YEONGDONG, May 9 (Korea Bizwire) – A court in South Korea has ruled that requiring gender reassignment surgery as a criteria for legally changing one’s gender is unlawful. The Yeongdong Branch of the Cheongju District Court announced on May 8 that it has granted permission for five transgender individuals, including one identified only as Mr. A, [...]
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) – A smoker fined for lighting up in a designated non-smoking area has failed in a constitutional challenge after the country’s highest courts upheld the citation, ruling that public health interests outweigh individual freedom to smoke outdoors. On April 25, the Constitutional Court unanimously dismissed a petition filed by a [...]
SEOUL, April 30 (Korea Bizwire) – The Supreme Court will seek to set new sentencing guidelines on crimes related to voice phishing and insurance fraud in a move to toughen punishment for fraud crimes for the first time in 13 years. The Sentencing Commission, affiliated with the top court, made the decision to newly include [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) – The Constitutional Court ruled against the inheritance system Thursday, which indiscriminately mandates predetermined minimum portions of an inheritance be given to the family members of the dead, even those responsible for abusing the dead. The Civil Act mandates families’ rights to legally reserved minimum portions of an inheritance in [...]
SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) – A former researcher at KT&G Corp., the leading tobacco company in South Korea, filed a damages suit Wednesday against his former employer, claiming that he invented the world’s first electronic cigarette while working for the firm, but was not properly rewarded. The plaintiff, Kwak Dae-geun, demanded 2.8 trillion won [...]
ROME, Apr. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Montenegrin lawyers of disgraced South Korean crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon are struggling to have him extradited to his home country, not the United States, according to local news reports. Kwon’s legal representatives in Montenegro appealed against the Podgorica High Court’s recent ruling that found the conditions for his extradition [...]
SEOUL, April 23 (Korea Bizwire) – The Constitutional Court held its first public hearing Tuesday on petitions filed by an adolescents’ group and others against what they called the government’s insufficient response to climate change. The widely watched hearing came four years after the adolescents’ civic group, Youth 4 Climate Action, first lodged a constitutional [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 22 (Korea Bizwire) –Victims’ groups and environmental advocates marked Earth Day on April 22 by announcing the 1,853rd death linked to toxic humidifier disinfectants, ramping up pressure on companies to compensate those sickened by the products years after a national scandal erupted. At a news conference outside the headquarters of Oxy, a major [...]
DAEJEON, Apr. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – A group of tenants who changed the door locks and re-entered their former apartments after failing to receive their security deposits were prosecuted for trespassing but were acquitted in both the first and second trials. According to legal insiders, in 2019, 11 residents, including an individual referred to only as [...]
SEOUL, April 21 (Korea Bizwire) – Prosecutors on Sunday indicted the chairman of a local bakery giant with physical detention on charges of coercing bakers to quit their membership with a militant umbrella labor organization. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office indicted 18 individuals, including SPC Group Chairman Hur Young-in, over their alleged involvement in [...]