SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Pastor Son Hyun-bo of Busan’s Saegero Church, a central figure in South Korea’s far-right Christian movement, faces a bail review this week following his arrest earlier this month on charges of violating election laws. While conservative leaders and evangelical groups denounce his detention as “religious persecution,” the sweeping mobilizations [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Korea Bizwire) —South Korea’s foreign minister on Friday sought to draw a fine line between the country’s massive investment commitments in the United States and the fallout from a U.S. immigration raid that detained hundreds of Korean workers, saying the visa dispute is not a formal condition for the projects but will [...]
UIJEONGBU, South Korea, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – Migrant workers in South Korea without bank accounts will now be able to receive workplace injury compensation in cash, following a policy shift by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The ministry adopted the change earlier this month after a recommendation from Gyeonggi Province, officials said Thursday. [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea and the United States have begun working-level discussions aimed at overhauling the visa system for Korean workers, following the mass detention of more than 300 South Koreans at a Georgia construction site earlier this year — an episode that rattled both industry and diplomacy. The Ministry of [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — When Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stormed a battery plant construction site in Bryan County, Georgia, earlier this month, hundreds of South Korean workers found themselves in shackles, held in freezing rooms with moldy mattresses and little explanation of what crime they had committed. The episode, now reverberating across [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s presidential office said Tuesday it will not be rushed into signing a trade agreement with Washington, cautioning that a deal struck hastily could undermine the interests of Korean companies at a delicate moment in negotiations. Talks have been ongoing since late July, when the two governments reached [...]
GYEONGJU, South Korea, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — In just six weeks, the historic city of Gyeongju will be transformed into a fortress. When world leaders converge here for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at the end of October, the streets around the conference halls and banquet sites will be sealed tight, the skies [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — At 3:23 p.m. on Friday, the arrival hall at Incheon International Airport filled with tears, embraces, and a palpable sense of relief. More than 300 South Korean workers, shackled only days earlier in Georgia during a sweeping U.S. immigration raid, finally walked free onto home soil. Families pressed against [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon visited an office of South Korea’s No. 2 mobile carrier KT Corp. on Thursday, calling for an all-out effort to address a recent series of unauthorized mobile payments. The visit came after a total of 278 cases of unauthorized mobile payments worth 170 million won [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — President Lee Jae Myung has appointed a law firm partner as the new ambassador to the United Nations, a source said Thursday. The appointment of Cha Ji-hoon, a lawyer with the law firm Hwawoo, has been finalized as it does not require “agrement,” a diplomatic process in which the [...]