SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s unexpectedly strong start to the year is beginning to reshape investor sentiment, as retail traders scale back bets on a market downturn and shift cautiously toward products that track the rise of the benchmark index. Data released Wednesday by Yonhap Infomax showed that individual investors last week reduced [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — A growing share of young South Koreans are stepping away from the labor market altogether, a shift that economists say reflects deeper structural strains in an economy struggling to adapt to technological change and slowing growth. According to a report released Tuesday by the Bank of Korea, the proportion of [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is confronting renewed debate over its drone regulations as the number of registered unmanned aircraft approaches 70,000 and hobbyists increasingly complain that the country’s rules are among the world’s most restrictive. Online forums and instructional videos about drones are frequently filled with frustrated comments from users who say [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — A large majority of South Korean workers say the rapid spread of artificial intelligence is likely to widen labor-market inequality and deepen wealth polarization, according to a new nationwide survey. The poll, conducted in October 2025 by research firm Global Research on behalf of the labor advocacy group Workplace Abuse [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Young workers in South Korea are increasingly gravitating toward large corporations, even as employment at small businesses shrinks to historic lows — a widening divide that is reshaping the country’s labor market. Government microdata from the Economically Active Population Survey show that in 2025, the number of people in their [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Efforts to return Bella, a captive beluga whale housed at Lotte World Aquarium, to the wild may no longer be realistically achievable, according to members of an expert advisory panel, deepening one of South Korea’s most contentious animal welfare debates. At least three of four external members of the aquarium’s [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics said it will pay sharply higher performance bonuses this year to employees in its semiconductor division, reflecting a strong rebound in memory earnings and robust sales of high-value chips, according to an internal notice released Friday. The company’s Device Solutions (DS) division, which oversees semiconductors, will receive an [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Applications to artificial intelligence–related majors surged in South Korea’s 2026 regular university admissions cycle, underscoring the growing perception of AI as a gateway to future employment and industrial relevance. According to an analysis released Monday by Jongro Academy, the number of applicants to AI-related departments at 20 leading universities rose [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics is on the verge of forming its first-ever majority labor union, as membership in its cross-company union has surged amid persistent employee dissatisfaction over performance-based pay, despite the company’s record profits. According to industry sources on Jan. 11, membership in the Samsung Electronics branch of the cross-company union [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign nationals are becoming increasingly common among the founding families of South Korea’s largest conglomerates, particularly in the third and fourth generations, raising new questions about corporate governance and disclosure rules, according to a recent study. An analysis released Wednesday by CEO Score found that 41 members of controlling shareholder [...]