Korea's Unborn Future: Understanding Low-Fertility Trends

Korea’s birth rates have imploded and are now the lowest in the world. The main reason is that many Korean women are constrained to choose either career or family, while men have little choice but to become the family breadwinner. Inflexible working practices and gender-unequal sharing of caring responsibilities sharpen the career-family trade-off in Korea compared to most other OECD countries, despite a rapid expansion of family policies.

OECD, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs

2025.03.05

Research on Structural Reforms to Enhance Sustainability of the Public Pension System

This study aims to explore structural reform measures for South Korea’s national pension scheme that can ensure both fiscal sustainability and intergenerational equity. Additionally, it seeks to redefine the basic pension system to guarantee an adequate level of retirement income. To achieve these objectives, the paper integrates fiscal projections, based on a new fiscal forecasting model, with analysis from an overlapping generations (OLG) model. Furthermore, it addresses legal issues related to pension reform and examines cases from major countries where social consensus was achieved during the reform process. The paper also discusses the introduction of the Guarantee Pension and various issues facing public pension systems in Korea.

Korea Development Institute

2023.12.31

Strategies for Upscaling Regional Innovation Clusters: Empricial Analysis and Case Studies

This study investigates the growth dynamics of businesses within regional clusters through empirical analysis and identifies the success factors of regional innovation clusters through case studies. Adopting a practical approach, the empirical analysis uses the data from industrial complexes―recognized as the foundation of Korea’s industrial cluster policy―in connection with the establishment level data from Mining and Manufacturing Survey. The empirical analysis addresses three questions: (1) Do businesses within clusters demonstrate superior growth performance compared to those outside? (2) What specific attributes of cluster-based businesses contribute to their growth patterns? In particular, do they demonstrate linkages with regional innovation capacity? (3) How does cluster membership influence recovery from economic crises such as the global financial crisis?

Korea Development Institute

2023.12.31

National Pension Monthly Statistics ('24.11.)

Table 1. Number of Insured Persons, by Year 1 Table 2. Number of Insured Persons, by Sex 2 Table 3. Number of Insured Persons, by Age 3 Table 4. Number of Beneficiaries 4 Table 5. Total Amounts of Monthly Benefits 4 Table 6. Maximum and Average Amounts of Monthly Benefits 4 Table 7. Operation of Pension Fund 5 ▪ Glossary

National Pension Services

2025.02.28

Changes in North Korea’s 20×10 Regional Development Policy: Implications of the Groundbreaking Ceremony for Kangdong County Hospital and General Service Center

Changes in the 20×10 Regional Development Policy in the Final Year of the Five-Year Plan Focus on Addressing the Severe Urban−Rural Disparities in Healthcare and Cultural Life Presentation of a 10-Year Regional Healthcare Modernization Plan during the Ongoing Construction of Pyongyang General Hospital Resumption of Aid and Cooperation Projects for North Korea and Their Association with the 20×10 Policy

Korea Institute for National Unification

2025.03.12

Human Rights Implications of Shock Brigades (Dolgyeokdae) under the Kim Jong Un Regime in 2024: Forced Labor

Frequency and Organizational Status of Shock Brigades in 2024: An Analysis of Rodong Sinmun Articles Basis for Understanding Shock Brigade Mobilization as Forced Labor Expansion of Labor Mobilization through Shock Brigades

Korea Institute for National Unification

2025.03.10

Economic Bulletin, March 2025

In December 2024, industrial production, services production, facilities investment, and construction investment increased, while retail sales decreased from the previous month. In January 2025, job growth rebounded while the growth of consumer prices accelerated. In December, total production (up 2.3% m-o-m and up 1.4% y-o-y) rose, as industrial production (up 4.6% m-o-m and up 5.3% y-o-y), services production (up 1.7% m-o-m and up 1.2% y-o-y) increased. In December, retail sales (down 0.6% m-o-m and down 3.3% y-o-y) decreased, while facilities investment (up 9.9% m-o-m and up 13.1% y-o-y) and construction investment (up 1.3% m-o-m and down 8.3% y-o-y) increased. In January, exports fell by 10.3 percent from a year ago due to the fewer working days. Average daily exports surged by 7.7 percent compared to the previous year. In January, the Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) increased by 3.0 points month-on-month to 91.2. The Composite Business Sentiment Index (CBSI) moved down by 1.4 points to 85.9 in January, while the CBSI outlook for February moved up by 2.5 points to 85.4.

