Articles by Nam Kyung-don
Nam Kyung-don
don@heraldcorp.com-
[Graphic News] S. Korea's fertility hits record low in 2021
South Korea’s total fertility rate hit a record low last year as the number of childbirths continued to fall, data showed, underscoring the country’s gloomy demographic situation. The country’s birthrate - the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime - came to 0.81 child in 2021, down from 0.84 the previous year, according to data from Statistics Korea. It was the lowest since the statistics agency began compiling related data in 1970. Last year also marke
National Sept. 15, 2022
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[Graphic News] S. Korea ranks 9th among nations with trade surpluses with US in H1: data
South Korea was ranked ninth among countries with trade surpluses with the United States in the first half of the year, as Asia‘s fourth-largest economy recorded strong on-year growth in shipments to the US during the period, US government data showed. According to the Department of Commerce, South Korea’s trade surplus with the US during the January-June period amounted to $21.67 billion, up 86.9 percent from a year ago. The trade surplus grew as South Korean shipments to the
World Business Sept. 14, 2022
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[Graphic News] School violence increases as classes return to normal: survey
Following the return to in-person classes, violence in schools has increased this year, a government survey showed. In the survey by the Education Ministry, 1.7 percent of students said they suffered violence in schools in 2022, up 0.6 percentage point from last year, when most schools shifted classes online due to COVID-19. The number is 0.1 percentage point higher than in 2019, before the pandemic. About 3.21 million students, or 82.9 percent of the total, from fourth grad
National Sept. 13, 2022
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[Graphic News] Monthly K-pop album sales top 10m for first time
Monthly sales of K-pop albums surpassed a combined 10 million for the first time in July thanks to the continued expansion of the global fandoms of idol groups, a market tracker said. According to Kim Jin-woo, head researcher of Circle Chart, which reports accumulated sales and streams, combined sales of the nation’s top 400 physical albums reached 10,827,324 copies in July, a 40.2 percent jump from the previous month. It marked the first time that monthly sales have topped 10 millio
K-pop Sept. 9, 2022
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[Graphic News] S. Korea’s total rice paddy area down in 2022
South Korea’s rice paddy area inched down 0.7 percent in 2022 from last year, as farmers opted to grow other crops due to falling prices of the staple grain, data showed. The country’s rice cultivation area came to 727,158 hectares - slightly more than half the size of the US state of Connecticut - this year, compared to 732,477 hectares a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The government has been prodding farmers to convert their rice paddies int
National Sept. 8, 2022
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[Graphic News] Global TV sales slip more than 6% on-year in H1
Global TV sales fell more than 6 percent from a year prior in the first half of this year on slow demand and macroeconomic woes, research showed, as Samsung Electronics remained the top player in the TV segment. Across the globe, 92.6 million TVs were sold, down 6.6 percent from a year earlier. By value, the decrease was sharper at 12.5 percent, according to industry tracker Omdia. Consumer electronics companies have been struggling to combat lackluster demand after two years of a pandemic
World Business Sept. 7, 2022
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[Graphic News] Marijuana use on the rise among young Americans: study
Marijuana use by young Americans reached record levels last year, and the use of hallucinogens is also on the rise, according to a new study. Forty-three percent of 5,000 young adults between 19 and 30 years old surveyed reported marijuana use within the past year in 2021, up from 34 percent in 2016 and 29 percent in 2011, the Monitoring the Future study by the University of Michigan found. Twenty-nine percent reported using marijuana in the past month in 2021, up from 21 percent in 2016 a
World Sept. 6, 2022
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[Graphic News] 64.1% opposed to banning call recording: poll
About two-thirds of South Koreans are opposed to a proposed bill that would ban the recording of phone calls without consent, on the belief that such recordings can be used to protect themselves or for public good, such as whistleblowing, a survey showed. A group of ruling People Power Party lawmakers, led by Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, has proposed the bill to ban recording phone calls without the consent of all parties to the conversation. Those who breach the law would face up to 10 years in p
National Sept. 5, 2022
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[Graphic News] Nearly 9 out of every 10 S. Koreans hold ‘favorable view’ toward US
Nearly 9 out of every 10 South Koreans hold a favorable view of the United States, the second-highest rating among 17 countries surveyed, a poll showed. In the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 89 percent of Koreans surveyed said they hold a favorable view toward the US, the second-highest rating after Poland with 91 percent. The survey showed more than 80 percent of South Koreans think the US is a reliable partner. South Koreans also showed a high level of confidence in US Pres
World Sept. 2, 2022
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[Graphic News] Foldable smartphone market to grow 73% this year
Foldable smartphone shipments are expected to hit 16 million units this year, growing 73 percent from 9 million units last year, according to industry tracker Counterpoint Research. South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics continued to lead the foldable category it created with the first Galaxy Fold device. China’s Huawei and Oppo came in a distant second and third. Samsung’s share of the foldable market was 62 percent in the first half of this year which is expected to jump
World Business Sept. 1, 2022
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[Graphic News] Hyundai ranks 3rd in H1 global vehicle sales
South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group said it ranked third in first-half global vehicle sales on the strength of high-end model sales, despite difficulties in the global supply of automotive chips. Hyundai Motor, its independent Genesis brand and Hyundai’s smaller affiliate Kia sold a combined 3.299 million vehicles in global markets in the January-June period, trailing only Toyota Motor’s 5.138 million units and Volkswagen’s 4.006 million units, according to their sales
World Business Aug. 31, 2022
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[Graphic News] Just over half of Americans say US should back Ukraine until Russia withdraws: poll
After half a year of war in Ukraine, a slim majority of Americans agree that the United States should continue to support Kyiv until Russia withdraws all its forces, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll. The polling suggests continued support for US President Joe Biden‘s policy of backing Ukraine, despite economic worries and domestic political developments grabbing Americans’ attention in recent months. Out of 1,005 people in the United States who took part in an online p
World Aug. 30, 2022
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[Graphic News] S. Korea’s contraband trade jumps 60% in H1
South Korea’s contraband trade shot up 60 percent in the first half of the year on a spike in tariff evasion and country-of-origin violations, the customs agency said. The Korea Customs Service said it detected and confiscated about 3 trillion won ($2.3 billion) worth of illegal goods and unlawful transactions in the January-June period, compared with 1.9 trillion won a year earlier. Yet the number of contraband cases sank 28 percent on-year to 849 in the six-month period. The KCS
National Aug. 26, 2022
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[Graphic News] Massachusetts named best place to live in US
Massachusetts has been named the best state to live in the United States in a recent survey. WalletHub, a Washington-based personal finance website, has ranked the 50 states’ “livability” according to their affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life and safety in 2022. Massachusetts topped the list garnering 62.65 points out of 100. The state ranked first in “education and health,” fourth in “safety” and sixth in “quality o
World Aug. 25, 2022
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[Graphic News] Son among 2022 Ballon d’Or nominees
Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean forward Son Heung-min was included on the list of 30 finalists for the 2022 Ballon d’Or. Son was named on France Football’s annual list for the second time after his nomination in 2019. Before Son, Korea’s Seol Ki-hyeon, who played in the Belgian soccer league and Park Ji-sung, a former Manchester United midfielder, made the list in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Paris Saint Germain’s Lionel Messi scored only six goals in the 202
Soccer Aug. 23, 2022
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