SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s real estate slowdown has pushed the number of active licensed realtors below 110,000 for the first time in more than five years, as prolonged policy tightening and weak housing demand reshape the industry. According to data released Wednesday by the Korea Association of Realtors, 109,979 real estate agents [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is preparing to abolish a decades-old legal requirement obligating civil servants to obey orders from their superiors, a cornerstone of the country’s bureaucratic culture since 1949. The move marks one of the most significant shifts in public-sector governance in more than half a century. The Ministry of Personnel [...]
ANKARA & SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — President Lee Jae Myung’s recent four-nation trip — anchored by his appearance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg and followed by stops in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Turkey — was less a ceremonial swing through diplomatic capitals than a quiet attempt to reposition South Korea within [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s largest companies have expanded their executive ranks more than three times faster than their employee headcounts over the past five years, widening internal hierarchies even as some industries shed staff, a new analysis shows. According to data released Nov. 25 by corporate research firm Leaders Index, 331 major [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — A new joint venture between South Korea’s Shinsegae Group and China’s Alibaba International has begun operations with major year-end promotions, signaling the start of what many in the retail sector expect will be a reshaping of the country’s e-commerce landscape. Grand Opus Holdings, the JV formed by the two companies, [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is preparing to sharply loosen restrictions on who may enroll in clinical trials for new cancer drugs, a shift that could give patients earlier access to promising therapies and reshape long-standing practices in oncology care. For years, many cancer patients and their families have confronted a painful paradox: [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean consumer confidence climbed to its highest level in eight years this month, buoyed by easing trade uncertainty and stronger-than-expected economic data, according to a Bank of Korea survey released Tuesday. The central bank’s Composite Consumer Sentiment Index (CCSI) rose to 112.4 in November, up 2.6 points from October [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The International Monetary Fund held its forecast for South Korea’s 2025 economic growth at 0.9%, saying the economy has entered a recovery phase in the second half of the year and is positioned for a more meaningful rebound in 2026, according to the finance ministry. The projection is unchanged from [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean brokerage houses are expanding their workforces for the first time in three years, buoyed by a roaring stock market and renewed momentum in investment banking and digital services. As of the end of September, the nation’s 60 securities firms employed 39,238 people, up 398, or about 1 percent, [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans can now access detailed, government-verified statistics about specific diseases directly through Naver, the country’s dominant search engine, under a new public service launched Sunday. The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) said it partnered with Naver to make health-care utilization data easily available to the public. When users search [...]