Statistics Korea says large firms accounted for 61 percent of combined operating profits of all corporate tax-paying South Korean businesses in 2017.

That's up from 55-point-seven percent in 2016. 

Sales of large firms also accounted for 48 percent of total corporate revenue last year.

Even though more than 99 percent of all South Korean firms are small or medium-sized, their combined sales made up less than 38 percent of last year's combined total.  Their combined operating profit represented about 25 percent of the total.

Large firms account for only zero-point-three percent of the total number of South Korean firms.

The numbers reflect an intensification of what policy experts describe as a disproportionate concentration of economic power held by South Korean conglomerates.