SEJONG -- The number of small companies in South Korea expanded nearly 5 percent in 2020 from a year earlier despite the pandemic, but their profit fell sharply, government data showed Tuesday. The country had 2,902,000 companies with fewer than five workers as of the end of 2020, up 4.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Startups. The largest number of such companies were retailers and who

SEJONG -- The number of businesses in South Korea rose nearly 18 percent over the past five years as almost all industrial sectors posted gains, data showed Tuesday. Asia's fourth-largest economy had a total of 6,013,000 businesses as of the end of 2020, up 17.8 percent from five years earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. One-man operations accounted for the biggest proportion of the total with 79 percent, followed by corporations with 15.4 percent and other establishments wit

A Seoul court has rejected a Hong Kong-based private equity firm's request for Kyobo Life Insurance Co. to carry out its obligation with regard to a put option that it has been trying to exercise, the South Korean insurer said Tuesday. The ruling appears to have removed a major hurdle for Kyobo Life's push to list shares on the local stock bourse in the first half of next year, according to company officials. In October 2018, Affinity Equity Partners exercised a put option on 6 million shares

South Korea's oldest coal-powered plant will be shut down for good this week, the energy ministry said Tuesday, in line with the government's plan to shift toward renewable energy and to reduce fine dust. Honam Coal Power Plant, located in Yeosu, 450 kilometers south of Seoul, will stop operations Friday, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The plant has been in operation since 1973. The closure is part of the Moon Jae-in administration's plan to phase out 10 aging coal po

UN special rapporteurs on human rights expressed concerns over the October arrest of the leader of a major South Korean umbrella labor union, and the government has countered that his arrest was warranted because he organized illegal rallies in disregard of antivirus rules. The special rapporteurs sent a letter to the South Korean government on Oct. 22, saying Yang Kyeung-soo, the leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), legitimately exercised his rights to freedom of expressi

The annual salary of President Moon Jae-in for 2022 was set at 240.6 million won ($202,815) as the Cabinet approved the personnel and management ministry's pay raise plan for public servants Tuesday. According to the plan, public servants will get a 1.4 percent raise for their salary for 2022. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum will get an annual salary of 186.5 million won, while deputy prime ministers and chief state auditor will receive 141.1 million won next year. The annual salary of ministers

The government will lift restrictions on sales of urea solution as the supply of the essential fluid used in diesel vehicles to cut emissions has been stabilized, the finance ministry said Tuesday. South Korea had struggled to cope with a shortage of urea solution after China imposed export curbs on urea to ease domestic supply bottlenecks. The government has imposed curbs on where and how much of the solution can be sold in a way to ease its shortage. Those restrictions will be lifted starti

South Korea's military on Tuesday reported 28 additional COVID-19 cases, including 27 breakthrough infections, raising the total caseload among its personnel to 3,181. Of the new cases, 15 are from the Army, seven from the Navy, four from the Air Force and two from the Marine Corps, according to the defense ministry. Currently, 268 military personnel are under treatment. Of the total military caseload, 1,385 are breakthrough cases. (Yonhap)

Police launched an investigation Tuesday into allegations that the wife of Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, falsified credentials on her resume for teaching jobs. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has taken over the complaints filed against Yoon's wife, Kim Keon-hee, and planned to hold an interview Wednesday afternoon with civic group officials who filed the complaints, officials said. Two civic groups filed the complaints, claiming Kim f

The Korea-Arab Society held a logo contest commemorating next year’s 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations of South Korea with Jordan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia on Dec. 22 to enhance mutual cooperation. 　 The contest was sponsored by Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and co-hosted by the Korea-Arab Society, Korean embassies in Jordan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia and Jordanian, Moroccan and Saudi Arabian embassies in Korea.　 According to the Korea-Arab Society, 154 logo designs fro

Graduate students from University of Asia and the Pacific win grand prize

South Korea’s exports of kimchi climbed nearly 14 percent in the first eight months of 2021 on growing overseas demand for healthier food amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed. Outbound shipments of kimchi reached $111.5 million in the January-August period, up 13.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service and the food industry. In contrast, imports of kimchi shrank 9.7 percent on-year to $86.1 million over the cited period, resulting in

More than 22 million Afghans will suffer “acute food insecurity” this winter, UN agencies said, warning the already unstable country faces one of the world‘s worst humanitarian crises. The crisis is already bigger in scale than that facing Yemen or Syria, and worse than any food insecurity emergency apart from the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said. According to the statement issued by the World Food Program and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, one in two A

The Navy will receive an upgraded destroyer Tuesday, after nearly a year of refurbishment aimed at strengthening anti-submarine and other capabilities, the state arms procurement agency said. The 3,200-ton KDX-I destroyer, Eulji Mundeok, was sent for the upgrade in January. It is now equipped with the latest towed array sonar system designed to reinforce anti-submarine capabilities, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said. The destroyer is the third and last vessel to be ret