According to the National Institute for International Education, the number of foreign students registered at South Korean universities was nearly 124,000 as of April last year. Around 70,000 of them attended degree programs, while the remaining 51,856 were enrolled in nondegree programs.　After falling in the negative territory in the 2012-2014 period, the growth rate of foreign students at South Korean universities rose to 7.6 percent in 2015 and 14.2 percent in 2016.　The largest number of stu

　Gangneung, a subhost city of South Korea’s 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, tops the list of trending destinations with bookings rising 2,175 percent from last year, according to travel booking website Airbnb.　The study was based on bookings for the first six months of 2018.　British beach town Bournemouth ranked second and Alberta province capital Edmonton in Canada came in at third. 

　US tech giant Apple shipped 77.3 million smartphones worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2017, an industry tracker said, overtaking Samsung Electronics in the global market.　Apple captured first place with 19.3 percent global market share, nudging Samsung into second place, Strategy Analytics said in a report.　The industry tracker said there was robust demand for the iPhone X, though global iPhone volumes have been on the decline on an annual basis for five of the past eight quarters.　Samsung El

　The average age of retirement for salaried workers in Korea now exceeds the age of 61, with a law raising the retirement age to 60 coming into full effect last year, according to the Labor Ministry. 　A survey by the ministry found that workers were retiring at an average age of 61.1 in 2017, the first year the new law was expanded to affect all companies with more than one employee.　The ministry had surveyed 20,000 randomly selected firms with more than one worker from June to November 2017.

　South Korea’s washing machine exports have nearly halved over the past five years due to US safeguard measures.　According to the Korea Customs Service, exports of washers last year amounted to $118.6 million, down $4.56 million from the previous year. Last year’s exports were about half of the $209.59 million in 2012, data showed.　Exports of washers to the US fell to as low as $6.16 million in 2015 but bounced back to $23.4 million in 2016 and to $43.02 million last year.

　According to the PyeongChang Organizing Committee, 2,925 athletes from 92 countries have registered to compete in the Olympics, marking the biggest number of athletes in history. 　The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics had been the largest with 2,858 athletes from 88 nations.　South Korea will have a record 144 athletes competing in all 15 sports at the games. 　The US has the largest team for the games, with 242 athletes, followed by Canada with 226.　Meanwhile, North Korea will have 22 athletes in five

　South Korea‘s per capita rice consumption hit a record low last year, government data showed.　The average annual consumption of rice per person fell to 61.8 kilograms in 2017, down 0.2 percent from the previous year’s 61.9 kg, according to the data by Statistics Korea.　Daily rice consumption per person also dropped to 169.3 grams last year from 169.6 grams tallied in the previous year, the data showed.　Consumption of non-rice grains edged down 2.2 percent on-year to 9.1 kg in 2017 from 9.3 kg a

　More women have been promoted to corporate executive positions in recent months, according to CEO Score, a site that appraises corporate management. 　There were 65 job promotions for women among a total of 1,968 at the top 30 business groups from November last year to Jan. 18. The number of women also accounted for 3.3 percent of all executive-level promotions, marking the first time it has crossed the 3 percent threshold. The proportion was 2.3 percent in 2017. 　KT, the country’s largest telep

　The number of Korean restaurants worldwide, serving bibimbap, bulgogi and other Korean dishes, rose to 33,499 across 90 countries last year, according to a report published by the Korean Food Promotion Institute. The number increased 262 percent from 9,253 in 2009. 　There were 15,985 restaurants in China, 9,238 in Japan and 3,293 in the US.　Taiwan, Indonesia, Europe and the Middle East also had a greater number of Korean restaurants last year compared to 2009. 

Some are already stars, while others are stars in the making. Here are 10 of the most dominant and decorated international athletes eying medals at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.● Alpine skiingAthletes to watch (주목할 선수)Mikaela Shiffrin (US)Lindsey Vonn (US)Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway)Marcel Hirscher (Austria)● SnowboardingAthletes to watchChloe Kim (US)● BiathlonAthletes to watchMartin Fourcade (France)Darya Domracheva (Belarus)● Figure skatingAthletes to watchYuzuru Hanyu (Japan)Nathan Chen (US)

　The European Union unveiled plans for all plastic packaging in Europe to be recyclable by 2030 and to phase out single-use plastic-like coffee cups to fight pollution.　The strategy announced by the European Commission follows China’s decision to ban imports of foreign waste products for recycling, including huge quantities from Europe.　The Commission said its proposals aim to create business opportunities by transforming the way plastic products are designed, produced and recycled in Europe.　Th

　Samsung Group has been named the world’s fifth most innovative company, according to a survey report published by the Boston Consulting Group. 　Apple took the top spot. Google, Tesla and Microsoft took up the following positions. 　The list was based on a survey of over 1,000 senior innovation leaders from a wide variety of countries and industries. 

　South Korea’s military will reduce its number of troops to half a million by 2022 as part of a new round of defense reforms, the Ministry of National Defense said.　The mandatory service period of rank-and-file soldiers will be shortened to 18 months in stages from the current 21 months, according to the ministry’s report.　South Korea has 620,000 soldiers, including 483,000 Army service members, compared to North Korea’s 1.1 million.　The Moon Jae-in administration has pushed for his “Defense Ref

　The number of cryptocurrency app users in South Korea has increased by 14 times in the last 14 weeks to approximately 2 million users, according to data. 　A total of 1.96 million people are estimated to have used cryptocurrency apps on their smartphones, based on app analytics company WiseApp’s analysis of 23,000 Android smartphone users in South Korea.　In addition, the company found that 6.5 percent of bitcoin app users are in their teens, 24 percent in their 20s, 32.7 percent in their 30s, 21

　With the average temperature falling in January, the number of frostbite patients usually peaks drastically in that month, but the number has been declining in recent years. 　According to data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, the number of patients suffering from frostbite reached 17,496 in 2014, 11,122 in 2015 and 9,806 in 2016.　There were 1,297 patients in December 2016, 2,499 in January 2017 and 1,610 in February 2017.　The proportion of patients in their 50s was the hig