In the first quarter of this year, the amount of overdue business loans held by self-employed business owners in South Korea exceeded 10 trillion won for the first time, reaching a total of 10.8 trillion won. This marked a significant increase from 2.6 trillion won in the last quarter of 2021 and 8.4 trillion won in the fourth quarter of last year. The late payments accounted for 1.66 percent of the business loans, the highest percentage since the first quarter of 2013. In addition to business loans, self-employed individuals in South Korea collectively owed 1,055.9 trillion won in loans to banks and other institutions as of the first quarter, representing an increase from the previous quarter and setting a new record. According to Statistics Korea, there were 5.52 million self-employed business owners in South Korea as of January, with 4.09 million of them operating without any other employees. When household loans are factored in, the Bank of Korea estimated that 19.73 million South Koreans were collectively indebted for 1,852.8 trillion won, with an average debt-service ratio of 38.7 percent. This indicates that, on average, individuals with household loans spend 38.7 percent of their annual income on debt repayment.