North Korea ranks 193rd out of 195 countries in terms of its ability to prevent, detect and respond to an epidemic, a recent global health security index showed.　The impoverished North scored 17.5 points in the index compiled by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US-based nonprofit organization, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, coming higher than only two countries -- Equatorial Guinea and Somalia.　The global average was 40.2 points.　Meanwhile, South Korea ranked 9th in the index

North Korea Nov. 14, 2019

　Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern province Sichuan, overtook technology hub Shenzhen to top the Milken Institute’s 2019 index of the nation’s best-performing cities.　This is the third time that Chengdu, best known internationally for its pandas, has been ranked first since the list began in 2015. 　The index incorporated nine indicators for the period up to 2017, including employment and wage growth, the growth in gross regional product per-capita, and foreign direct

World News Nov. 13, 2019

　Over 800 North Koreans have defected to South Korea so far in 2019, government data showed, indicating their annual figure will be similar to that recorded a year earlier.　A total of 828 North Koreans defected to the South during the January-October period, according to data provided by the Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean affairs.　At the current rate, the annual number of North Koreans settling here is expected to be similar to 1,137 registered last year. (Yonhap)

North Korea Nov. 12, 2019

　China now has more privately held startups valued by investors at over $1 billion than the US, a report said.　There were 206 Chinese firms out of a global total of 494 ultravaluable startups - known as unicorns - in June 2019, according to the research firm Hurun Report.　This makes China the country with the largest number of unicorns in the world, with the US coming in second with 203 such companies.　According to Hurun, China is home to the world’s three most valuable unicorns - Alibaba

World Business Nov. 11, 2019

　The number of temporary workers in South Korea rose 13.1 percent on-year this year, with such positions also accounting for a rising percentage of the total, government data showed.　A total of 7.48 million workers were nonregular workers, part-timers or outsourced laborers as of August 2019, up about 870,000 from a year ago, according to the data from Statistics Korea.　They accounted for 36.4 percent of the country’s 20.55 million salaried employees.　In 2018, temporary workers accounted f

Social Affairs Nov. 10, 2019

　Users of smartphones running on fifth-generation networks used a record amount of data in September, data showed, amid growing demand for mobile content.　The combined amount of data used by South Korean users of 5G mobile devices reached 87,928 terabytes, according to the data released by the Ministry of Science and ICT.　Since the number of 5G subscribers totaled 3.46 million that month, the figure translates to 25.97 gigabytes per user. A two-hour high-definition movie file has around 2 gigaby

Industry Nov. 7, 2019

　The past weeks have seen a wave of protest movements erupt in countries worldwide.　The high cost of living, limits on civil liberties and government corruption have sparked major demonstrations.　Here is an overview of the main demonstrations around the world that started last month and others that are ongoing. (AFP)

World News Nov. 6, 2019

　More than 15,000 children under the age of 5 die every day in the developing world, with huge disparities in death rates between countries, according to a detailed assessment of childhood mortality.　From 2000 to the end of 2017, 123 million newborns, infants and toddlers perished in 99 low- and middle-income countries, which account for more than 90 percent of under-5 deaths, the study found.　Globally, under-5 mortality has declined by almost half since 2000, from nearly 10 million to 5.4 milli

World News Nov. 5, 2019

　For the fifth year running, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard topped Reuters’ ranking of the world’s most innovative universities, a list that identifies and ranks the educational institutions doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and power new markets and industries. 　Stanford holds onto its top spot year after year because it produces a steady stream of innovations that are cited by other researchers in academia and private

Social Affairs Nov. 4, 2019

　A third of South Koreans were given prescription narcotics in the past year, as more people received comprehensive medical checkups, government data showed.　More than 17.8 million people received drugs like propofol and zolpidem, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said, citing some 107 million pieces of data collected from July 2018 through June this year.　The drug safety agency said pain killers, sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs were the most common types prescribed by doctors, with women ma

Technology Nov. 3, 2019

　The number of website defacements in South Korea has increased in 2019 from a year earlier, an opposition lawmaker said.　Rep. Shin Yong-hyeon of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party said webpage-related hackings, including the stealing of confidential information and injection of malicious code, numbered 501 cases as of August, compared with 567 for the whole of 2018.　The lawmaker cited findings submitted by the Korea Internet & Security Agency for a parliamentary audit.　She said the numb

National Oct. 31, 2019

Nine in 10 K-pop fans would like to visit South Korea in the future, a survey showed, highlighting K-pop’s positive impact on the tourism sector.In a survey of 12,663 people from 111 countries who identified themselves as K-pop fans, 89.8 percent of the respondents said they would like to visit the country, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.The survey showed BTS was the most popular group followed by EXO, Super Junior and Big Bang. (Yonhap)

K-pop Oct. 30, 2019

　Norway and Switzerland are the best countries for women and Yemen and Afghanistan the worst, according to research.　While women’s quality of life has improved in some 60 countries, it has deteriorated in Yemen and other war-torn nations, research organizations Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security and Peace Research Institute Oslo concluded. 　The researchers looked at 167 countries since 2017, when the first Women, Peace and Security Index was compiled, wei

World News Oct. 29, 2019

　The number of rich Chinese has surpassed the count of wealthy Americans for the first time as both countries keep churning out millionaires, a study by Credit Suisse showed. 　The Swiss bank’s annual wealth survey found 100 million Chinese ranked in the global top 10 percent as of the middle of this year versus 99 million in the United States. 　The ranks of the world’s millionaires have risen by 1.1 million to an estimated 46.8 million, collectively owning $158.3 trillion in net asse

World Business Oct. 28, 2019

　Health insurance spending to cover smoking and drinking-related treatments reached 13 trillion won ($11 billion) from 2016 through 2018, data showed.　According to a report submitted to Rep. Jung Choun-sook by the National Health Insurance Service for the ongoing parliamentary audit, annual expenditures, including insurance coverage and costs paid by individuals, exceeded 4.6 trillion won last year, up 16 percent from 2016.　Costs to deal with treatment for smoking and drinking made up some 8 per

Technology Oct. 24, 2019