Senior citizens aged 65 or older made up more than 12 percent of South Korea's population this year, a report showed Monday, raising concerns the fast-aging demographic transition could pose a heavy drag on the country's economy.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the ratio of people belonging to the age group made up 12.2 percent of the country's population of about 50 million, up from 11.8 percent tallied in the previous year. The ratio is expected to keep growing in the decades to co

South Korea's labor productivity dropped slightly from a year earlier in the second quarter as labor input grew at a faster rate than total output, the government said Sunday.   The labor productivity index for all industries in the April-July period came to 98.6, down 0.3 percent from the same period in 2012, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.   Labor productivity is measured by dividing total industrial output by total labor input. The figure, however, excludes the fishin

The South Korean government is expected to introduce the so-called pay-as-you-go (paygo) system to help ensure its fiscal soundness while working to significantly boost its tax revenues, officials said Sunday.The paygo is a system widely practiced in the United States and other advanced countries where any increase in direct spending prompted by a new law or revision must be offset by other spending decreases or revenue increases, meaning any new law that requires government spending must find i

The head of the U.S. federal agency charged with investigating civil aviation accidents plans to visit Seoul next week for talks with South Korean officials as part of her Asia trip, an official said Friday.Deborah Hersman, chief of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday for talks with her South Korean counterpart as well as Yeo Hyung-koo, vice minister of land, infrastructure and transport, over the deadly crash of an Asiana jet in July.She also plans

South Korea’s figure skater Kim Yu-na topped the list of favored models for commercials, relegating other celebrities to far distances, a survey showed on Friday.According to the survey conducted by the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corp., Kim was the celebrity whom local consumers liked best in commercials, with 8.7 percent showing support for the Olympic gold medalist.The figure skater was also picked as the most favored advertisement model in 2009 and 2010. Actor-singer-emcee Lee Seung-gi follo

South Korea's national debt has been growing sharply over the past decades, data showed Friday, raising concerns that such ballooning debt could weigh on its fiscal health going forward. According to the data by the finance ministry, the country's national debt is projected to expand from 480.3 trillion won this year to 515.2 trillion won ($478.4 billion) next year. The debt projected for 2014 represents an 8.5-fold rise from 60.3 trillion won tallied in 1997. The country's national debt increas

South Korea's current account surplus narrowed in August from the previous month on smaller trade gains, but it logged a surplus for the 19th straight month, the central bank said Friday. The current account surplus reached $5.74 billion in August, down from $6.77 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade.The surplus narrowed in August from the previous month, but Korea has maintained a current account surp

South Korea is moving to provide incentives to foreign investors who create new jobs here, the government said Thursday.Under the plan approved at a meeting of the state committee on foreign investment, the government will soon revise its incentive system for foreign investors to provide additional benefits to those creating more jobs, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.Currently, foreign-invested areas are designated a foreign investment district, which leads to various ben

It is not a secret: Koreans love to drink.Whether it is for celebration or commiseration, a birthday party or a send-off for a colleague, the most popular phrase to invite someone to a special occasion seems to be “let’s go get a glass (of alcohol).”What goes in the glass, however, has recently undergone a transition. In the past, going for a drink was roughly equivalent to going to get drunk. This paved way for the popularity of the “poktanju (bomb-drink),” mixture of beer and other alcohol, us