SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s central bank has warned that failing to act decisively on climate change could leave the nation facing prolonged inflationary pressures as extreme heat and heavy rainfall increasingly disrupt prices. In a report released Monday, the Bank of Korea found that a one-degree Celsius “heat shock,” defined as the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Uncertainty surrounding the United States’ trade policy alone is estimated to reduce South Korea’s economic growth rate by about 0.13 percentage point this year, the central bank said Monday. In late July, Seoul and Washington reached a crucial agreement in which the U.S. imposes a 15 percent tariff on [...]
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, Aug. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — A sweeping change to South Korea’s labor law is already fueling a surge of demands from subcontractor unions, rattling the country’s largest corporations and raising fears of escalating industrial conflict. On August 24, parliament passed the so-called “Yellow Envelope Law,” an amendment to the Trade Union and Labor Relations [...]
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – President Lee Jae Myung said Sunday that it is difficult to agree on a demand by Washington on the strategic flexibility of the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, as the decades-old alliance between Seoul and Washington is expected to face a monumental change, possibly to better deter China. [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — As South Korea’s ruling party presses ahead with the passage of the so-called Yellow Envelope Law, one of the country’s most prominent foreign manufacturers, GM Korea, has urged the government to reconsider, warning that its Korean operations could face a reassessment by Detroit headquarters. At a closed-door meeting convened [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s National Assembly has approved amendments to the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, known as the Yellow Envelope Law, granting subcontracted and platform workers broader bargaining rights and restricting corporate claims for damages against unions. The law, passed on August 24, will take effect after a [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly a decade after it was first proposed, South Korea’s National Assembly on Sunday passed the so-called Yellow Envelope Law, a landmark revision to the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act that limits companies’ ability to claim damages against striking workers and strengthens protections for subcontracted labor. The legislation, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s semiconductor industry was rattled Wednesday by reports that Washington is considering acquiring equity stakes in foreign chipmakers building plants in the United States, including Samsung Electronics and Taiwan’s TSMC. The idea surfaced as the U.S. government explores converting subsidies provided under the CHIPS and Science Act into [...]