The number of divorce cases among elderly or middle-aged Koreans surpassed 30,000 for the first time in 2012, according to Statistics Korea data released on Tuesday.According to the state statistics agency, the number of divorces among people whose married life exceeded 20 years reached about 30,200 last year. This comprised 26.4 percent of the total number of divorces in 2012 among couples of all ages.Further, this marked the first time that the number of divorces among elderly couples surpasse

Financial authorities plan to prevent foreign investors from bidding for the state-funded Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.Government officials said Tuesday that the state policy decision came after Russia’s state-controlled oil producer Rosneft was rumored to have recently expressed interest in DSME, which is scheduled to be put up for auction in the coming months.An official cited national security reasons for the exclusion of non-Korean bidders, saying that the shipbuilder manufacture

Financial authorities are working to placate creditors of Ssangyong Engineering & Construction, as the builder could face a more serious situation than its current debt rescheduling: delisting from the stock market.The Financial Services Commission’s efforts have been stepped up after the Military Mutual Aid Association moved to provisionally seize the bank accounts of the cash-strapped construction firm.Over the weekend, the FSC held emergency talks with the company’s creditors -- both financia

Bank of Korea data showed Thursday that growth of gross national income, which indicates purchasing power, stood at its lowest level in the past six quarters.The GNI for the third quarter inched up 0.2 percent from the previous quarter, which marks the lowest rate since it posted 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012.It is a noteworthy slowdown, compared to the 2.9 percent growth in the second quarter of 2013 and 0.8 percent in the first quarter.According to BOK officials, the stalled growth

Former Hana Financial Group chairman Kim Seung-yu expressed his willingness to step down from his post as adviser to the financial firm.His departure comes after the Financial Supervisory Service said it was investigating allegations that Kim had engaged in irregular business practices during his tenure as the group’s chief.Hana Bank owns about 4,000 pieces of artwork. Kim is known to be an art lover but the FSS suspects there is more to the bank’s unusually large art collection.On Tuesday, the

The Green Climate Fund will kick off its operations in Korea on Wednesday, with a fund-raising operation on a similar scale to that of the International Monetary Fund.In late 2012, Songdo in Incheon was chosen as the permanent home to the environment-oriented fund, beating two major competitors ― Geneva, Switzerland, and Bonn, Germany ― in the competition to host the secretariat.Its total fund-raising is estimated to reach $800 billion (880 trillion won) in the coming years, approaching the leve

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said Friday that the government needs to carefully review Korea’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership called TPP, a U.S.-led move to create a free trade bloc linking Pacific Rim states.Speaking at a meeting with trade-related ministers, Hyun said it is necessary for the government to express interest in the participation in the TPP and to hold bilateral preliminary consultations with the participating countries.The U.S. has spear

The Park Geun-hye administration is considering easing a set of business regulations on medical institutions and schools in free economic zones nationwide.During a policy briefing to the president on Thursday, the National Economic Advisory Council unveiled a vision to develop the service industry by lifting outdated barriers in terms of attracting foreign capital to the FEZs in Incheon and other regions. For the medical sector, the NEAC recommended eliminating the requirements that foreign hosp

The National Tax Service on Thursday publicized a list of habitual tax defaulters, who failed to pay or allegedly evaded taxes worth more than 500 million won ($471,180) for at least one year.On its homepage, the tax agency revealed personal or corporate information on 1,662 delinquent individuals and 936 businesses. The list features the name, age, job, address and records of the tax infractions.The average amount of taxes owed is 18.4 billion won per case. All together, this adds up to a total

The government plans to allow local commercial banks to take over financial groups in foreign countries to boost their global competitiveness in the face of the saturated domestic market.The state-led project for encouraging the active expansion of domestic banks into foreign markets has been included in the policy agenda for development of the financial industry, unveiled by the Financial Services Commission on Wednesday.The authorities have decided to lift a ban on the acquisition by domestic

More and more economic research institutes are raising the possibility that Korea’s economic growth will stay below 1 percent per quarter throughout 2014.Their gloomy outlook followed an earlier projection by the Finance Ministry that the GDP growth could continue to post less than 1 percent on a quarterly basis next year.The ministry’s forecast, unveiled in the first half of 2013, had been interpreted among market participants as adding pressure on the Bank of Korea to boost the economy by push

Financial authorities have begun an earnest push to sell Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, with the aim of retrieving the taxpayers’ money injected into the shipbuilder by the second half of 2014.The scheduled auction plan was mapped out by the Korea Development Bank and the Financial Services Commission, the two main shareholders of DSME.In an initial step, the FSC ― through its executive arm, the Public Fund Oversight Committee ― reduced its stake in the company from 17.15 percent to 1