Trade volume between the two Koreas reached an all-time high last year despite the May 24, 2010, punitive sanctions on North Korea following Pyongyang’s deadly sinking of the South’s Cheonan warship, data by Seoul’s Unification Ministry showed.Inter-Korean trade surged 106.2 percent on-year to reach $2.34 billion. The rise was largely attributed to businesses at Gaeseong industrial park in the North’s border town.The volume of exchanges is expected to grow as the Seoul government recently announ

Samsung Electronics showed a decrease in smartphone sales while other players enjoyed an increase in the first quarter of this year, data showed Monday.According to Hong Kong’s Counterpoint Research, Samsung’s sales reached 83.3 million smartphones during the period, a 6.2 percent decrease from a year earlier.Meanwhile, other companies increased smartphone sales compared to last year ― Apple’s sales increased by 40 percent with 61.2 million phones, while local competitor LG increased by 25.2 per

South Korea topped the list of colorectal cancer rate among 184 countries in a survey by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization.Among every 100,000 South Koreans, 45 suffered from colorectal cancer, followed by Slovakia’s 42.7, Hungary’s 42.3 and Denmark’s 40.5.The world average was 17.2 per 100,000 population, while the average among the Asian countries was 13.7.Korean men were more exposed to the disease with 58.7 out of 100,000 men suffering from the

Sex crimes on subways and trains have increased by 84 percent compared to three years ago, data showed Monday.Out of a total of 3,568 railway crimes committed from 2012 to 2014, the number of sex crimes totaled 749 cases, or 21 percent.The most frequent types of sex crimes on the railway were sexual harassment by touching (491 cases), followed by illicitly taking pictures without permission (235 cases).In the case of illicit photos, perpetrators took photos with smartphones as well as hidden cam

A record amount of electrical and electronic waste hit garbage bins in 2014, with the biggest per-capita tallies in countries that pride themselves on environmental consciousness, a report said Sunday.Topping the list for per-capita waste last year was Norway, with 28.4 kilograms per resident.It was followed by Switzerland (26.3 kg per capita), Iceland (26.1 kg), Denmark (24.0 kg), the U.K. (23.5 kg), the Netherlands (23.4 kg), Sweden (22.3 kg), France (22.2 kg) and the U.S. and Austria (22.1 kg

The number of people engaged in agriculture marked 2.75 million as of December 2014, showing a decline from 2.84 million in 2013 and over 3 million in 2010, according to Statistics Korea. Their number accounts for 5.5 percent of the entire population. Among them, 1.3 million are men and 1.4 million are women. About 27.9 percent were over 70 years old, followed by 60-somethings marking 21.9 percent and 50-somethings with 19.6 percent. The aging ratio ― people over 65 years old ― was 39.1 percent