SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of South Korea’s fine dust pollution during the winter months comes from China, according to new government data underscoring the persistent cross-border nature of the country’s air quality problem. A report released Wednesday by the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) found that 55 percent of ultrafine [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s imports of coffee beans jumped sharply from a year earlier in 2024, with imports this year widely expected to reach an all-time high, customs data showed Thursday. Imports of coffee beans, including both raw and roasted products, came to US$1.24 billion last year, up 13 percent from $1.1 billion the previous year, [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea ranked second after Vietnam in per capita consumption of “ramyeon,” or instant noodles, in 2024, a global industry association said Thursday. South Korea’s overall ramyeon consumption reached 4.1 billion units last year, ranking eighth worldwide, while its per person consumption stood at 79.2 in the country of [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Cigarette smoking rates among men in their 30s have slumped by 19.5 percentage points over the past nine years amid steady declines among some other age groups, government data showed Thursday. The figure stood at 28.5 percent in 2024, compared with 48 percent in 2015, according to an annual [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Stalking crimes have increased in the past three years since the enactment of the anti-stalking law in 2021, a lawmaker said, citing government data. The number of such crimes stood at 13,283 last year, up 26 percent from 10,545 cases in 2022, according to the Office for Government Policy [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s leading food delivery platform Baedal Minjok (Baemin) is seeing surging demand for its “One Bowl” service, which targets the country’s rapidly expanding population of single-person households. According to the company, cumulative orders for the service — launched in April — exceeded 10 million by the first week [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The value of U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoins held by South Korea’s major cryptocurrency exchanges has more than doubled over the past year, underscoring the rapid expansion of digital asset trading — and prompting renewed concerns over unmonitored capital flows. According to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Rep. [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s middle-aged population — once considered the backbone of the nation — is increasingly dying alone, as government attention and welfare programs remain focused on the young and elderly. According to data from the National Data Office and the National Assembly Research Service, 74.8 percent of the 21,897 [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Drinking and depression are on the rise among Seoul residents, with women also showing an increase in smoking over the past four years, according to a new report highlighting widening gender differences in public health. The Seoul Foundation of Women and Family said in its latest study, “Health Status of [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – Nearly 60 percent of South Koreans feel a sense of anxiety about falling behind the trend of using generative artificial intelligence (AI) models to help with investments, a survey showed Monday. According to the poll by the Korea Press Foundation on 1,000 South Koreans, 59.1 percent of respondents expressed [...]