Child abuse committed by workers at nursery-related institutes has recently been rampant, the state-run child rights organization said.According to the National Child Protection Agency, the number of such cases more than doubled from 260 in 2012 to 644 in 2013. It accounted for 9.5 percent of the 6,796 child abuse cases in 2013.Public anger erupted this month when a worker at a day care center in Incheon was found to have beaten a 4-year-old girl for not finishing her food. A local court issued

The recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has spread nationwide despite efforts by South Korea’s quarantine authorities to contain it, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.As of Thursday, 50 cases of the disease occurred in 13 cities and districts, mostly in the central region of the peninsula. North Chungcheong Province ― the epicenter of the outbreak ― was the hardest hit with 25 regions being affected.Authorities have even confirmed a case of the disease at the

About 20 percent of young adults begin employment as contract workers with positions that last less than a year, an indication that the nation’s youth labor market is worsening, according to data released by the National Statistics Office.The government agency conducted an economic activity census and found that about 761,000, or 19.5 percent of young adult workers, began working under such conditions.This indicates that since the financial crisis, regular positions are being replaced with short

Seoul has some of the highest prices for goods such as Starbucks coffee, Chilean wine, carbonated water, beef and imported fruits, according to data released by Consumers Korea on Monday.The organization examined the prices of 42 agricultural, livestock and processed products in June and October across 13 major cities in the world.Out of 42 products, Seoul turned out to have the highest prices for 35 items, earning the title of one of the top five most expensive cities.

Korea’s auto export volume dropped for the second consecutive year, but its value edged up 0.6 percent on-year to an all-time high of $48.9 billion last year, according to government data. The Trade Ministry said in a report that the number of exported cars amounted to 3,061,000 units, a 0.9 percent decrease from 2013, mainly due to moribund European markets and GM Chevrolet pulling out of Western Europe. But the value of exports rose slightly as shipments of high-priced recreational vehicles, o

Broadband speed in Singapore is now the world’s fastest, according to a Federal Communications Commission report. In the third quarter of last year, Singapore recorded an average connection speed of 105.3 Mbps. Other Asian countries that topped the global list for fastest Internet speeds are Hong Kong (95.7 Mbps), Japan (69.7 Mbps) and South Korea (34 Mbps).Globally, the average connection speed was 4.5 Mbps, remaining above the 4 Mbps “broadband” threshold but declining by 2.8 percent from the

 The Korea Development Institute forecast that the decline in global oil prices would have a positive effect on the Korean economy.　In its report analyzing the relevance of oil prices and its economic impact, the state-run think tank said that if oil prices hold at $49 per barrel, the Korean economic growth rate would increase by 0.2 percentage points.　It also stated that if oil prices drop by 10 percent, the nation’s production costs for overall industries would decrease by 0.67 percent, the ma

Nearly one hundred days have passed since the controversial handset subsidy law took effect.The law, which prohibits telecom firms and handset makers from providing subsidies higher than 300,000 won to attract customers, has affected the pattern of subscription of mobile phones.Due to the subsidy limit that started on Oct. 1, the number of new subscribers sharply decreased in the first month. But then it started to recover, which government officials said indicates that the mobile phone market d

The size of shadow banking in Korea doubled in five years, according to data released by the Swiss-based global monitoring body Financial Stability Board on Monday.The value of the shadow banking industry, which mainly refers to nonbank financial intermediaries that provide services similar to traditional banks under less strict regulatory oversight, reached about $1.47 trillion in 2013, or 113.4 percent of the country’s GDP, the FSB said. Following the subprime meltdown in 2008 and the global f

The founders of Korea’s major star management companies snagged the top four slots on the list of Korea’s stock-rich celebrities in 2014, an online business researcher’s data showed recently. As of Dec. 30, Yang Hyun-suk, the founder of YG Entertainment, topped the list with his listed stocks worth about 185.8 billion won ($168.2 million), according to Chaebol.com. Lee Soo-man, the founder of S.M. Entertainment, ranked No. 2 with 149.3 billion won. Actor and KEAST majority shareholder Bae Yong-j

More than 3,000 people earned financial investment income of 500 million won ($455,290) or more last year, according to the National Tax Service’s annual report.The individuals earned an average 2.4 billion won, and of this amount, 1.7 billion won or 71 percent comprised interest or dividend income, the data showed.The total amount of financial income reported to the tax office last year was 28 trillion won. Though the number of superrich only took 2.4 percent of the total list, their financial

The number of cyberattacks reported by individuals against hackers reached almost 13,000 this year, the state-run Internet agency said Thursday. According to the Korea Internet and Safety Agency, the number of hacking attacks reported to the Cyber Bureau and supervising organizations stood at 12,847 cases over the first 10 months of this year, up by 21.2 percent from 10,600 cases in 2013.The number of reported hacking attacks peaked between February and April, with a monthly average of 1,600-1,9