As the employment crisis from the pandemic continues, South Korea is seeing its worst job numbers in more than 20 years.
According to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, about 26.3 million people were in employment last month 473-thousand fewer than the same period the previous year. This is the twelfth month in a row that employment has fallen the longest period of decline since April 1999.
The situation was slightly better than the previous month when the number of people employed fell by nearly one-million on-year. Compared to January, there was a smaller decline in the number of people employed in February especially in the face-to-face service sectors, as social distancing measures were eased starting February 15th.
The likely topics of discussion include the ROK-US alliance and North Korea issues.
For more, we have our foreign ministry correspondent Yoon Jung-min joining us live.
Jung-min, what have you heard there so far? Right Devin.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin landed at Osan Air Base a few hours ago.
They are the first Cabinet-level officials to visit Seoul since President Biden took office. In about at hour or so, Blinken will be meeting with his South Korean counterpart Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong.
We also hear that Austin is now meeting his own South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Suh Wook.
It s time for the World Now . Bringing you the latest and some of the most interesting news from around the globe, I m Choi Jeong-yoon.
The worst sandstorm in nearly a decade swept over the Chinese Capital on Mondayturning the skies an eerie shade of orange. Skyscrapers in the center of Beijing nearly disappeared from sight amid the dust and sandand more than four-hundred flights were cancelled.
Traffic was also chaotic.
Due to the poor visibilitydrivers had to turn on their headlights even in the middle of the day.
The air quality index was reported as hazardous with pollutant levels 25 times higher than what s considered safe and some 21 million residents were advised to stay indoors.