Despite the continuing ties, the Kaesong Industrial Region has seen a large decrease in investment and manpower as a result of this military conflict. South China Morning Post. Voluntarily and continuously insured persons consists of individuals 60 years of age who want to fulfill the minimum insured period of 20 years to qualify for old age pension benefits. Various media outlets attribute the country's high suicide rate to the nationwide anxiety around the country's college entrance exams, which determine the trajectory of students' entire lives and careers. Unanswered Questions . The WBG Korea Office is also collaborating with the Korea Development Institute (KDI) on a flagship report to analyze how Korea was able to achieve sustained growth and successfully transition from a middle to a high-income economy, by leveraging innovation and technology. During the financial crisis of the late 1990s, the World Bank supported the government of Koreas reform programs through a series of adjustment loans, worth a total of US$7 billion. While South Koreans use Han (or Hanguk) to refer to both Koreas collectively, North Koreans and ethnic Koreans living in China and Japan use the term Joseon instead. [362], The industrialization and urbanization of South Korea have brought many changes to the way modern Koreans live. This is also why it is harder for an outsider to enter into a high-context culture than a low-context culture. Despite intentions to liberate a unified peninsula in the 1943 Cairo Declaration, escalating tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States led to the division of Korea into two political entities in 1948: North Korea and South Korea. The unification of the Three Kingdoms by Silla in 676 led to the North South States Period, in which Balhae controlled the northern parts of Goguryeo and much of the Korean Peninsula was controlled by Later Silla. Time/General; Weather . [301], South Korea is the third highest ranked Continental Asian country in the World Economic Forum's Network Readiness Index (NRI) after Singapore and Hong Kong respectively an indicator for determining the development level of a country's information and communication technologies. [185] Yet with only so many limited places at the nation's most prestigious universities and even far fewer job openings at top-tier companies to accommodate the glut of numerously highly-qualified university graduates competing for such openings that have flooded the job market, many young South Koreans remain disappointed and are often unwilling to lower their expectations with regards employment prospects with the result of many feeling as though they are underachievers. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}36N 128E / 36N 128E / 36; 128. On 12 October 2011, the U.S. Congress passed the long-stalled trade agreement with South Korea. For example, migrants from China (PRC) make up 56.5 percent of foreign nationals, but approximately 70 percent of the Chinese citizens in Korea are Joseonjok (), PRC citizens of Korean ethnicity.