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As Korea Attracts More Global Talent, Foreign Employment Reaches Historic High

As Korea Attracts More Global Talent, Foreign Employment Reaches Historic High

SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of foreign workers in South Korea surpassed 1.1 million in 2025 to reach a record high, with the proportion of employed international students also sharply up, a survey showed Thursday. As of May, there were 1.69 million foreigners aged 15 or older residing in Korea, up 8.4 [...]

Seoul Aims to Build an AI-Ready Workforce With Massive Training Push

Seoul Aims to Build an AI-Ready Workforce With Massive Training Push

SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to provide artificial intelligence (AI) job-training to more than one million people by 2030, the government announced Thursday, outlining an expansive workforce initiative aimed at preparing the labor market for rapid technological change. The Ministry of Employment and Labor unveiled the plan — titled the “AI+ Competency-Up [...]

From Palaces to Pop Culture: Korea Maps Out a ₩100 Trillion Heritage Future

From Palaces to Pop Culture: Korea Maps Out a ₩100 Trillion Heritage Future

SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to expand its national heritage–based industries into a ₩100 trillion ($75 billion) market over the next five years, positioning cultural legacy as a core driver of the country’s global soft power, the Korea Heritage Service (KHS) said Wednesday in its 2026 policy blueprint. The initiative comes amid [...]

Foreign Tourists Shift Toward Practical, Taste-Driven Spending

Foreign Tourists Shift Toward Practical, Taste-Driven Spending

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign visitors to South Korea are increasingly favoring “value-for-money” shopping aligned with personal tastes, signaling a shift away from the high-end, big-ticket purchases that once dominated tourist consumption, according to new data released by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO). An analysis of foreign credit card transactions from 2018 through September [...]

New Media Regulator Moves to Rein In Fake News With National Transparency Hub

New Media Regulator Moves to Rein In Fake News With National Transparency Hub

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s newly created media regulator said Friday it will open a transparency center next year to confront the spread of online disinformation, signaling an aggressive shift in how the government intends to police digital content. The announcement came as the Korea Media Communications Commission (KMCC) delivered its first [...]

Newlyweds Are Disappearing in South Korea. The Next Generation May Follow.

Newlyweds Are Disappearing in South Korea. The Next Generation May Follow.

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s newlywed population slipped below the one-million mark for the second year in a row in 2024, a symbolic threshold for a country already preoccupied with its demographic future. Government data released Friday show just 952,000 couples had been married for five years or less last year—a 2.3 [...]

Seoul to Require Labels on AI Content and Impose Punitive Damages for Misleading Ads

Seoul to Require Labels on AI Content and Impose Punitive Damages for Misleading Ads

SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will introduce new regulations to curb the rapid spread of artificial intelligence–generated false and exaggerated advertising, including a mandatory labeling system for AI-produced content and punitive damages for malicious misinformation, government officials said Wednesday. The package was approved at a national policy coordination meeting chaired by Prime Minister [...]

Seoul to Broaden Medical Data Access as Part of National AI Healthcare Strategy

Seoul to Broaden Medical Data Access as Part of National AI Healthcare Strategy

SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to gradually open access to its national integrated bio big data system beginning in the second half of next year, as part of a broader push to accelerate the use of medical and public health data across research and clinical fields, the government said Wednesday. The Ministry [...]

A Quiet Demographic Shift: South Korea Becomes Less Homogenous

A Quiet Demographic Shift: South Korea Becomes Less Homogenous

SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is quietly becoming more diverse. New census data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Data show that people with a migration background accounted for more than 5 percent of the country’s population in 2024 — a modest but meaningful increase in a nation long assumed to be [...]

Police Reassign Medical Sleuth to Reinvestigate Alleged Kickbacks to Seoul Resident Doctors

Police Reassign Medical Sleuth to Reinvestigate Alleged Kickbacks to Seoul Resident Doctors

SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean police have reassigned an investigator specializing in medical crimes to reexamine allegations that resident doctors at a major Seoul hospital received illicit kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies, signaling renewed scrutiny of a case long criticized for lackluster enforcement. According to officials and reporting by Yonhap News Agency, the Seoul [...]