Empty Seats

The floor of Daeshin Securities in Yeouido, Seoul, is deserted on Monday as stock prices plummeted. When the KOSDAQ index dropped by more than 10 percent, a circuit breaker was triggered for the first time ever, suspending all stock trades for 20 minutes. Without a single trader present on the floor, a cameraman from a news program is videotaping a stock list for a report.

Jong-Seung Lee urisesang@donga.com