Strikes by railway and subway workers as well as Hyundai Motor workers are taking a further toll on the nation‘s economy, already suffering from continued low growth in the wake of weak consumption and exports.As the strikes have continued for several days, damage has begun to snowball due to the partial paralysis of car production and logistics networks, industry watchers said Thursday.Financial damages from the strikes by unionized workers of Hyundai Motor, the country’s biggest carmaker, have

The following is the second in a series of articles featuring the impact of the landmark anti-corruption law that took effect Wednesday. -- Ed.

Labor strikes trouble struggling economy

Cancer remained the leading cause of death in South Korea in 2015, with fatalities from pneumonia rising sharply amid a rapidly aging population, government data showed Tuesday. A total of 76,855 people died of cancer last year, which accounted for 27.9 percent of all deaths reported last year, according to the data provided by Statistics Korea.

India overtook South Korea as the world’s fifth largest producer of automobiles in the first seven months of this year, industry data showed Sunday. It is the first time in 12 years that South Korea has ceded the No. 5 spot. If the trend continues, South Korea is in danger of losing the No. 5 spot on an annual basis this year.

Deteriorations in jobs and other recent economic data are stoking fears of a crisis in South Korea, but experts say the economy is more likely to enter a long and gradual spiral downward, rather than a short-term, cyclical crisis. Youth unemployment, long-term unemployment, bankruptcy and corporate credit ratings downgrades are some of the indicators that have fallen to levels last seen in the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998, which sent Korea to near-bankruptcy. Some see them as reinforcing

Competition between South Korean exporters and their Chinese rivals has been intensifying in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations over the past years, a report showed Sunday.The report by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade showed that Chinese exporters are steadily catching up with South Korean competitors in the ASEAN market, especially on technology goods.The report cited the "export competition index," which measures the extent to which two countries export

Finding one’s first job can be a difficult task. But in a country where over 70 percent of high school graduates advance to four-year universities and the economy is visibly slowing with a bag of some serious problems, competition is reaching new heights. “With a gloomy business outlook, companies aren’t in a big hiring mood this year,” said Song Won-geun of the Federation of Korean Industries. According to its survey of some 201 major companies in Korea this week, nearly 50 percent plan a cut i