SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s human rights watchdog has ruled that public libraries violated children’s right to information by restricting access to sex education and gender equality books that were not legally classified as harmful publications. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea said Monday that several libraries had either removed such titles [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Platform and special employment workers in South Korea, long excluded from basic labor protections, earn far below the legal minimum wage and face chronic job insecurity, according to a new government-backed study that is fueling calls for urgent reform. A report by the Korea Labor Institute estimated that about [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — As South Korea weighs proposals for a shorter workweek and extended retirement age, a growing number of companies are already adopting flexible schedules — in some cases reducing hours to just four days — in what could become a model for broader labor market reform. Major firms including SK [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s latest public health research suggests that smokers who turn to e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products believing them to be safer may in fact be developing stronger nicotine addictions than users of traditional cigarettes. Commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korean Association on Smoking or Health [...]
SEJONG, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The Trump administration has stepped up efforts to enlist South Korea’s nuclear industry in its ambitious plan to launch 10 new large-scale reactors by 2030, underscoring Washington’s dependence on foreign builders to revive a domestic sector weakened by decades of dormancy. According to government and industry officials, U.S. Deputy [...]
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. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s mid-sized shipbuilding sector is sliding toward collapse, even as opportunities for U.S.-Korea cooperation in naval and commercial shipbuilding expand under initiatives such as the MASGA project, a new report warns. According to a study released Sunday by the Korea Eximbank’s Overseas Economic Research Institute, orders secured by [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s central bank, in coordination with the government and the country’s largest lenders, is preparing to test the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) for distributing public subsidies, a move officials say could curb misuse and improve accountability. According to financial industry sources, the six major banks [...]
BERLIN, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — At Europe’s largest electronics fair, IFA 2025, Samsung Electronics unveiled a full-scale modular home outfitted with artificial intelligence technologies, underscoring its ambitions to shape the future of residential living. Erected beside Samsung’s exhibition hall at CityCube Berlin, the 218-square-meter, two-bedroom house was built in partnership with Samsung C&T and [...]
SAVANNAH, Ga., Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The workday had barely begun when phones began buzzing in unison at Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution’s sprawling battery plant construction site in Georgia. A text message appeared: stop work immediately. Within minutes, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations swept across the [...]