SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Starting Thursday, South Korea began enforcing a revised labor law that allows employees to seek punitive damages of up to three times the amount of unpaid wages from employers who intentionally withhold pay, as part of a broader effort to crack down on chronic wage arrears. The Ministry of Employment [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – New passenger cars and small commercial vehicles in South Korea will be required to be equipped with pedal misuse prevention systems starting in 2029, a move aimed at reducing accidents caused by unintended accelerations, the transport ministry said Thursday. Under the government’s plan to revise the country’s automobile safety [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 40 years after being forcibly sent to the notorious Samcheong Reeducation Camp under the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan, a victim has won a rare court-ordered compensation from the South Korean government. The Seoul Central District Court recently ruled that the state must pay 95 million won (about [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — More than six years after South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down the nation’s longstanding abortion ban as unconstitutional, lawmakers have yet to pass replacement legislation—leaving women and medical professionals in a state of growing uncertainty. A new government-backed study released Tuesday by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and [...]
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top economic policymakers gathered in Washington this week, pressing to finalize a landmark trade agreement that could redefine the industrial and strategic alignment between Seoul and Washington. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met Thursday for what officials described as an “in-depth” two-hour discussion [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will soon allow organ donations from patients who die after life support is withdrawn and their hearts stop beating — not just those declared brain dead — in a major policy shift aimed at easing the nation’s severe shortage of transplant organs, the government announced Thursday. The change, [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — A new study has found that only 8 percent of South Korean adults would choose to continue life-sustaining treatment if diagnosed with terminal, untreatable cancer, with the vast majority preferring to end life-prolonging care or seek euthanasia or physician-assisted death. According to the Korean Society for Hospice and Palliative [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — A growing number of disputes over public access and shared resources are flaring up among apartment complexes in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam area, reflecting what some sociologists call an “urban tribalism” fueled by skyrocketing property values. In Gangdong District, residents of the 4,066-unit Godeok Arteon complex voted late last month to [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — While much of the world races to unlock the economic and therapeutic potential of medical cannabis, South Korea remains mired in outdated regulations that treat even non-psychoactive compounds as narcotics. Lawmakers and experts warn that this rigid stance is stifling domestic innovation, draining public healthcare funds, and pushing patients [...]
Government Kicks Off “New Leap Fund” to Wipe Out Old Debts for Over 1 Million Borrowers SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean government has launched a new debt relief initiative aimed at helping long-term defaulters rebuild their financial lives, but officials face a key hurdle in securing cooperation from private lenders that [...]