Most Popular
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
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Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
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[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas
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Medical schools granted enrollment quota flexibility for next year
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Korean art gets spotlight at Venice Biennale 2024
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Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
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Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
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France rejects opening Paris flight routes to T'way Air, deals blow to Korean Air merger
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Korea's economy showing signs of gradual slowdown: KDI
South Korea's economy is showing signs of a gradual slowdown with export growth cooling amid sluggish private consumption, a state-run think tank said Monday. "The growth pace of exports slowed and domestic demand remained weak, implying that overall economic activity appeared to be gradually slowing," the Korea Development Institute said in its monthly evaluation of the country's economic conditions.Exports in November appeared to lose some steam, mainly due to weaker global demand fo
Dec. 10, 2018
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[Monitor] Half of Korean working moms earn less than W2m a month
Almost half of South Korean women aged between 15 and 54 and married with under age children earn less than 2 million won every month, according to data released by Statistics Korea.The data revealed that there are 5.063 million married and working women with children under 18 as of April this year. Among them, 49.1 percent earned a monthly wage of less than 2 million won ($1,780). This was 10.8 percentage points higher than the percentage of overall workers -- both men and women -- earning less
Dec. 10, 2018
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[News Focus] Korea expanding cooperation with Latin America on cruise-logistics ports
SEJONG - South Korea is expanding its economic partnership with South and Central American countries, which involves co-development projects on maritime affairs in the logistics and tourism segment.Earlier this year Korea signed a free trade agreement with five Central American countries -- Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama -- which made it the first Asian country to reach the deal with a Central American trade bloc. And Guatemala is set to join the bloc after the bilateral
Dec. 10, 2018
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Korea to be world's top 5G smartphone-using nation till 2020
South Korea is forecast to have the highest proportion of fifth-generation smartphone usage in the world over the next couple of years, a market tracker said Sunday. According to Strategy Analytics' Service Provider Group, the adoption rate of 5G smartphones in South Korea is expected to reach 5.5 percent in 2019 and 10.9 percent in 2020, which will be the highest level among major global nations. The estimate is based upon the fact that South Korea is to commercialize 5G services in March next
Dec. 9, 2018
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Despite 6-year low growth, Korea's GNI to surpass US$30,000
South Korea's per capita income is likely to surpass US$30,000 this year, though the economy is forecast to record its lowest growth rate in six years, observers said Sunday.Gross national income is expected to reach $31,243 in 2018, up from last year's $29,745, according to market observers, who based their calculation on income and foreign exchange data from the Bank of Korea . It will have been 12 years since the country broke the $20,000 mark in 2006. Last year, South Korea placed 31st in th
Dec. 9, 2018
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83 percent of Korean workers suffer year-end stress: poll
Eight in 10 South Korean employees said they feel more stressed around the year-end season, a study showed Friday. According to the survey conducted by an online job recruitment company, 83.5 percent of the respondents said they are under more pressure at the end of the year than other times. The company surveyed a total of 947 adult workers between 20 and 69 years old. A quarter of the respondents who feel stressed at the end of the year said they feel insecure about a lack of achievements, whi
Dec. 7, 2018
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Korea's exports expected to surpass $600b this year
South Korea's exports are expected to exceed $600 billion for the first time this year on upbeat sales of memory chips, machinery and petrochemical products, the trade ministry said Friday. Outbound shipments were expected to reach the benchmark on Dec. 27, which would make the nation the world's sixth-largest exporter, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said. Total trade volume is set to reach over $1.1 trillion by the end of this year, the ministry said. The nation's trade volume
Dec. 7, 2018
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Major foreign IBs cut S. Korea’s growth outlook
Major foreign investment banks revised down their forecasts for South Korea’s economic growth for this year and 2019, citing unfavorable conditions both at home and abroad, a report showed Thursday.According to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance, the forecast by nine major global IBs as of end-November averaged 2.7 percent for this year and 2.6 percent for next year, down 0.1 percentage point each from the figures presented a month earlier.Nomura, for example, downgra
Dec. 6, 2018
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[Monitor] Unemployment rate for Koreans in late 20s more than double that of Japan
The unemployment rate for South Koreans in their late 20s has escalated rapidly since 2010, and 2017 saw the highest increase since 2000, according to data released by the Bank of Korea. The proportion of jobless Koreans between the ages of 25 and 29 hit 9.5 percent as of 2017, as compared with only 6.9 percent in 2010. That number has risen consistently since 2000, two years after the financial crisis hit the nation. Japan, where the economy is recovering and the working-age population is on th
Dec. 6, 2018
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S. Korea logs current account surplus for 80th straight month
South Korea recorded a current account surplus in October for the 80th straight month on the back of solid goods exports, central bank data showed Thursday.The country’s current account surplus stood at $9.19 billion as of end-October, up sharply from $5.72 billion a year earlier, keeping in the black since March 2012, according to preliminary data released by the Bank of Korea.However, the figure decreased slightly from the previous month when it reached a 12-month high at $10.83 billion.
