The total area of North Korea’s rice paddies decreased by 0.8 percent in 2022 from a year earlier, data showed, reflecting the reclusive regime’s challenging food shortages. 　The North’s rice paddies totaled 539,569 hectares in 2022, an area slightly larger than the US state of Delaware, compared to 544,006 hectares recorded in 2021, according to Statistics Korea. 　The figure stands at around 74 percent of the 727,158 hectares of rice paddies in South Korea. 　The North is

South Korea’s exports of the content industry hit an all-time high of $12.4 billion for the country in 2021, boosted by the global boom of Korean pop culture, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The ministry said it will increase such exports by an average of 12.3 percent every year to achieve $25 billion in 2027 by pushing its so-called “3E strategies” for K-content exports. Currently, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan account for more than half of South

　The World Baseball Classic has officially begun on Wednesday and ends March 21. 　South Korea will compete in Pool B and the first game at WBC is against Australia on Thursday at Tokyo Dome. South Korea will then take on Japan on Friday, the Czech Republic on March 12 and China on March 13. 　South Korea finished third at the inaugural WBC in 2006 and was the runner-up to Japan at the 2009 edition. However, it crashed out of the first round in each of the next two tournaments, in 2013 and 201

At least 57 people were killed after a collision between two trains caused a derailment near the Greek city of Larissa on Feb. 28. The passenger train, carrying more than 350 people, had been traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki. A stationmaster was charged with negligent homicide and jailed pending trial, while the prime minister apologized for any responsibility Greece's government may bear for the tragedy. Here are the world's worst train disasters:

　A total of 7.2 percent of adults in the United States identified as LGBTQ in 2022 a Gallup poll shows. 　While that’s just a small increase from 2021 numbers - 7.1 percent - the 2022 Gallup data reflects an overall upward trend. In 2012, when the analytics giant began measuring LGBTQ identification, only about 3.5 percent of adults self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or something other than heterosexual and cisgender (meaning they identify with the sex they were

South Korea’s suicide rate increased in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Monday, with higher rates seen for people in their 20s and those aged 70 and above. The number of suicides for every 100,000 South Koreans was 26.0 in 2021, up 0.3 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The rate among males aged 70 and above came to 81.8 in 2021, up from 79.5 recorded the previous year. As for females, the rate for the same age group came to 25.7, also u

  Spring festivals in Korea, which have been suspended or reduced in size due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will return with the easing of quarantine guidelines. Local governments are busy welcoming tourists in anticipation of successful spring festivals. They are also striving to establish various measures to prevent safety accidents caused by large crowds of spring visitors.  

Jurgen Klinsmann, a German World Cup hero synonymous with the country’s success in the 1990s, has been named the new head coach of the South Korean men’s national soccer team. The Korea Football Association said Monday Klinsmann has agreed to a deal that will take him through the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Klinsmann, 58, will make his South Korea coaching debut on March 24 in a friendly match against Colombia in Ulsan, some 30 kilometers sout

South Korea’s fisheries output moved down 6 percent from a year earlier in 2022, data showed, primarily due to a fall in the production of anchovies, hairtail and squid. Total fisheries output amounted to 3.6 million tons last year, down from 3.83 million tons tallied in 2021, according to Statistics Korea. The statistics agency attributed the overall decrease to the fall in output from the aquaculture, littoral and deep-sea fishing sectors. The number of boats in the deep-sea fishing indu

　Americans’ dissatisfaction with gun laws has reached an all-time high according to a Gallup poll, after the country averaged nearly two mass shootings a day in 2022. 　Sixty-three percent of Americans are now unhappy with the nation’s gun policies, the highest in Gallup’s 23-year trend, and an increase of 7 percentage points over the last year. Gun policy satisfaction has dropped to just 34 percent. 　Unsurprisingly, the level of satisfaction largely reflected political party

South Korea came in 31st in a key international transparency index assessing corruption levels of countries in 2022, up a notch from a year earlier, a nongovernmental organization said. South Korea scored 63 in the 2022 Corruption Perception Index, ranking No. 31 among the 180 nations assessed, according to Transparency International, who compiled the index. The annual index ranks countries on a 100-point scale by levels of public sector corruption, as defined by the abuse of entrusted power for

　Support among the American public for providing Ukraine weaponry and direct economic assistance has softened as the Russian invasion nears a grim one-year milestone, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. 　Forty-eight percent say they favor the US providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29 percent opposed and 22 percent saying they’re neither in favor nor opposed. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60 percent of US adults sai

South Korea’s imports of gas and coal hit an all-time high last year on surging global energy prices, data showed. The value of gas imports came to $56.7 billion last year, the highest since 1956 when the government began compiling the related data, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The previous record of $36.6 billion was set in 2014. The import value of coal also reached an all-time high of $28.1 billion, surpassing the previous record of $18.3 billion logged in 20

The number of South Korean workers who took time off to take care of their children rose 18.6 percent in 2022 from a year earlier on the back of more government support for parental leave, government data showed. A total of 131,087 workers took parental leave to take care of their children last year, up 20,532 from the previous year, according to the data by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. Women accounted for 71.1 percent of the workers on leave last year, far outnumbering their male count

　South Korean oil refiners’ exports hit a record-high in 2022, data showed, on the back of soaring global energy prices amid the protracted war between Russia and Ukraine. 　The combined exports of local oil refiners reached $57 billion in 2022, up 71.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea Petroleum Association. 　It marked the highest level since $53.2 billion posted in 2012. By destination, South Korea shipped petroleum products to 64 countries last y