The number of jobless people last month reached its highest level since 1999, while the government’s unemployment allowance payments also hit a record high, government data showed Sunday.According to data compiled by the Korea Employment Information Service, the monthly average number of South Koreans without a job -- referring to those who have been out of job for four weeks or longer -- stood at 1.13 million as of end-August this year, up 45,000 from a year earlier and marking the highes

THE SHAPE OF HIS HEART -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju, along with South Korean officials, pose for cameras with the so-called “finger heart” gesture against the backdrop of Cheonji Lake on top of Mount Paekdu on Sept. 20. The related photos, describing the last day of the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last week, were released by Seoul’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Sunday. (Cheong Wa Dae)

President Moon Jae-in on Sunday left for New York on a five-day trip to attend the 73rd United Nations General Assembly and to meet with US counterpart Donald Trump over peninsular developments, including the latest inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang.Moon left the country via Seoul Air Base on Sunday afternoon, and is set to land in New York on Sunday late afternoon, according to Cheong Wa Dae.  President Moon Jae-in and First Lade Kim Jung-sook on Sunday board the plane headed for New York,

A record-high number of job-seekers have given up on finding a job, amid a feeble employment market and slowing economic growth, government data showed Sunday.The monthly average number of “discouraged job-seekers” -- referring to those with no signs of job seeking for at least four weeks over the past year -- stood at 510,000 as of end-August, up 5.4 percent from the same period last year, according to Statistics Korea. This was also the highest figure since the government started c

The uncertainty concerning South Korea’s economic growth and economic policies reached the highest level in 15 months, global data showed Sunday.According to the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, Asia’s fourth-largest economy recorded 155.15 in July, the highest since 165.4 in April last year.The global index, conducted on 20 key economies across the world, also reached the highest since March last year, standing at 227.77, data showed. The index, developed by three US-based ec

A senior lawmaker of the main opposition party faced seizure over charges of accessing and leaking confidential government data on the state budget, prosecutorial officials said Friday.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office seized and searched the office of Rep. Shim Jae-cheol, a fifth-term lawmaker of the conservative Liberty Korea Party, whose aides are suspected of leaking information from the government’s digital budget accounting system.“Please gather immediately a

Once considered an underdeveloped area on the outskirts of the crowded, boisterous main area of Hongdae, Mangwon is enjoying its day in the sun as a fashionable area of northwestern Seoul, with trendy eateries and also a grasp of local life.At the core of the Mangwon vogue was the neighborhood’s traditional market, long appreciated by residents.Having started off as a cluster of small stores in the 1970s in the backstreets of the neighborhood, the Mangwon Traditional Market gained its current st

Fired up by the thawing peninsular mood built on the latest inter-Korean summit, banks here have buckled down on establishing business in the North in the near future, their initial focus fixed on the resumption of the Kaesong industrial park and Kumgangsan tours.Steering the move are the state-run banks that strive to win an upper hand in infrastructure financing, as well as Woori Bank and NH NongHyup Bank, which had operated businesses in the joint operations zones in the past.On Wednesday and

The confirmation hearing held Wednesday for Sung Yun-mo, the nominee for minister of trade, industry and energy, pivoted mostly on the government’s plan to phase out nuclear energy and the potential impact of that plan on the nation’s electricity rates.While Sung and the ruling Democratic Party advocated major changes to the current energy-supply paradigm, the largely conservative opposition camp accused the nominee of flip-flopping from his earlier support for nuclear power.“T

Starting next year, expressway rest stops will have drive-through stores, as well as mobile preorder and pickup services, as part of the government’s plan to support small businesses and revitalize regional economies.The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korea Expressway Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a mid- and long-term innovation plan for expressway service facilities, in a bid to foster the rest areas into business hubs for young entrepreneurs by 2022.Under a road map to cr

The tension concerning the country’s key interest rate hike is expected to peak this week, in the wake of the government‘s latest set of additional measures to curb real estate speculation.While the government seeks to tighten the money market through a possible policy rate hike within the year, the central bank continued to dither over the decision, citing sluggish economic indexes.Further unnerving the hawkish observers here is the largely anticipated rate hike of the US Federal Re

The South Korean government on Thursday announced it would again raise the comprehensive real estate tax rate for owners of high-priced residences and of multiple properties, as part of a further attempt to rein in skyrocketing housing prices.According to the latest action plan, those who own multiple properties in bubble-prone zones will face real estate taxes as high as 3.2 percent, officials said. This additional tax hike comes on the heels of a government decision in July to increase real es

Amid an ever-worsening job market and lower-than-expected growth, South Korea’s youth unemployment rate reached its highest level since the country’s financial crisis situation in the late 1990s, government data showed Wednesday.According to a Statistics Korea report on employment trends, the number of newly employed people stood at 26.9 million in August, up 3,000 from a year earlier. This on-year rise was the lowest since the 10,000 decrease recorded in January 2010, when the

South Korea aims to create some 101,000 new jobs in the biohealth, software and intellectual property sectors by 2022, seeking to respond to an aging society, boost youth employment and enhance the nation’s corporate competitiveness, according to a government panel.The presidential job committee on Tuesday held its seventh meeting and decided to inject some 618.7 billion won ($549.6 million) into the related budget next year.“The biohealth sector is a booming industry amid an aging society, whil

A former senior official of the market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service has been arrested for colluding with a private money lender in rigging the stock price of his company, prosecutors said Monday.The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said that it arrested a former deputy governor of the FSS, identified by his surname Park, along with a private lender surnamed Seo, on charges of breaching the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act.Park, who is also the form

In the global market, gold has mostly been viewed from a monetary policy perspective as its value is generally in inverse proportion to the interest rate trend, offering higher alternative values when other investments are relatively bearish.But gold and other precious metals are increasingly operating like industrial commodities, due to their diversifying product relevance, according to an executive official of a German-based global technology group specializing in precious metals management. “

South Korea’s current account surplus reached a yearly high in July on the back of strong global trade and sturdy growth of the local semiconductors business, central bank data showed Thursday.Also, the travel account deficit contracted from a year earlier amid a rise of inbound travelers from China and Japan, as well as a slowdown in the number of outbound travelers.Seoul’s current account surplus stood at $8.76 billion as of end-July, up from $7.25 billion in the previous year, acc

The trade volume of lump sum retail orders on South Korea’s secondary bourse Kosdaq surged this year on the back of growing demand for biopharmaceuticals, data showed Wednesday.According to the country’s stock operator Korea Exchange, the number of individual purchasers’ orders amounting to 100 million won ($90,000) or more at a time totaled 12,499 as of the end of August, up 161.21 percent from the same period last year.Purchases of more than 10,000 shares also moved up 15.5 p

South Korea’s major banks saw their household loan balance climb at the fastest pace in almost two years in August, propelled by the mortgage loan uptrend amid the robust real estate market here, said industry officials on Tuesday.The household loan balance of the nation’s top five banks -- KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, KEB Hana and Nonghyup -- stood at 552.39 trillion won ($495.7 billion) as of end-August, up 4.65 trillion won from a month earlier. This on-month increase was visibly h

South Korea is facing another set of brawls this year concerning taxation equity and wealth distribution, as the government and ruling party signaled at further toughening tax rules for affluent property owners, according to officials Monday.Detailed prospects, however, remain unclear as related ministries held different stances over the reduction of benefits for lease business operators -- an action that may deliver a blow upon the government’s policy credibility.“We will begin disc