South Korea’s working-age population is likely to decline in the future, putting more pressure on the young to support senior citizens who are not in the labor force.According to a report released by the OECD, the number of individuals in the workforce per senior citizen in Korea is predicted to decline to 1.96 by the year 2036, from this year’s 5.26.This means less than two working Koreans will have to support a single dependent, elderly individual. South Korea currently ranks third after Mexic

Malaysia Airlines on Friday revised upward the number of Dutch nationals killed in the MH17 disaster to 189 as it confirmed the identities of dozens more passengers.The airline has said 298 people ― 283 passengers, including three infants of various nationalities, and 15 Malaysian crew ― were killed when the plane went down Thursday in strife-torn eastern Ukraine.The Boeing 777 came down in cornfields in the separatist-held region, with the United States claiming it was shot down in a missile at

The in-house reserves accumulated at South Korea’s top 10 business groups reached 515.9 trillion won ($499.66 billion) as of the end of the first quarter this year, according to a report released by corporate tracker CEO Score on Wednesday. The figure reflected a 90.3 percent increase from the 271 trillion won recorded five years ago, CEO Score said. In-house reserves refer to a company’s capital surplus excluding tax payments and dividends, which are reserved for future investment. Samsung Grou

The leaders of five emerging market powers said at a summit Tuesday that they gave final agreement to creating their own development bank worth $100 billion that will have its headquarters in China.The first president of the New Development Bank will be from India and the position will rotate every five years among Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa ― the so-called BRICS nations ― a joint statement from the leaders said.The capital for the bank will be split equally among the five par

Nearly 6 out of 10 new temporary workers in South Korea are women aged 55 and older, according to a report released by Statistics Korea on Tuesday. The report also showed that the number of South Korean female temporary workers above the age of 55 has increased by 14.4 percent from last year. This seems to be mainly due to the growing need to accumulate retirement savings, and also because more parents are supporting children who are struggling to find a job amid the sluggish job market conditio

Seoul’s population, which currently ranks 29th in the world, will drop by 14 notches by 2030, according to the United Nations’ Department of Economics and Social Affairs.The U.N. body predicts that Seoul’s population, which is 9.77 million this year, will edge up to 9.96 million by 2030. Despite the increase in population, Seoul is projected to drop to 43rd place in 2030. The drop in ranking would be the biggest among the top 30 cities on the list. Tokyo remains the world’s most populous city wi

Seoul-Beijing trade volume came in at $209.6 billion in 2012, making South Korea a far more important partner for China than North Korea, the Chinese online portal Wang Yi claimed Monday.Citing U.N. trade data, Wang Yi argued that the huge disparity in trade with the two Koreas shows that improving relations with Seoul would be more beneficial for Beijing. The data showed that South Korea-China trade underwent a 33-fold increase from 1992 to stand at $209.6 billion in 2012. In comparison the fig

Korea’s ratio of house prices to income last year was 23.4 percent of the ratio in 1986, indicating that it has become easier for people to buy homes.But the figure for Seoul’s affluent Gangnam area did not fall by as much, reflecting the polarization in the city’s real estate market. According to the Bank of Korea and KB Kookmin Bank on Tuesday, the general price-to-income ratio last year was 23.4, with the baseline figure of 100 based on the equivalent ratio in 1986. Also, Korea’s long-term PI

South Korea is near the bottom in terms of traffic safety among developed countries, with its traffic fatality rate being the second-highest among surveyed countries despite improvements over the past decade, data showed on Monday.The number of South Koreans killed on the road reached 105 per 1 million people in 2011, ranking 30th among 31 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.South Korea’s fatality rate, although an improvement from 119 in 2009 and 218 in 2000,

A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows that South Korea’s income gap will be the third-largest among the 29 member countries by 2060.The report says that the income of South Korea’s richest 10 percent will be nearly 6.5 times larger than the bottom 10 percent of the income ladder over the coming 50 years. South Korea’s top earners made 4.85 times more than those in the bottom 10 percent did on average in 2010, according to the report.The OECD predicted

The number of foreign nationals in Korea increased by 8.6 percent this year from the previous year, comprising slightly over 3 percent of the country’s population, according to government data.According to the data released by the Security Ministry, the number of foreigners here reached 1.57 million as of Jan. 1 of this year, accounting for 3.1 percent of the country’s population of 51 million. The number of foreign residents has been on the rise for the past eight years. A growing number of eth

More elementary school students are becoming addicted to smartphones, according to the Ministry of Education.The number of elementary school students at risk of smartphone addiction rose by more than 20 percent this year from the previous year, according to a report released by the ministry. Some 131,000 children from grades 1-6 are at risk this year, the ministry said. Meanwhile, the number of middle and high school students who are potential smartphone addicts decreased from 229,877 last year