According to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, local courts in Korea granted permission for 863 children to be adopted both in the country and abroad in 2017, down from 890 a year earlier. The decrease is partly attributable to changes in rules that mandate local courts to review and grant adoptions. Adoptions were previously possible upon registration. A total of 465 children we...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has emerged as the world's most powerful person, according to Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful people. Russian President Vladimir Putin ranked second, while US President Donald Trump was third. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was named the fourth most powerful person as well as the most powerful woman, followed by Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man. S...

There is widespread interest about autonomous vehicles in India, Malaysia, China and South Korea, according to a survey by IPSOS in selected countries. The poll results show that 58 percent of global respondents were curious about the technology, but 13 percent swore they would never use it. Thirty percent reported their excitement. India, which records the highest number of road deaths acro...

Nearly 9,300 artists or groups were unjustly excluded from state support or even illegally inspected under the past two conservative administrations for political reasons, a civilian-government fact-finding committee said. After an about 10-month probe into nine kinds of blacklists of artists by authorities under President Lee Myung-bak and his successor President Park Geun-hye from 2008 to 20...

According to a report from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, medical spending in South Korea jumped by an annual average of 6.8 percent from 2005 to 2015 The growth rate during the period outpaced the average of 2.1 percent expansion among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, marking the highest increase of the group. The spending gr...

US President Donald Trump may rule the roost on Twitter, but he lags far behind Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook, according to a study. Modi is by far the most followed world leader on the gargantuan social networking platform, counting 43.2 million followers. That is nearly twice the 23.1 million who follow Trump, according to a study by communications firm Burson-Martsteller...

Global military spending rose in 2017 to its highest level since the Cold War, with the United States, China and Saudi Arabia topping the list, a Swedish research institute said. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated that global military expenditure totaled $1.73 trillion in 2017, up 1.1 percent on 2016. The United States remained the world’s largest spender with $61...

How many issues a newspaper has published reflects the print media's history. Global newspaper giant the New York Times boasts a long history and reputation. But there are few newspapers in Korea that have reached the 30,000th issue because they need to publish for nearly 100 years to hit the number. In that sense, it is meaningful that The Korea Herald, the nation’s No.1 English-language new...

More than 60 percent of South Koreans have confidence in North Korea’s stated willingness for denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula, a survey showed. In a Realmeter survey conducted when the historic inter-Korean summit took place, 64.7 percent of respondents said they trust Pyongyang’s will to denuclearize and work toward lasting peace on the peninsula. Those who don’t trust th...

South Koreans work the third-longest hours among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to a report. Employees in South Korea worked an average of 2,069 hours in 2016, compared to the OECD average of 1,763 hours. The figure includes part-time workers and those who work for part of the year, as well as full-time employees. Mexicans worked the mos...

South Korea’s economic freedom score is 73.8, making its economy the 27th freest in the 2018 Index. Its overall score has decreased by 0.5 point, with a steep decline for the government integrity indicator outweighing an improvement in investment freedom. South Korea ranked 51st as a corrupt nation out of the 180 countries and jumped 20 places to 43rd in press freedom index. North Korea is t...

The leaders of the two Koreas have agreed to “adopt practical steps” to connect and modernize the now-defunct cross-border railway lines. If restored, the rail networks of South Korea will be connected to those of the North, allowing further rail network expansion connecting to China and Russia.

The number of people who moved from Seoul to other regions was 421,887 last month, which is more than 22,367 who moved to Seoul (398,720), according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. Last year, the figure was the lowest in 43 years due largely to a rise in housing prices and rapid aging. Housing prices in Seoul rose sharply last year despite a series of measures to rein in surging pr...

The gap in electricity supply capacity between South Korea and North Korea reached a record high, with the South capable of generating 14 times more in 2016, data from Statistics Korea and local power operators showed South Korea‘s electricity output reached 105,866 megawatts in 2016 if all of its power plants operated at full capacity. By comparison, North Korea’s output was estimated at 7,66...