Korea Ministry of Economy and Finance

2025.03.01

Public Institutions in Korea 2024

01. The Management System of Public Institutions 1. Designation 08 2. Classification 10 3. External Governance 11 1) Ownership Steering Committee 11 2) Ministry of Economy and Finance 13 3) Competent Ministries 13 4. Internal Governance 14 1) Board of Directors 14 2) Audit Committee 15

Korea Institute of Public Finance

2024.12.31

East Asian Economic Review Vol.28, No.4 (November 2024)

1. Diplomatic Engagement and Economic Influence: The Interplay of Chinese OFDI and High-Level Visits / Youngjun Choi; Jiaen Li 2. Assessing Policy-related Risk and Export Dynamics: Evidence from 16 Economies / Rizwan Akhtar Jamsheed 3. A Study on the Role of Economic and Institutional Environment on the Corporate Responsibility Performance and its Synchronization / Jong-Hee Kim

Korea Institute for International Economic Policy

2024.12.31

Economically Active Population Survey in February 2025

[Economically active population and labor force participation rate] ◦ The economically active population marked 29.119 million persons in February, which grew 161 thousand persons or 0.6% year-on-year. ◦ The labor force participation rate stood at 63.7% in February, up 0.1%p year-on-year. [Employed persons and employment to population ratio] ◦ The number of employed persons totaled 28.179 million persons in February, which went up 136 thousand persons or 0.5% year-on-year. ◦ The employment to population ratio recorded 61.7% in February, up 0.1%p year-on-year

Statistics Korea

2025.03.12

Korea Reaffirms Commitment to Cooperation for a Safer, Healthier, and More Prosperous Future with Japan and China

Park Minsoo, the 2nd Vice Minister of Health and Welfare (MOHW), participated in the 17th Tripartite Health Ministers’ Meeting held in Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday, December 15. During the meeting, he engaged withchief representatives from Japan and Chinatodiscuss measures for advancing cooperation in health and medical fields to promote peace and prosperity across the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting focused onthree key agendas: strengthening public health through prevention, preparedness, and response to pandemics; promoting healthy aging; and establishing more resilient, equitable, and sustainable healthcare systems to achieve universal health coverage (UHC*).

Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea

2024.12.16

Sharing Policies and Strengthening International Cooperation for Future Social Crisis Response

1st Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Ki-ilattends the2025 OECD Social Policy Ministerial Meeting, scheduled to take place on Friday, February 14, in Paris, France. At the meeting, he will engage in discussions with representatives from OECD member countries and partners under the theme,"New Frontiers for Social Policy: Investing in the Future." This high-level meeting, convenedfor the first time in seven years, is hosted bySpain and Portugal, the co-chairs of the 2025 OECD Ministerial Meeting on Social Policy. The event brings togethersenior officials from OECD member countries and partners,as well as major international organizations in the fields of employment, social affairs, and welfare, forin-person discussions.

Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea

2025.02.11

Addressing Low Birth Rates, Aging Population, and Pension Reforms: Sharing France’s Experience and Discussing Policy Directions

1st Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Ki-il visited major French institutions on pension, population, and family on February 12–13, 2025, in Paris,prior to attending the OECD Social Policy Ministerial Meetingon Friday, February 14. The visit focused on sharing policy experiences to address low birth rates and aging populations–key concerns for both Korea and France-and to ensure the sustainability of the pension system, while exploringavenues to expand bilateral cooperation. During his visit, 1st Vice Minister Lee met with Renaud Villard, General Manager of the French National Elderly Insurance Fund; Gilbert Cette, Chair of the Pensions Advisory Council; and Emmanuel Bretin, Secretary-General. They shared insights regarding both countries’multi-tiered old-age income security systems, past pension reforms in response to demographic changes, and futurefiscal outlook.

Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea

2025.02.17

Studies on Korean Youth (24-04)

Hong, Yea-Ji Identifying types of changes in perceptions of cyberbullying by early adolescents and its relation to gender and empathy Baek, Yeheun･Chung, Hyewon Classifying latent classes in adolescent’s social emotional development and exploring influencing variables Yoo, Changmin Exploring the reciprocal relationship between a student’s life satisfaction and the teacher-student relationship: An auto-regressive cross-lagged model analysis Lee, Sangmi The influence of maternal attachment and maternal parenting stress on externalizing problem behaviors in early adolescents: Sequential mediating effects of self-esteem and internalizing problem behaviors Park, Jongshil · Jeong, Hyesuk · Kim, Sunmi · Jung, Kyungrim A longitudinal mediation effects of coercive parenting attitudes, adolescents’selfesteem and academic engagement using multivariate latent growth curve modelling

National Youth Policy Institute

2024.12.31