The World On arirang

The number of North Korean escapees in the South has exceeded 30,000. The motivations for their defection are changing. Rather than escaping hunger, more are engaging in immigration-type defections, in search of a better life.
The government is operating various support programs to aid the escapees' adjustment to life. Food Trucks operated by escapees have been launched in Seoul and Busan to aid in their financial independence. The civilian sector as well has created an app to assist cultural adjustment by addressing the language barrier faced by young North Koreans.
With more than 30,000 North Korean escapees, we take a look at solutions for the future.

G-STAR 2016, Korea's largest game exhibition was held in BEXCO, Busan from November 17th to 20th. This year's G-STAR was reported to be the largest ever with 653 companies from 35 countries showing 2,719 booths. It also included a special VR exhibition for the new virtual reality trend in gaming which blew up in 2016. Join us at G-STAR, a global festival for the game industry.

AlphaGo generated headlines in March by defeating baduk master Lee Sedol (9-dan). This AI program was acquired by Google from the British start-up Deep Mind. In the last year, the US and China have invested tens of billions of dollars in start-ups. In that technologies with high potential create future industries, uncovering start-ups is seen as a way to secure a foothold in future markets. In particular, Korea is considered a fine investment opportunity thanks to its highly developed mobile technology and prevalence of early adopters. One famed overseas venture investment group has even set up a development body in Korea, seeing the potential of its start-ups. We look at the current state of Korean start-ups, and the directions in which it must proceed.

Sports are evolving into a large industry and the people leading this change are sports agents. With more Korean athletes performing at the top-level in global competitions, professional agents that bring them into larger playing fields and get them international contracts are becoming more important than ever. Sports agents not only negotiate the athletes' contracts and pay, but also take care of everything in between, from scientific training to personal branding and getting sponsorships. These days, sports agents are even acting as talent scouts, seeking out potential star athletes and supporting their development. Find out all about the world of sports agents in our report.