Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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Will tug-of-war between doctors, government end soon?
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Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
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[News Focus] Korea’s national debt to top 800 trillion won
SEJONG -- South Korea’s national debt is projected to surpass 800 trillion won ($682 billion) in the coming weeks, marking the first time in its history. The growth pace is proving serious in the wake of the government’s active allocation of supplementary budgets. The national debt is a core indicator for fiscal soundness, reflecting liabilities held by the central and local governments at home and abroad. According to the National Assembly Budget Office, the sovereign debt was es
Sept. 17, 2020
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Toss users spend 65% of cash relief within month: data
Users of Toss, a local financial services app operated by Viva Republica, spent 65 percent of their disaster relief funds in less than a month, the company said Thursday, referring to its data analysis. According to the estimate, 65 percent of the total 395.2 billion won ($336.5 million) in spending by 778,000 recipients was spent before end-May, after the Korean government started to dole out some 14 trillion won to every Korean household that month. Viva Republica compiled the data from use
Sept. 17, 2020
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Kia halts 2 domestic plants following confirmed COVID-19 cases
Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, said Thursday it has suspended two of its domestic plants as at least eight workers have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus. Kia halted the operations of two plants in Gwangmyeong, just south of Seoul, from late Wednesday and sent all of the 6,000 plant workers home, a company spokesman said over the phone. "As of 3:30 p.m., nine assembly line workers were confirmed to have been infected with the virus," he sai
Sept. 17, 2020
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Seoul, Beijing begin irregular flights amid pandemic
South Korea and China on Thursday began to operate irregular flights to allow Korean residents in China who returned here due to the coronavirus outbreak to go back, the transport ministry said. Korean Air Lines Co. and Xiamen Airlines will offer a total of seven flights from Incheon, west of Seoul, to Qingdao, Zhengzhou and Xiamen from Thursday until Oct. 15, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. All passengers are required to submit the results of a coronavirus te
Sept. 17, 2020
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Finance minister asks lawmakers to approve extra budget by next Tuesday
SEJONG -- Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki on Thursday asked the National Assembly to approve a fourth supplementary budget by early next week, in order to give emergency handouts to small merchants ahead of the Chuseok holiday season. The ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition People Power Party reached an agreement earlier this week to vote on the fourth extra budget bill this coming Tuesday. That day is a potential deadline for the government to provide relief handouts to small mercha
Sept. 17, 2020
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Retail investors pour huge money into domestic, overseas stocks
South Korean retail investors have poured nearly 100 trillion won ($85.2 billion) into domestic and overseas stocks this year amid ample liquidity and low interest rates, data showed Thursday. Individual investors' net buying of shares traded on the country's main KOSPI and secondary KOSDAQ markets came to 55.9 trillion won as of Wednesday this year, according to the data from the Korea Exchange. Investor deposits at brokerage houses for stock investment stood at 56.7 trillion won as of Tuesd
Sept. 17, 2020
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S. Korea to take top spot in economic growth for 2020: OECD
Acknowledging South Korea’s relatively effective control of COVID-19 and its appropriate fiscal response, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently increased its outlook for Asia’s fourth-largest economy this year, officials said Wednesday. It also reiterated the need to sustain expansionary fiscal policies, warning that hasty belt-tightening as the economy is slowly recovering could dampen growth prospects for next year. In its biannual Interim Economic
Sept. 16, 2020
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S. Korea’s food prices hike to third highest among OECD states
South Korea’s food price inflation last month ranked the third highest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, due to the record-long summer monsoon season soon followed by consecutive typhoons, data showed Wednesday. The prices for groceries and nonalcoholic beverages for August was up 6.6 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by the OECD and Statistics Korea. This on-year rise was third highest among the 22 OECD member states th
Sept. 16, 2020
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CJ Group's Lee Mie-kyung elected as vice chairwoman of Academy Museum
South Korean entertainment giant CJ Group executive Lee Mie-kyung, widely known as Miky Lee, has been chosen as vice chairwoman of the board of the Academy Museum opening next year in Los Angeles. According to the homepage of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wednesday, its board of trustees has appointed Netflix's CEO Ted Sarandos as chair and Miky Lee as vice-chair. Paramount Pictures CEO Jim Gianopulos was named treasurer, while producer Kimberly Steward was reelected as secretary.
Sept. 16, 2020
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KB Financial chairman likely to serve another 3-year term
KB Financial Group said Wednesday it has selected chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo as the final candidate for the post of chief of the South Korean banking giant. Yoon, who has been leading KB Financial since 2014, will begin a third three-year term as KB Financial chairman if approved at the KB Financial's extraordinary shareholders' meeting in November. Under his leadership, KB Financial has been racing to expand non-banking business in a bid to diversify its revenue sources. (Yonhap)
Sept. 16, 2020
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Airlines to levy no fuel surcharges on intl. routes in Oct.
