South Korea 2014
Yearbook 2014
South Korea. According to Countryaah.com, South Korea population in 2020 is estimated at 51,269,196. A ferry disaster that occurred in April became a national trauma that caused great anger against the government and the authorities. More than 300 people, the majority of schoolchildren, were killed when the Sewol ferry sank off the coast in the southwest. The rescue work was slow and characterized by chaos. The anger was great when it became apparent that passengers were being asked to stay in their cabins while crew members put themselves in safety.
Prime Minister Chung Hong Won resigned as a result of the government’s poor handling of the disaster. But President Park Geun Hye’s attempt to appoint a replacement failed, two candidates whom she appointed withdrew after criticism and in June the president decided to retain Chung. The National Assembly’s work was paralyzed for several months as the dominant parties entered an investigation into the accident and a new disaster authority. As a result of the accident, it was also decided that the Coast Guard would be reorganized and a couple of senior intelligence and security officers resigned.
The judicial aftermath also became dramatic. An extensive police hunt was started after the main owner of the shipping company, Yoo Byung Eun, who was suspected of gross negligence until the death of another. He was a wealthy businessman and known as the leader of a religious sect. The hunt was interrupted after a couple of months when Yoo was found dead. According to Abbreviation Finder, KR stands for South Korea in English. Click to see other meanings of this 2-letter acronym.
Fifteen crew members were sentenced in November to prison, mainly for neglect and for abandoning the passengers. The captain and chief engineer received 36 and 30 years respectively, while the others were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. The government finally decided to post an investigation into the disaster following strong pressure from relatives of the victims. Most of it pointed out that the accident was mainly caused by the ferry being rebuilt illegally and being overloaded and the crew being inexperienced.
According to topb2bwebsites, Pope Francis visited South Korea in August and led a mass for 80,000 Catholics in Seoul. The Pope blamed 124 Korean martyrs who were murdered in the 18th and 19th centuries when the rulers tried to stop the spread of Christianity on the Korean Peninsula.
Economy
| Inflation rate | 1.90% |
| Unemployment rate | 3.7% |
| Gross domestic product (GDP) | $ 2,035,000,000,000 |
| GDP growth rate | 3.10% |
| GDP per capita | $ 39,500 |
| GDP by sector | |
| Agriculture | 2.20% |
| Industry | 39.30% |
| Service | 58.30% |
| State budget | |
| Revenue | 219.5 billion |
| Expenditure | 215.7 billion |
| Proportion of the population below the national poverty line | 16.5% |
| Distribution of household income | |
| Top 10% | 24.2 |
| Lower 10% | 2.7 |
| Industrial production growth rate | 1.80% |
| Investment volume | 29.3% of GDP |
| National debt | 39.50% of GDP |
| Foreign exchange reserves | $ 374,800,000,000 |
| Tourism | 2014 |
| Visitors | 14,202,000 |
| Revenue | $ 23,008,000,000 |
Demography and economic geography. – East Asian state. The population (48,580,000 at the 2010 census, 49,512,026 residents, according to an estimate by UNDESA, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, of 2014) grew at a slow pace (0.5% in the period 2000-05, 0.6% in the period 2005-10, 0.5% in the period 2010-15). The current demographic profile of the R. di Korea reveals dynamics typical of countries with advanced economies. The very high Human Development Index has significantly increased in just over twenty years: from 0.628 in 1980 to 0.891 in 2013. Life expectancy at birth has increased over the same period: from 66.1 years in 1980 to 81.5 in 2013 (the year in which the population over 60 years of age represented 17% of the total). The fertility rate fell steadily from 5 children per woman in the 1950-55 five-year period to 1.3 in the 2010-15 period (an increase, however, compared to that of 1.2 recorded in 2000-10). If in 2010 the country had a mature age structure, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The aging of the population is considered by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to be one of the main obstacles to the economic growth of the Republic of Korea.
Economic conditions. – Further obstacles can be identified, again for the IMF, in the low productivity in the service sector, in the dualism of the labor market and in the low employment of some segments of the population. Compared to the first element, compared to an OECD average of 87%, productivity in services represents only half of that of manufacturing (the latter of a high level worldwide), as are investments in the sector (which are more consistent, however, in the secondary). Even with respect to the employment rate, the country is below the OECD average, considering in particular women (who in 2012 expressed a participation rate of 60%, compared to 70-80% in other advanced countries) and young people male. To raise the employment rate to 70% by 2017 (from 64% in 2012), percent roadmap, aimed at shifting the focus from the creation of male jobs in manufacturing production and in conglomerates (chaebols) to the implementation of female jobs in services and small and medium-sized enterprises. R. di Korea, which is currently the 15th economy in the world, faced the economic crisis of 2008 – which had hit its export-centered economy hard – by opening up to foreign investment and imports. However, exports still represent around half of GDP (which grew by 3% from 2010 to 2013). This is the context of the free trade agreement that R. di Korea entered into with the United States, ratified by both countries in 2011 and entered into force in 2012.
