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World Business Quick Take

A South Korean tourist shows his ticket to Pyongyang. PHOTO: AFP

■ Tourism
N Korea gives one way tours
North and South Korea opened inter-Korean commercial air services on Monday with the first commercial flight lifting off in more than 50 years. The North Korean Koryo Airline plane flew into South Korea's Incheon International Airport over the Yellow Sea and returned to Pyongyang carrying 114 South Korean tourists, airport officials said. The maiden flight launched a commercial charter service for South Korean tourists wishing to visit the North. There are no plans to bring North Koreans to the South, organizers said. The tourists are scheduled to return home on South Korea's Asiana Airline flight on Friday on the same inter-Korean air route after touring the North Korean capital. The five-day Pyongyang tours costing US$1,900 per person will run until Dec. 25.

■ Labor
UAW confirms settlement
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union said early yesterday it reached a tentative, four-year contract agreement with automaker DaimlerChrysler AG and will continue to negotiate with General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co. Details of the tentative agreement weren't immediately released. The UAW had hoped to reach simultaneous pacts with the Big Three automakers, but General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. haven't reached an agreement. Current worker contracts expired at midnight Sunday. The union typically chooses one carmaker as the lead negotiator and uses that pact as a model for the other two. They negotiated on issues such as wages, jobs, health care and pensions that affect 300,000 workers and nearly a half-million retirees and their spouses.

■ Music industry
Lawsuits discourage piracy
More than half of music consumers say they are less likely to download songs because of the recording industry's move to sue people who get music off the Internet without paying for it, according to the results of a Newsweek poll. If CD prices were reduced by one-third, 48 percent of online music consumers say they would more likely buy CDs instead of downloading, Newsweek said. About 42 percent of online users say the industry crackdown won't make them less likely to download. About 25 percent of music consumers who go online said the most they would be willing to pay per song is about US$1, according to the poll. About 15 percent would pay at most about US$0.50 per song. The poll surveyed 1,004 adults aged 18 and older on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.

■ Macroeconomics
Thailand raises forecast
Thailand's government raised its forecast for economic growth this year to as much as 6.2 percent after exports and consumer spen-ding helped the economy expand more than expected in the second quarter. South-east Asia's second-biggest economy will probably grow at its fastest pace in eight years, the government said. The economy grew 5.3 per-cent last year and the govern-ment earlier forecast it to expand 5.5 percent this year. A housing boom, driven by interest rates at a record low, plus higher exports helped the economy expand almost double the pace forecast in the second quarter.

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