Only 32 percent of South Korean senior citizens benefit from the public pension system, stoking concern over financial difficulties for the aged population, data showed Thursday. The proportion of public pensioners aged 65 and older stood at 31.8 percent at the end of 2011, according to the data by Statistics Korea and the Financial Supervisory Service. Beneficiaries of the National Pension Service accounted for 28.3 percent of the elderly, with 3 percent benefiting from the pension fund for civ

Korea’s imports of luxury goods from the European Union have surged since the implementation of a bilateral free trade deal a year earlier, customs data showed Thursday.Korea imported a total of $1.24 billion worth of wrist watches, bags, shoes, perfumes and cosmetic products from the EU between July 1, 2011, and June 30 this year, according to the data by the Korea Customs Service.That amount is up 21.68 percent from $1.02 billion worth of imports of such relatively high-priced products during

Experts predict sentiment will worsen in latter half: KCCI surveyMore than half of Seoulites and the people residing in satellite cities said vitalization of the real estate market is necessary, a survey showed on Thursday.According to a poll by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 54 percent of the 500 adults and 88 property experts said a boom in the real estate market is needed.About 20 percent of the respondents said vitalization is unnecessary while 25 percent of them did not pick ei

Looks may not kill, but they can get you fired.That's what a Northern California yoga instructor found after leading sessions at Facebook's Menlo Park campus.The instructor, Alice Van Ness, said she got fired after she glared at a Facebook employee who texted during a class in June."The whole point for most people going to yoga is that it's disconnecting from the outside world," said Van Ness, a 3

South Korea's central bank unexpectedly cut the key interest rate on Thursday, underscoring its urgency to cushion the bitter impact of the eurozone debt crisis on the local economy.Bank of Korea Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his six fellow policymakers lowered the benchmark 7-day repo rate by a quarter percentage point to 3 percent for July. It marked the first rate cut since February 2009.The decision

South Korean stocks started a tad higher on Thursday on foreign buying, analysts said.After opening 0.08 percent higher, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) climbed 0.34 points, or 0.02 percent, to 1,826.73 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Market bellwether Samsung Electronics gained 0.36 percent and its smaller electronics rival LG Electronics rose 1 percent.Leading carmaker

The U.S. deficit in trade with South Korea has continued to jump since their free trade agreement went into effect in March, according to U.S. government data released Wednesday.The U.S. imported $5.4 billion in goods from South Korea in May, a 5.2-percent increase from the same period last year, the Commerce Department said.Exports to South Korea totaled $3.4 billion, down 6.4 percent from the pr

The government may reconsider its plan to resume whaling if there are other means to study marine mammals in Korean waters, officials said on Wednesday.Amid mounting criticism from conservationists, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that it will decide whether to push for the project after consulting with members of the International Whaling Commission.While the Fisheries Ministry had sought to tender a plan on whaling to the IWC scientific subcommittee this No

Samsung Electronics and POSCO ― the nation’s two leading players in the electronic and steel sectors, respectively ― will team up to develop new materials specially designed to be used for electronic home appliances, company officials said Wednesday. Yoon Boo-keun, Samsung Electronics’ president of TVs and appliances, and POSCO vice president Kwon Oh-joon are scheduled to attend the signing event of a memorandum of understanding held at Samsung’s headquarters in southern Seoul on Friday. A POSCO

Korea plans to introduce measures to help establish a new industry dealing with so-called shale gas that will also help ensure the country’s leadership in the global market for the energy resource, the government said Wednesday.A market for the previously inaccessible fossil fuel is currently almost non-existent globally as shale gas, or natural gas deposited in shale, had been considered uneconomical due to the lack of technologies to extract it.“We must all be aware that the world stands at th