SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — A government-funded study, quietly withheld during South Korea’s contentious pension reform debate, has surfaced with stark warnings that elderly poverty could worsen dramatically under the current system, raising questions over transparency and policy priorities. The report, produced last December by researchers at the National Pension Research Institute, projected that if the [...]
GUNSAN, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The city of Gunsan in North Jeolla Province said Monday it will begin accepting applications from local farmers to join its 2025 Ecosystem Service Payment Program, designed to secure food and habitat for migratory birds that flock to the Geum River and Mangyeong River estuaries each winter. Under the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will expand a pilot program this month aimed at improving the irregular work schedules of nurses, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced Sunday. Beginning Sept. 1, 94 hospitals and clinics selected through a government review will join the second phase of the initiative, which was first [...]
SEJONG, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s government has proposed a 2025 budget that emphasizes everyday safety and cost-of-living relief, with measures ranging from preventing car accidents and manhole falls to subsidizing school fruit snacks and low-cost weddings in national parks. The Ministry of Economy and Finance on Sunday outlined plans that reflect a [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean schools are preparing to revise their internal rules after lawmakers passed a law banning the use of smartphones and other digital devices during class beginning next semester. Yet with education authorities leaving key decisions to individual schools, administrators are grappling with how far the restrictions should go. [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is intensifying its campaign against e-cigarettes, warning that the vapor inhaled and exhaled is far from harmless. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Saturday it will launch a second round of anti-smoking advertisements on September 1, focusing on the dangers of e-cigarette aerosol. The campaign, titled [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Sunday it will roll out a nationwide awareness drive to encourage people, especially younger adults, to monitor key health indicators in order to prevent cardiovascular disease, one of the country’s leading causes of death. The campaign, called “Know Your Numbers, [...]
SEOUL· SEJONG, Aug. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — AliExpress, the Chinese e-commerce platform, has been hit with a multimillion-dollar penalty in South Korea for misleading customers with inflated discount claims on thousands of products. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Sunday it imposed corrective orders and fines totaling 20.93 billion won ($15.5 million) after finding that [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulators said Wednesday they will impose significantly harsher penalties on accounting fraud, expanding fines for both companies and executives in an effort to close loopholes that have allowed senior management to escape responsibility. Under the new framework approved by the Securities and Futures Commission, fines for [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s parliament has passed a law banning the use of smartphones during class time in elementary, middle and high schools, in an effort to curb youth overdependence on digital devices — though critics argue the measure could prove largely symbolic and even restrictive of students’ rights. The amendment [...]