Korea’s plans to slaughter 7.9 million cattle, pigs and poultry to halt the spread of disease are pricing pensioner Lee Ok-soon out of a Lunar New Year tradition of cooking beef soup as an offering for her ancestors. “I don’t believe the government can do anything to pull down prices, which are soaring as if the sky’s the limit,” said Lee, 77, as she shopped at a market in central Seoul on Jan. ...

South Korea will more than triple its investment in overseas resources development to $7 billion this year as it strives for a stable supply of key materials including rare earth metals, the government said Thursday. Of the total, $2.6 billion, or 37 percent, will come from state-run firms and the rest from the private sector, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. State-run developers Korea E...

South Korea’s workforce productivity in 2009 was lower than that of most Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development-member nations, a government report showed Wednesday. The country’s per-capita labor productivity marked $56,374, which ranked 23rd among the 31-member OECD, according to research jointly carried out by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Korea Productivity Center. The ...

Korea and the U.S. will soon conclude work on the final text of their recently concluded free trade agreement, paving the way for the pact to be ratified in both countries, a high-ranking trade official said Wednesday. In December last year, both countries reached a final agreement focusing on U.S. demands that Korea soften its automotive safety and environmental standards. The Korea-U.S. free ...

Volume of cargo handled at Korea’s seaports hit a record high last year thanks to improving economic and business conditions, the transportation ministry said Wednesday. The nation’s seaports handled an all-time high of 1.2 billion tons of cargo last year, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, according to a report by the ministry. In December, cargo handling also jumped to a monthly record of 11...

South Korea's labor productivity ranked relatively low among the member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last year, a report showed Wednesday. Labor productivity per worker in South Korea totaled US$56,374 last year, ranking 23rd among 31 OECD member countries, according to the report offered by the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy. Labor productivity is mea...

Childbirths in Korea grew for the ninth consecutive month in November as the economic recovery encouraged couples to have more babies, a report showed Monday. According to the report by Statistics Korea, the number of babies born in November was about 41,200, up 17 percent or 6,000 from the same month a year earlier. The latest figure marked the ninth consecutive on-year growth since last March...

Korea reported an additional case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the central part of the country Monday, in the midst of nationwide vaccination and quarantine efforts. The farm ministry said some cattle at a farm in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province, about 220 kilometers southeast of Seoul, tested positive for the highly contagious animal disease after animals started showing symptoms ove...

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Only about half of Korean companies operating in China have turned out to be successful, despite their rush into the world’s second-largest economy, a poll showed Sunday. According to the survey on 212 Korean firms, taken by the Korea International Trade Association’s (KITA) Shanghai office, 55.7 percent of the firms assessed their business in China as “successful.” Amo...

Korean banks raised more funds last year than 2009 as risk-averse investors piled into lenders’ savings deposits, the financial regulator said Monday. Eighteen local banks’ fund raising through deposits and debt issuance expanded by a net 35.5 trillion won ($31.7 billion) last year, bringing their outstanding funds to 1,161.4 trillion won as of the end of December, the Financial Supervisory Serv...

Gmarket face 16.9 billion won in back taxes on underreported revenue Online retailers are concerned about possible taxation on their discount sales after state auditors last week ordered Gmarket to pay 16.9 billion won ($15.12 million) in back taxes on underreported revenue. The Board of Audit and Inspection judged on Thursday that the top online marketplace operator evaded value added taxes by...

South Korea is expected to become the world's seventh-largest economy in 2032 if it continues to propel its growth engines, the country's top financial regulator has said. "In 2020, South Korea is likely to become the world's 10th-largest economy. In 2032, it is projected to surpass Germany to join the ranks of the world's seven largest economies," Kim Seok-dong, the head of the Financial Servic...