There have been debates on adoption of corporate laws regarding electing independent audit committee members separately and double derivative suit, as well as mandatory cumulative voting to improve corporate governance in Korea. This article examines whether mandatory or market based approaches are desirable to improve corporate governance in Korea. It will explore the ways to strengthen the independence of the board of directors and audit committees. Firstly, this article studies the independence of outside directors in the U.S. and Korea. The independence of the board of directors has been weak in Korea due to controlling shareholders and circular share-holding ownership structure among big business groups, even though there have been attempts to improve this situation. Secondly, this article examines the current role of outside directors, audit committees, and cumulative voting in the U.S and in Korea to find out positive changes in corporate governance Korea. Lastly, his article will discuss the appropriate direction between mandatory and market based soft law approaches on corporate governance in Korea. It will argue that Korea needs to strengthen the monitoring function of the board of directors, independence of outside directors and audit committee.

In this work, we studied the effects of electrochemical oxidation treatments of carbon fibers (CFs) on interfacial adhesion between CF and epoxy resin with various current densities. The surface morphologies and properties of the CFs before and after electrochemical-oxidation-treatment were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and single-fiber contact angle. The mechanical interfacial shear strength of the CFs/epoxy matrix composites was investigated by using a micro-bond method. From the results, electrochemical oxidation treatment introduced oxygen functional groups and increased roughness on the fiber surface. The mechanical interfacial adhesion strength also showed higher values than that of an untreated CF-reinforced composite.