President Park Geun-hye’s job approval ratings remained stable throughout her first year at Cheong Wa Dae, a poll showed. According to Realmeter’s survey results, Park’s approval rating began at 54.8 percent in February and reached 67 percent in August. Although her approval rating dipped below the 50 percent mark in December, it rose again after her three-year economic innovation plans were announced in January.A recent poll of 2,500 respondents Feb. 10-14 showed that 56.4 percent said they wer

Korea produced roughly 4.52 million cars last year. The number is 0.9 percent less than the previous year’s production, but still places the country fifth highest in the world for the ninth consecutive year.

An explosion tore through a bus in the Red Sea resort town of Taba, killing three people and injuring 14 on Feb. 16.The blast, which occurred near the Taba border crossing between Egypt and Israel, ripped through the bus, believed to be carrying mostly South Korean tourists who had visited the ancient monastery of St. Catherine’s in central Sinai, Egyptian officials said.Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an al-Qaida-inspired Islamist militant group based in Sinai, may have been responsible for the attack, a

The issue of separated families is becoming ever more pressing due to the old age and waning health of the candidates for the upcoming reunions. One has recently died, while some others have passed up their chance. As of the end of 2013, only 71,480 of the 129,264 South Korean members of separated families registered since 1988 are still alive, according to the Unification Ministry. Of the survivors, more than 11 percent are in their 90s, 42 percent in their 80s and 29 percent in their 70s.Since

South Korea’s public sector debt, an index that includes both government liabilities and those of state-run enterprises, amounted to more than 800 trillion won ($770 billion) in 2012, government data showed.National liabilities, money borrowed by central and regional governments, stood at 443.1 trillion won ($417.5 billion) as of late 2012. The general government debt, the sum of national debt combined with liabilities of nonprofit public organizations, stood at 504.6 trillion won ($475.4 billio

Korea was reported to have the lowest vulnerability index among 15 emerging market economies, according to the semiannual monetary policy report released by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday.

The average job growth rate at the country’s 100 largest companies over the past five years stood at 17.6 percent, according to CEO Score, a website dedicated to analyzing and assessing the management and company strategies of local conglomerates.The raw data was from Statistics Korea, which had conducted a survey on more than 270,000 local companies employing 10 people or more. Among the firms on the list, LG Innotek, an affiliate of LG Group, saw its jobs grow by the largest clip. Samsung, Hyu

A handful of countries have dominated the gold medal tally in varying sports in the Sochi Winter Olympic Games. South Korea is far ahead in short track speed skating, claiming 19 of 40 gold medals before the 2014 Games. Both Canada and China are at a distant second with seven each. Germany dominates in luge, sweeping 28 gold medals since it was adopted as an Olympic program in 1964. The number is more than half of the 41 gold up for grabs in the event thus far. Overall, Germany has taken 71 of 1

Korea’s brand value ranked 16th in 2013 to rise a notch higher than the previous year, according to an annual report by Brand Finance, an asset valuation consultancy based in London.Valued at $775 billion, which reflects a 7 percent increase from the year before, Korea reclaimed its place as the 16th-most valuable brand in the world. It had held the post for 2010 and 2011 before falling to 17th place in 2012.The United States, China and Germany have been ranked as the top three in brand value si

Public satisfaction in school education is declining while concerns over students’ weakening ethics are on the rise, a survey showed Sunday. On the Korean Educational Development Institute’s survey of 2,000 citizens, public education received 2.49 out of a possible 5 points in overall satisfaction, a 0.41-point drop from 2012. The rate has been on the decline since 2010, when it was 3.09. About 13 percent of the surveyed answered that education was underperforming, double from 2012. Respondents

The higher a person’s income level is, the healthier they are, data showed Thursday, According to statistics released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 22 percent of the top income group worked out for at least 10 minutes once a week while 14.4 percent of the lowest income class spent time on exercise.The ministry divided the income level into four categories based on monthly wages of 5,500 citizens in 2012. Waist sizes also tended to grow among lower income groups. The obesity rate of the

A recent report from Britain’s defense consulting firm IHS Jane’s estimated that China’s defense spending for 2014 would amount to around $148 billion, an increase of 6.3 percent from a year ago.In the report on the world’s defense budgets, China ranked second after the U.S. whose defense budget for this year is estimated at $574.9 billion, a decrease of 1.3 percent from last year.China’s defense budget reaches the combined budgets of the three major traditional military powers in Europe ― the U

Domestic tourism remains sluggish a decade after Korea introduced a five-day workweek system, once billed as a golden opportunity for the leisure and tourism sector. Outbound travel, meanwhile, has grown steadily, data from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports show. According to the data reported to President Park Geun-hye during a meeting on tourism policies on Monday, the aggregate days that Koreans spent on domestic travel for all of 2012 were 360 million days, little changed from 350

Korea’s economically inactive population with a college degree or higher tallied 3.08 million people in 2013, up 3.2 percent from the previous year, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea.As the number reached 2 million in 2004 and broke the 3 million mark last year, the data suggests that the economically inactive population grew by roughly 1 million in just nine years.The economically inactive population refers to those over age 15 who are not employed, unemployed or currently seeking

London is the most expensive city to live in, followed by Oslo, the capital of Norway, according to a survey by expatistan.com. Seoul of ranked at 37th in the survey to place fourth among Asian capital cities. The survey involved a price index for 5,190 commodities across 1,617 international cities. Three of Switzerland’s cities placed within the top 10.