South Korean Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Kim Yung-rok said Thursday he would not concede to any demand for an increase in rice imports from the US when talks begin regarding modifications to the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. The agriculture minister said the farming industry had been struggling since the FTA came into effect five years ago, as Korea’s rice prices continue t...

South Korea on Thursday created the post of trade minister in a move to strengthen its negotiating capacity ahead of crucial talks with the United States on revising the bilateral free trade deal. The move is part of a bill endorsed by parliament on government reorganization on the same day, and came days after US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer called for a special joint committee meetin...

The US government this week released a 17-page summary of its proposal to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement that included a ban on currency manipulation, which is also expected to impact looming talks on amending the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. The Office of the United States Trade Representative on Monday issued the NAFTA amendment summary looking to reduce the US trade de...

Per-store operating profit at convenience stores in South Korea fell in 2015 as the market became more crowded, government data showed Thursday. An average per-store operating profit at franchised convenience stores stood at 18.6 million won ($16,523) in 2015, down 17 percent from a year ago, according to the data by the Statistics Korea. The number of convenience stores, however, rose 12.7 per...

South Korea's finance chief said Thursday that he will try to shift the country's economic paradigm to try to address chronic low growth and the deepening social divide. The country's central bank has lately raised its growth outlook for the gross domestic product to 2.8 percent for 2017, up 0.2 percentage point from its estimate released in April. The Bank of Korea said it expects the economy ...

South Korea's new agriculture minister has said the Seoul government will not make concessions in the farm sector in talks with the United States to amend a bilateral free trade agreement. In an interview with Yonhap News Agency arranged Tuesday, Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Kim Yung-rok also signaled his willingness to reduce imports of rice. The US has notified South Korea of ...

South Koreans took an average 5.5 local trips last year, spending 586,495 won ($522), travel-related data showed Thursday. Data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said among 43.9 million people aged 15 and over, 39.29 million, or 89.5 percent, traveled domestically last year, up 1.6 percentage points from 2015. The travelers made an average 5.51 trips during the year, 9.4 days in ...

More unemployed young people are using their free time for personal activities rather than actively searching for jobs, data analysis showed Thursday, a trend that may be a sign that they have given up finding work. Statistics Korea took a supplementary survey last month on 1.47 million young people between 15 to 34 to ask how they spend their time. The survey results show that 35.4 percent wer...

JEJU ISLAND, Jeju Province -- Amid growing tension in the corporate community over the government’s chaebol reform drive and planned minimum wage hike, the head of the nation’s top business lobbying organization Wednesday called for voluntary changes and efforts to create more jobs. Stressing the public role of businesses in the South Korean economy, Park Yong-maan, chairman of the Korea Chamber...

South Korea's top financial regulator said Wednesday he will be more active in reining in household debt, calling it the biggest risk facing the nation's economy. Choi Jong-ku, the newly appointed chairman of the Financial Services Commission, made the remarks in his inauguration speech earlier in the day. The former deputy finance minister, who served at the finance ministry for about three de...

South Korea’s producer prices fell slightly for a fourth straight month in June, reflecting the recent drop in oil and raw material prices, the nation’s central bank data showed Wednesday. The producer price index as of the end of June stood at 101.79, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous month and 0.9 percentage points up from the end of last year, according to provisional data released...

Concerns have been raised that a set of policies being shaped by the Moon Jae-in administration will result in cutting deep into the competitiveness and efficiency of the Korean economy by aggravating its high-cost structure. Economists are beginning to ring alarms over this possibility, noting the country has already seen its major industries losing their competitive edge in the global market i...

A public servant paid an average of 88.53 million won ($78,868) a year, an amount equal to the top 7 percentile of the nation's average income, according to the Korea Taxpayers' Association. Based on basic salary information disclosed by the government and expenditure analysis of a ward office in Seoul picked as a representative sample, it costs about 179.9 million won a year to keep a public se...

A tough market is making it harder for young people to find work with new jobseekers taking up to a year to land a position, government data showed Wednesday. According to Statistics Korea, the number of college graduates, dropouts and high-school graduates stood at some 4.82 million in May. Of them, about 4.18 million, or 86.8 percent, were employed or held a job at least once. The ratio of yo...

South Korea's central bank said Wednesday that it has put more than 290 million dormant coins back into general circulation. People brought out some 296 million coins worth 40.8 billion won ($36.3 million) to have them changed into banknotes during the nationwide collection campaign in June, according to the Bank of Korea. This marked a 10.6-percent increase in the number of reclaimed coins vis...