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Yoon Ja-young

Korea Times AI content 1 team Reporter

Yoon Ja-young is in charge of articles translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times. She is interested in improving the newspaper through AI.

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Defense

Boosting consumption key for economic turnaround

Consumers look at clothes at I’Park Mall at Yongsan Station, Seoul, Thursday. Department stores are launching promotional events to attract consumers who are refraining from spending amid stalled income growth and the insecure job market./ YonhapBy Yoon Ja-young When Kim heard the news that the country’s per capita income is nearing $30,000, he wondered why he doesn’t feel that rich. The 48-year-old, who works as a manager for a mid-tier manufacturing company, owns an apartment in Seoul, valued at around 550 million won, and earns 60 million won a year. However, he said he is always worried about money.“After paying my mortgage and tuition for my kids, there is no money left for saving. When I think about my life after retirement, which will come after a few years, there seems to be no solution at all. I am just trying not to spend money on unnecessary things,” he said.Koreans are cutting consumption, but the natural decision is raising the fear that this may pull the economy into the long recession that Japan has been struggling with.According to t

Apr 2, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Boosting consumption key for economic turnaround
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Economy

Can Korea become 2nd biggest AIIB stakeholder?

By Yoon Ja-young After announcing its decision to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the government says its priority is to maximize its stake.“The member countries are currently discussing how to determine the stake of each member. They are discussing setting the stake based on economic power, but other factors will also be taken into account,” said Choi Hee-nam, deputy minister of international affairs at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Friday.The finance ministry announced its decision to join the AIIB Thursday after months of deliberation between its long-time ally, the United States, and China, which has become Korea’s most important trading partner. Korea became the 36th country to announce it is joining the bank. Now, all eyes are on how much of a stake Korea will take in the bank. The quota is significant as it determines the voting power in the international organization. When the government first started considering joining the AIIB, there was an expectation that Korea would be the second-largest stakeholder in the bank f

Mar 27, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Can Korea become 2nd biggest AIIB stakeholder?
Economy

Saving becomes luxury for Koreans

By Yoon Ja-young There was time when Koreans boasted the world’s top savings rate, but now saving seems to be a luxury. A survey shows that most Koreans are barely making ends meet.According to a survey cited in a report published by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, only 10 percent of Korean households say they can afford to save. Sixty-eight percent said they were making ends meet, neither saving nor borrowing money. Eleven percent said they were spending money from their savings, and 8 percent said they were getting loans.Those in their 50s or older, earning 3 million won or less a month, and those with high school diplomas, were especially facing tough times managing their money. The households of non-regular workers were also often more likely to fall into deficit.The survey also shows that Koreans are exposed to instability in housing and jobs.When asked whether they might have to leave their residence due to the burden of housing prices within a year, more than one out of four among those in their 20s, 30s and 40s said “yes.”When asked w

Mar 27, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Job competency over TOEIC scores State-run enterprises to hire rookies on job competency test

By Yoon Ja-youngForget TOEIC scores or other writing tests, state-run enterprises will be hiring rookies based on their job competency rather than test scores unrelated to the job.The government and 130 state-run enterprises signed an MOU, Tuesday, to overhaul their hiring requirements. The companies decided to adopt National Competency Standards (NCS), an employment system set up by the government.The measure comes amid increasing concern that jobseekers are wasting too much time and effort building up so-called “spec” skills to get a decent job. Spec, or short for specification, refers to a list of achievements and certifications such as high TOEIC scores, internships and other social experience. Young jobseekers have been hugely focused on building up high spec to impress potential employers.However, this is regarded by many as a waste of time and effort as these high specs don’t necessarily have a lot to do with their job skills.“Though jobseekers spend a lot of time and money studying for high English scores and diverse certificates, often they don’

Mar 24, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

A long day for Korean salaried workers

By Yoon Ja-youngLee, a salaried worker in Seoul, wakes up at 6:36 every morning.He spends 44 minutes on a subway and a bus to reach work before 9 a.m., the official start time for his job.He checks his e-mail upon arriving at the office, and then has a cup of coffee.After spending the morning hours working busily, he usually goes to the company cafeteria for lunch, but sometimes goes out. He spends about 5,346 won for lunch.He sometimes leaves the office around 7 p.m., but often he works until after 9 p.m.After arriving home, he normally does nothing but watch TV, and when he goes to bed it’s usually past midnight.Above constitutes the average day for a Korean salaried worker, based on a survey by Saramin, a job market information portal.According to the survey of 1,964 salaried workers, Koreans work an average of 11 hours per day.They wake up at 6:36 a.m., on average, and 39 percent said they take the subway to get to work. Those who take the bus totaled 38.2 percent.It takes an average of 44 minutes to get to work.Four out of 10 companies demand workers arrive between 8:30 an

Mar 24, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Chaebol sitting on record cash reserve

