SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s presidential office said Tuesday it will not be rushed into signing a trade agreement with Washington, cautioning that a deal struck hastily could undermine the interests of Korean companies at a delicate moment in negotiations. Talks have been ongoing since late July, when the two governments reached [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is preparing a sweeping overhaul of regulations governing artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and robotics, as the government seeks to position the country among the global leaders in next-generation industries. At the first Strategic Meeting on Regulatory Reform for Key Sectors, held Monday at the Korea Institute of [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Companies that suffer from at least three industrial accident deaths a year will be fined up to 5 percent of their operating profit, the labor ministry said Monday. Under the new industrial safety measures, the government will revise a law that would revoke the licenses of companies that continually [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — President Lee Jae Myung on Monday urged a broad rollback of outdated regulations and punitive measures that, he argued, have long stifled corporate initiative and deterred investment. Speaking at a meeting on regulatory reform at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, Lee said the country must [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — When more than 300 South Korean workers were swept up in a U.S. immigration raid at a Georgia battery plant earlier this month, the images and testimonies that followed shocked many in Seoul: men shackled at the waist, ankles and wrists, confined in overcrowded cells, sleeping on mold-covered mattresses in [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — When South Korea announced its latest housing policy this month, officials were not only grappling with soaring property prices and supply shortages in the Seoul metropolitan area. They were also contending with a tiny, nocturnal amphibian with outsized influence: the Mongkoi. The Mongkoi (also known as narrow-mouth frog), listed [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s consumer dispute panel has ruled that Volkswagen Group Korea must provide free inspections and replacements for defective air-conditioning systems in certain Audi Q4 e-tron 40 models, citing structural flaws that caused repeated failures. The Korea Consumer Agency’s dispute settlement committee said on Thursday that its review found the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is poised to legalize tattooing by non-medical practitioners for the first time in more than three decades, after a legislative committee approved a bill that would formally recognize tattoo artists as licensed professionals. The Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly passed the so-called Tattooist Act on [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday it will expand its distribution of emergency beacons designed to protect small business owners who often work alone and face heightened risks of harassment or intrusion. The device, known as the “Safe Beacon,” activates flashing lights and a siren outside a shop when [...]
SEOUL, Sept.10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s sweeping government reorganization to expand the Ministry of Environment into a new Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment is drawing sharp criticism from energy experts, who warn that dividing authority over fossil fuels and renewables could weaken policy coherence and threaten energy security. Under the plan, the Environment [...]