When two longtime business partners established a subsidiary 50 years ago to make zinc out of an industrial complex set up by South Korea’s government, they settled on an unusual division of power. The new venture, Korea Zinc, would be managed by the Choi family. The existing parent company, Young Poong, would be run by […]

In a chilly auditorium in Afghanistan, heaps of freshly mined green emeralds glowed under bright table lamps as bearded gemstone dealers inspected them for purity and quality. An auctioneer asked for bids on the first lot, which weighed 256 carats. With that, the Taliban’s weekly gemstone auction was underway. These sales, in the emerald-rich Panjshir […]