South Korean airlines will not impose fuel surcharges on international routes in October on low oil prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Wednesday. The surcharge for one-way tickets on international routes will remain at zero next month, unchanged from a month earlier, according to the sources. Local air carriers' fuel surcharges on international routes will stay at zero for the seventh consecutive month, raising expectations that the zero rate may last down the ro
Sept. 16, 2020
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Hyundai Samho delivers world's first LNG-powered container ship
South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. said Wednesday it has delivered the world's first container ship powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a Singaporean shipping company. The LNG-powered container ship with a capacity of 14,800 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) is one of six ships to be built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries for Singapore's Eastern Pacific Shipping in a 2018 deal. The other ships will be delivered by the third quarter of 2022, the company said
Sept. 16, 2020
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6 financial groups to make public governance structures on websites
Six financial groups in South Korea plan to make public their governance structures, financial health and other details on their websites later this month, the financial regulator said Wednesday. The integrated regulatory filing is meant to provide a clear picture to financial consumers on the financial group's risk factors, according the Financial Services Commission (FSC). The move could also help "improve the financial groups' risk management capabilities through market discipline,&qu
Sept. 16, 2020
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S. Korea, Myanmar to discuss broadening economic ties
South Korea said Wednesday it plans to hold a virtual meeting with Myanmar to share ways to expand their economic ties and overcome economic jitters sparked by the new coronavirus pandemic. Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo plans to meet his Myanmar counterpart, Than Myint, later in the day through a videoconference to exchange ideas on pending economic issues between the two countries, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The gathering was originally scheduled to take place i
Sept. 16, 2020
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S. Korea's exports of virus test kits rebound in August
South Korea's exports of coronavirus test kits rebounded in August as the world grappled with a resurgence of the novel coronavirus, data showed Wednesday. In the first 20 days of August, exports of virus test kits stood at $106 million, compared with $123 million in July. Exports of virus test kits in August are expected to rise 10 percent from a month earlier, according to the customs data. South Korea's exports of coronavirus test kits had declined since their peak in April. Accordin
Sept. 16, 2020
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S. Korea's energy consumption dips 3.6% in H1
South Korea's energy consumption fell nearly 4 percent in the first half of the year due to an economic slowdown sparked by the coronavirus outbreak, a report said Wednesday. The country's overall energy consumption came to 112.6 million tons of oil equivalent (TOEs), down 3.6 percent from the same period last year, according to the report from the Korea Energy Economics Institute. The first-half drop follows a 0.6 percent on-year decline for all of 2019, which was the first annual drop in 10
Sept. 16, 2020
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S. Korea recoups nearly 70% of bailout funds
South Korea has recouped 69.5 percent of the public funds it spent to bail out troubled financial and other firms since the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, the financial regulator said Wednesday. South Korea had retrieved 117.2 trillion won ($99.3 billion) out of the 168.7 trillion won in state funds spent to save firms from bankruptcy as of the end of June, according to the Financial Services Commission (FSC). The recovery rate marks a slight rise from the 69.2 percent recorded at the end
Sept. 16, 2020
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Gyeonggi chief’s loan relief suggestion prompts criticism from banking sector
Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s idea for a government loan relief program -- in which the state would forgive and pay off interest on loans for those in the low income bracket -- was met with criticism from the banking sector. Lee recently said via Facebook that a “welfare state must take responsibility for the financial risks of ordinary citizens,” and “a welfare loan system where everyone can receive low-interest, long-term loans with the government financially
Sept. 15, 2020
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[News Focus] Korea outstrips Japan in average pay in 2019
SEJONG -- The average annual wage for South Korean workers was found to have reached $42,285 last year, according to calculation by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The level placed Korea at No. 19 among 35 members of the OECD. Two member countries, Colombia and Turkey, were not in included in the 2019 comparison. Though the figure fell short of the OECD average, $48,587, Korea ranked above Israel (21st), Italy (22nd), Spain (23rd) and Japan (24th), all of which saw
Sept. 15, 2020
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ADB maintains growth outlook for S. Korea, cuts projection for Asia
The Asian Development Bank said Tuesday that South Korea’s economy would likely contract 1 percent on-year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but grow 3.3 percent next year on the back of the global economic recovery and local fiscal spending. In its revised set of growth projections for the Asian region, ADB maintained its earlier forecast for Asia’s fourth-largest economy, while cutting the region’s overall growth outlook for this year to a contraction of 0.7 percent f
Sept. 15, 2020