Debt held by the self-employed grew about 9 percent last year as their income declined amid the economic slowdown, spawning concerns about their capacity to service debt, according to bank data on Monday.Bank loans extended to the self-employed amounted to 105.6 trillion won ($100 billion) as of end 2012, up 8.5 percent from the previous year, according to data provided by four major local banks.

A survey by KT’s economic research center DIGIECO showed that Web portal use was highest by wired Internet, with 1.9 hours, followed by smartphones with 1.5 hours and tablet PCs with 0.8 hour.Lifestyle, family and culture-oriented use is highest on wired Internet with 1.9 hours. For smartphones, social network and fashion-oriented use is the highest because of the ability to use social media regardless of time and place.

After much delay, the National Assembly on Wednesday approved the government budget and a host of tightly contested bills including the revised Foreign Investment Promotion Act and the National Intelligence Service Act.

Current Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon commands a solid lead over potential contenders for his post as the political parties gear up for the June 4 provincial elections, surveys show.According to surveys conducted by local media outlets, Park outpaces Rep. Chung Mong-joon of the ruling Saenuri Party by as much as 10.2 percentage points. When pitted against former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, another figure the ruling party may call on to dislodge the progressive Seoul mayor, Park’s lead was extended

Korea’s middle class has steadily decreased from 74.47 percent of the population in 1990 to 67.33 percent in 2010, while the percentages of high-income and low-income earners have increased 2.23 and 4.9 percentage points, respectively, to 20.43 percent and 12.24 percent over the last 20 years, according to a report released by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs Monday.

The fine imposed on the nation’s major telecom operators for their illegal subsidies to customers soared this year, an indication that they were waging heated competition to increase new subscribers. The three ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― were fined a record-setting 106.4 billion won together last week.

According to an outlook by the Korea Economic Research Institute, the nation is expected to see a slight economic recovery next year, although uncertainties still linger.KERI’s report showed that the economy is expected to grow 3.4 percent on-year and consumer inflation to stand at 2.2 percent. But the GDP growth is expected to be limited by the stronger Korean won against the U.S. dollar.

As of last Friday, Korea saw its stock price index fall 0.7 percent this year, coming in 30th among 34 OECD members in terms of stock index performance, according to data compiled by Yonhap News.Market analysts said the weak Japanese yen might have caused the bearish run by the Korea Composite Stock Price Index.

Korea’s total greenhouse gas emissions increased 3.3 percent on average annually from 2005 to 2010, according to Statistics Korea. The nation emitted a total of 568.8 million tons of CO2 in 2005 and 668.8 tons in 2010.The nation’s per capita gas emissions amounted to 11.4 tons, higher than the OECD average of 10.1 tons.

Cancer remained the most common cause of death in 2012 while cerebrovascular diseases replaced heart diseases as the second leading cause, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The Supreme Court’s decision to include regular bonuses in calculations of the “ordinary wage” for workers will result in additional employment costs for companies. The Korea Employers’ Federation expected the financial burden on companies to reach 38.5 trillion won, while the Korea Labor Institute predicted 21.9 trillion won in increased costs as a result of the ruling.The Korea Federation of SMEs, or K-Biz, estimates SMEs will have to foot an additional bill of 11.6 trillion won and the Korea

More than 200 million people were expected to have watched films in theaters this year as of Wednesday, setting a record in Korean cinema history. Last year, a total of 194,890,587 people hit theaters to watch films in Korea. Korean films alone attracted 118,160,000 viewers this year, exceeding last year’s record of 114,613,190. The market share of Korean movies also reached 59.1 percent this year, surpassing that of foreign films, which stood at 40.9 percent. This year saw releases of English-l

More than half of the public considers the Park Geun-hye administration to have done a good job this year, a poll showed. According to the poll conducted by Gallup Korea ahead of the first anniversary of her election on Dec. 19, 54 percent of the 1,204 people surveyed positively assessed Park’s administration, while 35 percent said the opposite. The survey showed that diplomacy and international relations were the most commonly chosen factor for the positive assessments, while lack of communicat

Korea’s industries are estimated to have posted trade deficits ― except in ICT-related sectors ― for the last 14 years, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. But it said the nation’s annual trade surplus in the ICT sector has already set a new record high of $81.9 billion in the first 11 months of the year.