Dec. 6, 2018
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[News Focus] Seoul apartment prices face downhill after touching unprecedented ceiling
SEJONG -- Apartment prices in Seoul, which have continued to shoot up at since the latter half of 2016, are estimated to have hit an all-time high during the first half of 2018, causing a fears of a price bubble.Though the government unveiled a series of measures to curb the “abnormal” housing prices, ordinary households and many property experts agree that these efforts came too late and had no effect. A normalization in Seoul’s housing market will almost certainly take a long
Dec. 6, 2018
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Conglomerates claim 61% of Korea's corporate operating profit
Conglomerates with assets worth over 10 trillion won ($8.9 billion) accounted for 61 percent of combined operating profit of all South Korean businesses last year, government data showed Thursday.The data underscored that Asia's fourth-largest economy is still dominated by conglomerates, known here as chaebol.In 2017, the country had 2,191 big companies control such large assets. They accounted for a mere 0.3 percent of the country's 666,163 companies, according to the data compiled by Statistic
Dec. 6, 2018
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Rising housing prices have weaker wealth effect in Korea: report
Rising housing prices have rarely encouraged home owners in South Korea to expand their spending due mainly to worries over how they will cope with old age, a report said Thursday.According to the report by the Bank of Korea, a 1 percentage point rise in housing prices leads to a 0.02 percentage point gain in consumption growth by people who own property. The statistics were based on data between 2013-2016 when South Korea experienced a real estate market boom. By age group, the consumption elas
Dec. 6, 2018
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Tax office names more than 7,100 people and companies that are evading taxes
Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan is among thousands of people who failed to pay more than 200 million won ($179,000) in dues, tax authorities said Wednesday.The National Tax Service made public the names of 5,021 people and 2,136 companies, and the amount of money they have not paid, on its website in an attempt to pressure them into paying their dues. The agency said those on the list owed the government a combined 5.24 trillion won in taxes.Among them, 4,300 people -- or 60.1 percen
Dec. 5, 2018
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[Monitor] Consumer prices in Nov. increase 2% on-year
The consumer price index in November reached 104.73, up 2.0 percent from a year ago, according to data released by Statistics Korea.Prices of agricultural goods rose 14.4 percent on-year, while livestock product prices dropped 1.5 percent. Due to reduced fuel surcharges, prices of industrial goods dropped. But as the impact from last year’s cut in gas prices diminished, overall consumer prices continued to increase within the 2 percent range in November for the second consecutive month, th
Dec. 5, 2018
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Labor resistance puts Gwangju work project into crisis
GWANGJU -- The Gwangju job project, intended to create thousands of new low-paying jobs to help fight unemployment in provincial areas, appears to have hit a snag in the face of resistance from laborers, officials said Wednesday.The project calls for Hyundai Motor to build a new assembly plant in Gwangju, about 330 kilometers south of Seoul, and hire up to 12,000 employees at half the wages the automaker's workers currently receive at its main plant in Ulsan, with the Gwangju government offering
Dec. 5, 2018
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NPS’ stock holding value slips W19tr this year
The National Pension Service, South Korea’s largest institutional investor, saw the total value of its stock holdings drop drastically this year despite a slight increase in the number of investment targets, data showed Wednesday.The overall downturn was attributable to the stock market trend which has recently been reeling under uncertainties such as trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, as well as the prolonged slow growth of the domestic economy. According to local corpora
Dec. 5, 2018
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Online shopping hits record high in October
The total value of online shopping in South Korea reached a record high in October, a government data showed Wednesday, in the latest sign that a growing number of South Koreans are using computers or mobile devices to buy things ranging from clothes to electronic goods.Total online transactions reached 10.04 trillion won ($9.03 billion) in October, up 36 percent, or 2.65 trillion won, from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The reading marked the highest amount
Dec. 5, 2018
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US-China trade war poses biggest threat to Korean financial system: poll
Escalating trade tensions between the United States and China are the biggest risk that South Korea's financial system is now facing, a central bank survey showed Wednesday.According to the poll of 86 market watchers, financial officials, researchers and investors conducted by the Bank of Korea, 81 percent said intensifying trade disputes are the biggest problem that could harm stability in the financial system. South Korea is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world, as it depend
Dec. 5, 2018
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Economic downturn, aging population push up youth unemployment rate: report
An economic slowdown and a rapidly aging population have resulted in more South Korean youths being jobless in recent years, a report said Wednesday.South Korea's unemployment rate of those in their late 20s was 9.5 percent as of 2017, up sharply from 6.9 percent in 2010, according to the report published by the Bank of Korea. The report noted that the steep gain in the youth jobless rate came as South Korea's gross domestic product growth number dropped to below 4 percent after 2011.Its GDP gre
Dec. 5, 2018