Anchor: Statistics Korea has released data indicating the country is experiencing its biggest income disparity in more than a decade. 
Kurt Achin has this overview.

Report: The third quarter data shows South Korea's household income rose from a year earlier, but the income gap between the haves and have-nots has further widened.

An average household earned four-point-75 million won a month between July and September, up four-point-six percent from the previous year.

However, most of the income growth came from households in the upper 20 percent income range, who earned on average nine-point-74 million won in the third quarter, up nearly nine percent from a year earlier.

The monthly average income of the bottom 20 percent income bracket, meanwhile, dropped seven percent on-year to one-point-32 million won.

Amid a slump in the job market, the bottom 20 percent's income earned through wages plunged by more than 22 percent.

The country's distribution ratio for disposable income, a key barometer of earnings equality, reached an eleven-year high of five-point-52 in the July-September period, compared with five-point-18 a year earlier.

Statistics Korea cited a sharp fall in wage income and revenue from smaller self-employed business owners as factors that led to the drop in monthly average earnings of the bottom 20 percent group.

Kim Eui-kyeom, spokesman for President Moon Jae-in, says the administration recognizes the severity of the current situation as reflected in the latest data, and vows to exert efforts to generate results as soon as possible.
Kurt Achin, KBS World Radio News.