SEJONG -- South Korea is projected to become one of eight superaged societies in the world by 2024, alongside the existing five -- Japan, Italy, Germany, Sweden and France -- and two other candidates like to ascend -- Canada and the UK. A superaged (or post-aged or ultra-aged) society refers to a nation whose elderly population accounts for 20 percent or more of the entire population (one out of every five people), according to a stipulation by the United Nations. The proportion of seniors, a

Social Affairs April 19, 2020

SEJONG -- Wednesay’s election de facto provided both the first and last opportunity for a large portion of voters in a fury to officially tackle the Moon Jae-in administration’s economic policies and judge its midterm performance via the ballot. But the majority of effective ballots chose the ruling party in the 2020 general election. This means opponents of President Moon’s state affairs in the economic sector will have to wait two more years until March 9, 2022, which is th

Economy April 19, 2020

SEJONG – The novel coronavirus is quickly expanding its power to other populous countries after hitting population giants such as China, Iran, Turkey, Germany and the US, and the next populous group including the UK, France, Italy, Spain and South Korea. According to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, the pace of growth of infections is relatively fast in India, Brazil and Russia -- three of the world’s top 10 by population. Among

Social Affairs April 14, 2020

SEJONG -- South Korea has seen the percentage of its youth population drastically decline over the past three decades, while youth accounted for 27.3 percent of the population in 1988. According to a global comparison of 52 countries by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, the nation’s youth population aged up 14 plunged to 12.9 percent as of 2018, after falling below the 20 percent mark in 2004 for the first time. Among the 52 countries with major economies, invol

Social Affairs April 12, 2020

SEJONG -- The number of foreign residents in South Korea has risen dramatically over the past few decades, during which the nation hosted major international sports festivals including the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics and the 2002 FIFA World Cup, data showed. But the data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that Korea has far fewer foreign residents in proportion to its population, compared with other member countries. The OECD defines a foreign national as som

Social Affairs April 9, 2020

SEJONG -- Though the US has the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, 10 European countries have been hit harder in terms of the number of infected people relative to the population. The Korea Herald compared 50 countries around the globe where the number of novel coronavirus infections exceeded 1,400 as of 11 p.m. April 6 (South Korean time). The paper’s calculations were based on epidemiological data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Ten of the 50 countries had more

Social Affairs April 7, 2020

SEJONG -- Over the past one or two months, many online commenters have raised the possibility that COVID-19 would pull down apartment prices in Seoul, pointing out that the Moon Jae-in administration had failed to do so. Some likened the current situation to a decade ago, when the real estate market was hit by the 2008 global financial crisis after continuing to spiral in the mid-2000s. Recent trading data showed that Seoul apartment prices stopped their 10-month continuous increase in the fi

Economy April 5, 2020

SEJONG -- South Korea’s population declined by 1,432 to 51.843 million as of March, posting a fall for the fourth consecutive month, according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety. Though the pace in population decrease has slowed, data shows that a historic inverse in Korea’s demographic trend is underway, which started in December. Compared to November, when the number of residents peaked at 51.851 million, the population has declined by 8,232 over the past four months. The mo

Social Affairs April 2, 2020

SEJONG -- Since 1994, the world’s four biggest, quadrennial sports games have been held in pairs on even-number years – the Summer Olympics and the UEFA Euros on one year, with the FIFA World Cup and the Winter Olympics two years later. And none of these events has been held on an odd-number year for more than a century since 1896. International sports fans had been eagerly waiting for the Euro 2020 (also called the European Football Championship) and the 2020 Tokyo Summer Ol

Industry March 31, 2020

SEJONG -- Government payouts for the jobless are estimated to have shot up to a historic high in March in the wake of COVID-19. The Ministry of Employment and Labor is set to make the figure public in about two weeks. A surge in the number of unemployment benefits claimants is projected for sectors including tourism, airlines, restaurants, lodging, private educational institutes and many other retail services. Among the eight major cities and nine provinces in South Korea, Daegu and Nort

Economy March 29, 2020

SEJONG -- Foreigners’ aggressive net-seller position on the local market has not yet subsided as of the fourth week of March. Over the past 16 trading sessions between March 5-26, foreign corporate investors net sold local stocks worth 10.7 trillion won ($8.69 billion), which are listed on the main bourse. Their divesting has continued for the 16th consecutive session since March 5. Their selling spree, which is attributed to fast spreading COVID-19 worldwide as well as the epidemic&rsq

Economy March 26, 2020

INCHEON -- President Moon Jae-in was pinning high hopes on Kim Hong-hee when appointing the vigorous maritime police officer to be commissioner general of the Korea Coast Guard as part of a powerful reform drive. Moon promoted Kim by two ranks as part of a noteworthy personnel policy early this month. Compared to his 16 predecessors, Kim, 52, is a relatively young chief of what is seen as the maritime police agency of South Korea. “My life has been the continuation of challenges from th

Social Affairs March 24, 2020

SEJONG -- South Korea saw the number of single-person households grow sharply over the past 10 years in the wake of continuously declining marriages, higher divorce rate and increasing number of senior population residing alone. The number of single-person households came to 8.56 million out of the total, 22.56 million households, in the nation as of February, data from the Ministry of Interior and Safety showed. They took up the largest percentage -- 37.9 percent (all-time high) of the total

Social Affairs March 22, 2020

SEJONG -- It has been two months since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in South Korea on Jan. 20. The initial phase was limited to the Seoul metropolitan area, which encompasses the capital as well as nearby Gyeonggi Province and Incheon. The first confirmed case occurred in Incheon and the second was reported three days later in Seoul. The third was discovered in Gyeonggi Province on Jan. 26. Though the novel coronavirus from China took its greatest toll in Daegu and North Gyeongsang

Social Affairs March 19, 2020

SEJONG -- A country’s interest rate generally determines the value of its currency, although this formula may not be applicable to safe havens such as the US dollar, the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen. For an emerging country whose currency depends on reserve currencies like the dollar, a low interest rate incurs an outflow of foreign capital as the currency becomes less attractive to investors. Capital flight results in a cheap local currency. Over the past few

Economy March 17, 2020