nothing else.” When the rations run out, the family has one cup of sweet tea a day. Even the arrival this week of a sole truck carrying more supplies is not all good news; coming from the Kenyan border, the rest of the convoy had been delayed by hungry villagers en route demanding a share of the food.Aden Mohamed, 30, with a family of five, including twins aged 10 months, admits he is surviving on Supermix. The condition of many children deteriorates, even if they are in one of the mushrooming camps for the displaced.Present help “barely meets 10 per cent of the needs”, says Abdinasir Zobe, the local food security officer of the UN’s World Food Programme. Unicef distributes every two weeks bags of “Supermix” – dry cereal – meant for children under five Without any other rations, everyone eats it. The country is run by a whole web of rival well-armed clans, and to introduce food aid for any group would trigger a nightmare of demands and negotiations.Now, a little assistance is being overseen by a few international and local staff in Bardera.