Living and entertainment news about South Korea. We bring you the latest information on what is happening in Korea today.
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics said Thursday it has released 20 works from the late Lee Kun-hee’s famed art collection for free on its “Samsung Art Store,” expanding public access to some of Korea’s most treasured cultural masterpieces. The selection includes Inwang Jesaekdo—a seminal landscape painting designated National Treasure No. 216—alongside [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of foreign workers in South Korea surpassed 1.1 million in 2025 to reach a record high, with the proportion of employed international students also sharply up, a survey showed Thursday. As of May, there were 1.69 million foreigners aged 15 or older residing in Korea, up 8.4 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The ceiling for no-show penalties at reservation-based fine dining restaurants will be raised to 40 percent of the preordered menu, the antitrust regulator said Thursday. From now on, advance reservation-based upscale restaurants, such as omakase establishments, will be allowed to charge a no-show fee of up to 40 percent [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s twin and multiple-birth rates have surged to among the highest in the world, prompting experts to warn that the trend carries heightened medical risks for mothers and infants and requires a shift in government policy. According to a new report released Thursday by Bae Hye-won, a senior researcher [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to expand its national heritage–based industries into a ₩100 trillion ($75 billion) market over the next five years, positioning cultural legacy as a core driver of the country’s global soft power, the Korea Heritage Service (KHS) said Wednesday in its 2026 policy blueprint. The initiative comes amid [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to ban the free distribution of disposable plastic cups and phase out large paper cups at major cafés as part of a sweeping anti-plastic initiative set to be unveiled next week. The Climate and Environment Ministry said on Wednesday that its forthcoming “Comprehensive Anti-Plastic Strategy,” to be [...]
BUSAN, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — A 10-year-old girl in Busan was turned away by more than a dozen hospitals earlier this week as emergency responders struggled for over an hour to find a facility willing to treat her, according to ambulance logs released by opposition lawmakers on Wednesday. The incident, which unfolded on the morning [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of South Korean workers taking parental leave reached a record high in 2024, data showed Wednesday, largely due to a rise in the number of births last year and the effects of government policies promoting parental leave. A total of 206,226 workers took time off from work [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Most South Korean parents say the trait they most hope to cultivate in their young children is simply becoming “a healthy person,” with honesty ranking as the top core value, according to new research released Wednesday. The survey, conducted by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education and [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign visitors to South Korea are increasingly favoring “value-for-money” shopping aligned with personal tastes, signaling a shift away from the high-end, big-ticket purchases that once dominated tourist consumption, according to new data released by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO). An analysis of foreign credit card transactions from 2018 through September [...]