According to a report released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 248,000 patients from abroad visited South Korea for medical treatment last year, up 70 percent from 146,000 in 2021. In 2019, just a year before the pandemic, 497,000 foreign patients entered Korea. Recently, the ministry has released a set of strategies for attracting up to 700,000 foreign patients a year to Korea by 2027. In order to meet its goal by 2027, the government will implement four different strategies: improving i

K-pop boy band BTS is in the midst of two weeks of events for “2023 BTS Festa” at various venues in Seoul until next Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary since its debut. The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Tourism Foundation have rolled out the “Seoul BTS Tour Map - Map of the SEOUL,” featuring 13 important locations the iconic group has visited along with filming locations for web series “Run BTS.” The map will be available at six Seoul Tourism In

　The Korea Baseball Organization, the national governing body of professional baseball, announced the 24-man roster for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games in September, which had been postponed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 　The team, composed of 24 players, features not only veteran talent but rising young stars. The infield is fortified by players like Kang Baek-ho of KT Wiz, while the outfield boasts talents like Lee Jung-hoo from Kiwoom Heroes, at 23 and 24 years old respectively. 　The

South Korea’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at the highest level among 34 major economies in the first quarter, global financial data showed. The ratio stood at 102.2 percent in the January-March period, followed by Hong Kong with a ratio of 95.1 percent, Thailand with 85.7 percent, Britain with 81.6 percent and the United States with 73 percent, according to the Institute of International Finance. Korea was the only country where household debt exceeded its GDP in t

In the throes of Canada’s raging wildfires, a glance at this century’s major blazes paints a troubling picture of a globe marked by climate change. The 21st century has seen many of these destructive events, with Australia’s 2019-20 season and Russia’s 2021 wildfires scorching immense tracts of land. The fire seasons of 2009 and 2015, one in Australia and another in Russia, saw an alarming loss of life, unlike most other major fires. The current Canadian situation, althou

　The number of smartphone users on 5G mobile networks had topped 30 million as of April for the first time since the service was commercialized in 2019, data showed. 　The total number of 5G users reached 30.02 million in April, accounting for 38.1 percent of the total 78.79 million mobile subscriptions in the country, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. 　SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile carrier by subscriptions, had the most 5G users at 14.35 million as o

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reclaimed the title of the world’s wealthiest person, surpassing LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault. Musk and the luxury tycoon have been neck-and-neck for the top spot this year in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a listing of the world’s 500 richest people. LVMH shares have tumbled about 10 percent since April, at one point wiping $11 billion from Arnault’s net worth in a single day. Musk’s rise in the position was due to the shares of Tesla

The proportion of female executives at South Korea’s major companies came to 7 percent in the first quarter of 2023 following last year’s implementation of a related law, a corporate tracker said. The number of female executives at 349 out of the country’s top 500 firms by sales reached 997 at end-March, accounting for 6.8 percent of the total 14,718, according to the Leaders Index. The proportion was up 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier and 1.7 times the tally for the f

South Korea, led by head coach Kim Eun-joong, secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Nigeria in the quarterfinals of the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup at Santiago del Estero Stadium in Argentina on Monday. The match was fiercely contested, with both teams locked in a neck-and-neck battle that eventually led to extra time. With this triumph, South Korea advances to the semifinals for the second consecutive time, building on their previous success as runners-up in the 2019 Polish Games. Looking ahea

The use of public transportation in Seoul reached a record high of 3.4 billion rides last year, with an average of 9.44 million rides daily, according to data from the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The busiest subway station in Seoul was Gangnam Station on Line No. 2 with 71,598 passengers per day, followed by Jamsil Station and Hongik University Station. Among bus stops, the highest usage was at Seoul Express Bus Terminal Station, with 9,318 passengers per day. Once passengers boarded, data in

At least 275 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a train collision in the city of Balasore, India, Friday. After two passenger trains collided, one struck a stationary freight train at full speed and derailed itself. This particular train crash is one of the worst train crashes in India in 20 years. According to India’s railways minister, the derailment was caused by an error in the train signaling system. Other deadly train collisions since 2013 include a crash in the Indian s

The number of foreign travelers to South Korea surged by sevenfold in April from a year earlier on eased travel restrictions amid efforts to return to pre-pandemic normalcy, data showed. A total of 889,000 foreign travelers visited South Korea last month, up nearly 600 percent from the 128,000 tallied in the same month last year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Tourism Organization. The monthly figure also accounted for 54 percent of 1.6 million tallied in April 2019, before the outb

Prices for hamburgers rose 10.3 percent in March and 17.1 percent in April, according to Statistics Korea. The increase marked the highest growth in 19 years. Such inflation in hamburgers came after major franchise companies raised their prices 4 to 5 percent in February and August of last year, and again in February this year. Pizza prices also set a record high in nearly 15 years with a near-12 percent increase in April. Chicken prices increased by 6.8 percent in the given period, which is low

More than 1.5 million South Korean people are at risk of “lonely death,” or unattended death, accounting for 3 percent of the country’s population, a government survey showed. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it had conducted the poll on a sample of 9,471 single-member households from November to December last year to check their circumstances that could possibly lead to a lonely death in the future. The 10-step checklist includes questions about whether the respondent h

According to the 2023 Global Slavery Index, modern slavery is present in every country, regardless of its wealth status. The index, published by the human rights charity Walk Free, has indicated that in 2021, around 50 million people were living in situations of modern slavery, with approximately 27.6 million of those people being in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriages. The index indicated that the countries estimated to have the highest modern slavery rates tend to be “conflic