The number of people preparing for jobs without actually seeking jobs surpassed 700,000 for the first time last month, according to Statistics Korea. Those preparing for jobs are categorized as economically inactive, as they are not actually seeking for jobs during the preparation process. A total of 735,000 were preparing for employment, up 13 percent from the same month the previous year. It was the largest number since the relevant tally began in January 2003.Some 251,000 were registered with

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday hinted that he would not give up on Foreign Minister nominee Kang Kyung-wha, urging opposition parties to cooperate in handling her parliamentary confirmation process. He also underlined that as state chief, he is entitled by law to appoint Cabinet members with or without parliamentary consent and urged opposition parties to consider the current diplomatic vacuum and the imminent Korea-US summit.President Moon Jae-in (2nd from R) speaks during a meeting with his

The teen suspect on trial for the murder of an 8-year-old girl in Incheon described herself as “going on the hunt,” it was revealed Thursday. The defendant, a 17-year-old high school dropout, is accused of luring and murdering an elementary student at her home in Incheon on March 29. She strangled the victim and dismembered her body. She then handed over a part of the victim’s remains to an accomplice, aged 19, who disposed of the remains. A 17-year-old defendant (Yonhap)The defendant has confes

South Korea, China and Southeast Asian countries appear to be open to adopting new ways of payment involving devices such as smartphones, wearables and other connected devices for greater convenience, said global card payment company Visa on Thursday.International internet-based market research firm YouGov conducted a survey on 10,500 adults from 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region to find out their receptivity to new payment technologies. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents from Korea s

Ministerial-level delegates from 25 countries will participate in the second Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank annual meeting to discuss sustainable infrastructure in South Korea‘s southern resort island of Jeju, the government said Thursday.A total of 2,486 officials consisting of finance ministers, government officials working in fields related to infrastructure development of developing countries, CEOs of private businesses, officials of international organizations and the academia have si

Samsung Electronics announced Thursday that it has begun mass production of 64-layer, 256-Gigabit V-NAND flash memory chips and will apply the cutting-edge technology to the company’s lineup of storage solutions for servers, PCs and mobile applications. Samsung had been producing the latest V-NAND chips for a limited number of customers since January, but the company had not made it public in order to first gauge real demand accurately and secure its production capacity. To gain a competitive ed

The US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike is likely to worsen South Korea’s rising household debt problem, dampening domestic demand and possibly hurting exports to emerging markets, experts said Thursday.The Fed raised the key rate by 0.25 percentage point to the 1-1.25 percent range Wednesday, its second hike this year, which was widely expected in the market. Along with Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol’s recent hint at monetary tightening, the Fed’s move raises concern

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a China-backed multilateral development bank, aims to put the quality of projects ahead of quantity, the bank’s head said.Since launching with 57 signatory countries in January, 2016, the AIIB saw its members increase to 77 and the bank invest in 13 projects worth $2.1 billion as of the end of May. “We anticipate our 2017 investments to be between $2 and $2.5 billion, but our focus remains on quality projects not just quantity,” AIIB Pr

As the fifth-largest stakeholder of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, South Korea is ramping up efforts on multiple fronts in a bid to contribute to the improvement of Asia’s infrastructure. As part of the efforts, Korea became the second country to host the 2017 annual meeting of the Beijing-led multicultural financial organization representing Asian nations on Jeju Island, outside of China for the first time, from Friday to Saturday. The relatively new AIIB held its first an

Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been nominated to head the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee, the IOC said Thursday.According to the IOC’s press release, Ban has been proposed as the new chair of the Ethics Commission. The 73-year-old will be put up for vote to the full membership at an IOC session in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 22.Ban Ki-moon (Herald DB)If approved, Ban will replace the current chair of the ethics body, Youssoupha Ndiaye, formerly the pre

Was it only 20 years ago that we were at the Convention Center in Hong Kong celebrating the return of Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997? The night before, in searing rain that disguised the tears of many colonials, we watched the last Gov. Chris Pattern sail away from Victoria Harbor. The next day, as the impeccably white-gloved Chinese People‘s Liberation Army soldier unfurled China’s national flag to signal the creation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, I recall thinking what De