By Yoon Ja-young The nation’s top 10 conglomerates are sitting on record cash reserves despite the government’s pressure on them to share their profits through dividends and investment.According to chaebul.com, a conglomerate research firm, the combined internal reserves of the country’s top 10 conglomerates increased by nearly 40 trillion won last year, surpassing 500 trillion won.Samsung Group posted the largest internal reserves, while Lotte Group posted the highest ratio of reserves to paid-in capital.By company, SK Telecom posted the highest reserve-to-capital ratio, exceeding 30,000 percent.Chaebul.com compiled the internal reserves of 96 listed subsidiaries of the country’s top 10 conglomerates. The total stood at 503.9 trillion won as of the end of 2014, which is 37.6 trillion won more, or up 8.1 percent, from the previous year. The internal reserve comprises profit reserves and capital surplus, including the cash piled up internally after giving dividends and bonuses, among other allocations.The government had adopted a tax on excess cash reserve

Mar 23, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Gold bourse marking stable growth

By Yoon Ja-young The country’s first gold bourse has had solid growth since its launch last year, its operator the Korea Exchange (KRX) said, Monday. According to the KRX, total trading at the gold bourse since its opening in March last year reached 1,472 kilograms, worth 63.1 billion won.The country launched the gold bourse to crack down on shadows deals, as about 60 percent of gold transactions here were presumed to be made covertly to evade tax.The daily trading was sluggish at 3.8 kilograms for the first six months after its launch, but it more than doubled to 8.3 kilograms a day in the latter six months. On Dec. 16, the daily trading stood at a record-high 28.2 kilograms.The number of active accounts at the gold bourse reached 1,000 on June 3, and 2,000 on Dec. 4. It stands at 2,941 as of March this year, continuing the steep increase.“Favorable prices and low transaction costs coupled with tax incentives seem to have attracted gold investors,” a spokesman for the KRX said. The investors are exempt from value added tax and dividend income tax for transacti

Mar 23, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Housing market recovery to gain speed

People line up at a display home for Centlas apartments in eastern Seoul, last week. The housing market is recovering from a long slump partly due to a recent decision by the Bank of Korea to cut its rates. / YonhapBy Yoon Ja-youngThe housing market is recovering from a long slump on a key rate cut by the central bank, as well as continuous deregulation by the government.Analysts expect the recovery mood to continue for a while, but a key rate hike by the United States remains a major risk.“Some of the customers who were seeking jeonse decided to buy an apartment instead, as it is extremely difficult to find one, not to mention the high jeonse prices,” said Lee Ju-young, a real estate agent in Sindang-dong, downtown Seoul.“Even when they buy homes with mortgages, it isn’t because burdensome as before as the interest rate is falling,” he added.Jeonse is Korea’s unique property rental system where tenants pay a lump sum deposit to a landlord at the start of a rental contract. The tenant gets the full deposit back at the end of the contract, which typ

Mar 22, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Gov't boosts effort to fight deflation

By Yoon Ja-youngThe government will spend an extra 3 trillion won over the next couple of months, while using state banks and other tools to pump in 7 trillion won to boost the economy amid growing deflationary risks.“Though the real economic indices have been improving slowly, consumption isn’t picking up due to structural problems such as stagnant wages,” Strategy and Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said at the economic ministers’ meeting, Friday. He pointed out that corporate investment is weak due to lack of effective demand.“The government will frontload 3 trillion won more of its budget in the first half and expand investment by 7 trillion won to bolster the economy,” he said.It means 58.6 percent of the total budget will be spent in the first six months.According to the Korea Institute of Public Finance, the government can pull up the economic growth rate by an additional 0.23 percentage points by frontloading 58 percent of the budget.The government also plans to apply a corporate investment promotion program where the Korea Development Ban

Mar 20, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Gov't boosts effort to fight deflation
Economy

Kia Motors snubs pension fund's request at shareholders meeting

By Yoon Ja-young Kia Motors reappointed a board member opposed by the National Pension Fund (NPF) at a shareholders meeting Friday.  Clashes between conglomerates and the NPF are expected to continue as the fund is poised to intervene in management of companies as a major shareholder.At the general shareholders’ meeting, the nation’s second-largest automaker passed the appointment of a vice chairman and a vice president. It also decided to reappoint Kim Won-joon, a former ranking official at the Fair Trade Commission, as an outside director.The pension fund, which is Kia’s second-largest shareholder with about a 7 percent stake, however, said that it opposed the reappointment of Kim, citing Hyundai Motor Group’s recent controversial land purchase.Hyundai Motor consortium, including Kia Motors, offered 10.5 trillion won to purchase land from the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. in September, raising concerns over the deal.The NPF determined that Kim didn’t fulfill his responsibility of checking management.It also disapproved of the appointme

Mar 20, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
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