SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — About one out of five North Korean defectors experienced discrimination in South Korea last year mostly due to “cultural” differences, a survey showed Wednesday. According to the survey conducted by the Hana Foundation, a state-run agency that helps resettlement of North Korean defectors, 17.2 percent of 3,000 defectors polled [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s electricity generation fell for the first time in more than two decades in 2019 amid an economic slowdown and favorable weather conditions, data showed Tuesday. The amount of electricity generated by the nation’s power plants came to 562,239 gigawatt hours (GWh) last year, down 1.5 percent from [...]
SEJONG, Feb. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s total arable land dropped 0.9 in 2019 from a year earlier as some rice paddies gave way to residential areas and public facilities, data showed Monday. The country’s arable land totaled 1.58 million hectares last year, down 15,000 hectares from the previous year, according to the data [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean market for coffee drinks expanded more than 2 percent in 2019 thanks mainly to strong sales of bottled products, a market tracker said Monday. Sales of coffee drinks came to 1.32 trillion won (US$1.1 billion) last year, up 2.2 percent from the previous year, according to [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of coronavirus infections in South Korea are linked to the homegrown religious group of Shincheonji, data showed Sunday. The religious organization, known as Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, has been suspected as a hotbed for the recent surge in infections [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Overseas card spending by South Koreans fell for the first time in a decade in 2019 amid a slowdown in the number of outbound travelers and a weak local currency, central bank data showed Friday. South Korean people spent US$18.9 billion using cards abroad last year, down 1.7 percent [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — While it takes an average of 10 years for workers at a large company to reach a salary of 70 million won (US$58,150) per year, it has been confirmed that employees of small and mid-sized companies have to work for more than 25 years to reach a similar salary [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of Korean companies last year was the highest in 12 years, a recent report revealed. According to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the number of M&As reached 766 last year, up 64 from 702 in 2018. It was the highest number since [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Over the past two years, a growing number of South Korean businesses have introduced so-called ‘blind recruiting’ practices, where companies hire employees without being informed of their academic, geographic, and gender information. Saramin, an online job portal, conducted a survey of 821 companies, 31.5 percent of which said they [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The average monthly wage of North Korean defectors living in South Korea exceeded 2 million won (US$1,684) for the first time last year, the unification ministry said Tuesday. Defectors earned 2.04 million won (US$1,720) per month on average in 2019, compared with 1.89 million won in 2018, according to [...]