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 [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s imports of key consumer goods from Japan fell for the seventh consecutive month in January as a boycott of Japanese goods has dragged out amid their monthslong feud over their shared wartime history, data showed Tuesday. Imports of consumer goods from Japan dipped 35.9 percent from a [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of foreigners staying in South Korea increased nearly 7 percent last year, topping 2.5 million for the first time, government data showed Monday. According to data released by the Ministry of Justice, 2,524,656 foreigners were residing in the country as of the end of 2019, marking a [...]
JEJU, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The amount of land owned by foreigners on South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju decreased slightly last year, official data showed Sunday. According to the data released by Jeju’s provincial government, foreigners owned 22,548,255 square meters in 14,644 land on Jeju Island as of the end of last [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – A record 220 million spectators visited movie theaters in South Korea last year, helping a record five films garner more than 10 million viewers each, a report showed Saturday. According to a report on the South Korean movie industry in 2019 published by the Korean Film Council, the country’s [...]