President Moon Jae-in has ordered government agencies to explore ways to help young South Koreans saddled by large amounts of debt, many of whom have taken out loans while unemployed in the pandemic.
That order was for the Korea Student Aid Foundation, which handles student loans, and the Credit Counseling and Recovery Service, which assists borrowers more generally.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service, as of June, the proportion of people in their 20s who had multiple forms of debt was 12.4 percent.
Their numbers rose last year by 5.2 percent on-year to around 782-thousand people.