South Korea’s imports of beef reached a record high last year on growing demand for the meat and the government’s zero-tariff scheme, data showed. The country’s beef imports came to 477,000 metric tons in 2022, the largest volume ever, compared with 453,000 tons a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Rural Economic Institute. Beef imports have been on a constant rise in recent yea...

Japan’s Fumio Kishida met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on March 21 during a rare, unannounced visit by the Japanese leader that underscored Tokyo’s emphatic support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion. The Japanese prime minister had been the only leader of the Group of Seven rich nations yet to visit Ukraine, which has seen an outpouring of popular support in Japan fol...

The umber of customers who use internet banking in South Korea continued to grow in 2022, thanks to increased availability of online services and people’s preference to make transactions on the go, Bank of Korea data showed. Registered customers for mobile banking totaled some 207.04 million at the end of last year, up 8.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the BOK. The fig...

Hate crimes in the United States surged 11.6 percent in 2021, with the largest number motivated by bias against Black people, followed by crimes targeting victims for ethnicity, sexuality and religion, the FBI said in a report. The FBI said reported hate crime incidents rose to 9,065 in 2021 from 8,120 in 2020. The bureau said 64.5 percent of hate crime victims in 2021 were targeted because of ...

Mergers and acquisitions by South Korean firms decreased 7.7 percent in 2022 from a year earlier amid economic uncertainties, data showed. The number of mergers came to 1,027 cases last year, down from 1,113 cases tallied in 2021, according to the Fair Trade Commission. They were valued at 325.5 trillion won ($245.9 billion), down 6.7 percent over the period. It marked the first time since 2016...

The demise of the 16th-largest bank in the US, Silicon Valley Bank, on March 10, followed by that of Signature Bank two days later, sent global banking stocks on a roller-coaster ride as investors feared another Lehman Brothers moment, the Wall Street giant whose failure triggered the global financial crisis more than a decade ago. Two large banks that cater to the tech industry have collapsed a...

Only 4 percent of single South Korean women in their 20s and early 30s view marriage and childbirth as essential, a survey showed, a development that illustrated the chronic decline in childbirths in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Meanwhile, 12.9 percent of single men in the same age bracket agreed that marriage and childbirth were essential for women, according to the survey conducted by the Ko...

The number of Facebook users in South Korea fell to a record low last month as a growing number of young people opted to use Instagram and other social media platforms, industry data showed. Facebook had a combined 9.79 million South Korean monthly active users on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store as of last month, down 2.6 percent from a month ago, according to the data by Mobile In...

As the costs of eating out have continued to soar, the average prices of bibimbap and cold noodles have both exceeded 10,000 won ($7.70). In January this year, the average price of eight representative restaurant menu items in Seoul rose 10.8 percent compared to during the same period last year, according to the Korea Consumer Agency. In particular, jajangmyeon rose 13.9 percent from 5,769 won ...

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 ...

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 export...

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 editi...

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...

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...

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...