Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol pledged Thursday to scrap the government's planned electricity rate hike if elected in March. Electricity prices are set to increase in April and October under a government scheme announced last month, leading to a 5.6 percent annual average increase in households' electricity bills. Yoon said the decision to raise the rate after the March 9 election was "political" and vowed to reverse the plan if elected. "It's an irrespons

South Korean builder Daewoo Engineering & Construction and Vietnam’s NBX Green Park, an affiliate of YSL Group, signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop the Nam Binh Xuyen Green Park Industrial Zone located in Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, the companies said Thursday. The NBX Green Park Industrial zone is a large-scale real estate development project authorized by the Vietnamese government last year. The plot of land of nearly 300 hectares will include industrial and commercial

The number of elementary and secondary school students in South Korea is expected to drop below 5 million for the first time in 2026, the government said Thursday, citing an ongoing decline of the school-age population. According to the Ministry of Education, the number of elementary, middle and high school students is expected to decrease each year, falling from 5.28 million this year to 5.21 million in 2023, 5.14 million in 2024 and 5.04 million in 2025. In 2026, when students born in 2007,

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk, the mastermind behind South Korea’s global phenomenon “Squid Game,” had said that he plans to make a story set in the near future. “I am planning something that is futuristic. I’ve done stories of the past and eccentric things that can happen in the present. I would like to make a social drama, which talks about the problems that we might face within the next 20-30 years,” Hwang said in a pretaped interview with Corea Image Communica

Minor opposition party’s election campaign in crisis as it struggles with single-digit support

South Koreans born after 1990 will not be able to claim their state pension if an overhaul of the current pension system is not carried out swiftly, a Seoul-based think tank said Thursday. With the nation’s state pension age remaining relatively low compared to other major economies and the lackluster amount of money being funneled into the fund, those set to receive the pension from 2055 will likely fail in claiming their contributions, a report by the Korea Economic Research Institute s

South Korean stocks retreated after a two-day increase Thursday, as investors worry rising inflation in the United States could hasten the Federal Reserve's tapering move. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 10.39 points, or 0.35 percent, to close at 2,962.09 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 597 million shares worth some 11.3 trillion won ($9.5 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 449 to 412. Institutions so

SEJONG -- South Korea was found to have lagged far behind major countries in the latest economic growth, data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed Thursday. According to the French-based organization, Korea’s gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent -- as a provisional figure -- in the third quarter of 2021, compared to the previous quarter. This placed Asia’s fourth largest-economy at No. 32 of the total 38 OECD members in the quarterly GDP growth,

Anyang City, located in Gyeonggi Province, is expecting big changes this year, such as expansion of the local job market, improvements in its railroad network, upcoming renovation projects and more. Mayor Choi Dae-ho addressed some important agenda for the city in his New Year’s message. Amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, Choi, who took the helm in July 2018, stressed community health to be the foremost agenda of the year, highlighting that the city would strengthen its disease contr

South Korea's military is capable of both detecting and intercepting what North Korea claims to be a hypersonic missile, Seoul's defense ministry said Thursday. Boo Seung-chan, the ministry's spokesperson, highlighted the military's readiness posture amid concerns the North's latest missile could dodge the combined missile defense system of South Korea and the United States. The North has claimed to have successfully conducted hypersonic missiles on Wednesday last week and Tuesday in an indica

Korean CMO mulls building more labs overseas, open to M&A opportunities

Presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea publicly apologized again for his party’s failure in controlling the housing crisis, promising regulatory reliefs to increase supply of new homes and thereby curb real estate prices. Lee said in a campaign event Thursday held at a reconstruction site in Nowon-gu, northern Seoul that he deeply regrets that his party failed in terms of control the real estate market, saying especially those who live in northern

Tech-savvy candidates preferred by businesses wanting to accelerate pandemic-triggered digitalization, says Manpower Korea