The Transport Ministry plans to build a network of smart expressways that will include new sections of road where electric vehicles can be charged on the go, officials said Tuesday.Under the plan, the government will build an additional 1,000 kilometers of expressway, extending the total length in the country to 5,131 kilometers by 2020. This will create a complete network in which nearly 96 percent of the country’s population will be able to access an expressway within 30 minutes from their hom

It costs a company an average of 4.33 million won ($3,852) a month to hire an employee, including the wage, major insurance coverage and other allowances, the Employment and Labor Ministry’s research showed Sunday.In the fiscal year of 2015, the average monthly labor cost spent by 3,388 surveyed companies with at least 10 employees surged on-year by 2.4 percent.This included direct costs, which refers to wage and indirect expenses, as well as indirect costs which includes severance pay, expenses

Unlike the declining consumption of hard liquors, fruit-flavored soft alcohol is gaining popularity apparently due to increased social awareness of healthy drinking, a government report showed last week.Social gatherings over drinking beer and soju have long been considered part of Korean culture, but that is gradually fading as a growing number of Koreans tend to prefer soft alcohol in consideration of health, according to the report. This year, Koreans aged 15 or older drank 4.9 glasses of bee

A magnitude 6 earthquake shook central Italy early on Wednesday, followed hours later by a magnitude 6.8 temblor in Myanmar. The death toll from a powerful earthquake that shook central Italy rose to 247 on Thursday and an earthquake struck central Myanmar on Wednesday, killing at least four people and damaging buildings and ancient monuments, authorities said.Here is a list of some of the world‘s deadliest earthquakes since 2000

Korea Electronic Power Corp. has suffered a deficit in its investment business while it has drawn massive business from the power rate hike and the increase in the demand for power, data showed Wednesday. According to the National Assembly and KEPCO, the state-run company’s sales rose by 11.4 percent to 483,655 gigawatt-hour last year over the past five years while the revenue soared by 44.3 percent to 54 trillion won ($48 billion).The power rate, in the meantime, increased by nearly 30 percent

Consumers who buy products directly from overseas sellers found prices to be about 30 percent lower than when buying from Korean sellers, according to data from a survey by the Korea Consumer Agency.The KCA survey asked 1,000 consumers who had bought products directly from overseas sellers in the past year. Four-fifths of respondents said they used direct shopping because of lower prices. According to the survey, the highest discounts achieved through direct shopping reached 36.5 percent for chi