SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The recent arrest of a Korean couple accused of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud ring in Cambodia has thrown new light on a crime many still struggle to take seriously: romance scams. While some ask how anyone could fall for a stranger online, advances in artificial intelligence and increasingly sophisticated psychological [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent Supreme Court ruling ordering a major Seoul hospital to pay significant unpaid overtime wages to its resident doctors is rippling through South Korea’s medical community, raising concerns about a surge in similar lawsuits. The decision, finalized last month, held that three former residents at Asan Medical Center were [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will begin subsidizing malpractice insurance premiums for doctors working in critical but increasingly underserved medical specialties, the government announced Monday, in an effort to ease legal burdens that have driven many physicians away from essential care. Under the new program, the state will cover 50 to 75 percent [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to tighten oversight of blockbuster obesity treatments such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, responding to a surge in prescriptions for cosmetic weight loss among people without medical need, the government said Monday. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it will work with the country’s drug regulator to [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — A new payment technology that allows bus passengers to board without tapping a card or phone has debuted in Seoul, in a pilot seen as a step toward a fully touch-free public transit system. Tmoney, the operator of South Korea’s dominant transit payment platform, said Monday it has activated its [...]
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Maryland, Oct. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began a tour of the Indo-Pacific on Monday, a trip that unfolds like a map of American strategic anxieties: Hawaii, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam — and finally South Korea. His message is familiar, but increasingly urgent. The Pentagon says Hegseth intends to press [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s central bank is signaling that any won-pegged stablecoins introduced into the domestic market should be issued through regulated banks, warning that private issuers could threaten financial stability and weaken monetary control. Stablecoins could “unlock new possibilities” for the economy, the Bank of Korea said in a report [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — A South Korean court has overturned a disciplinary order against a dentist who prescribed and took hair-loss medication for himself, ruling the action did not constitute unlicensed medical practice. The Seoul Administrative Court said it had sided with the dentist, identified by his surname A, who filed a suit to [...]
SEJONG, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A major offshore gas development project in the East Sea has been thrown into uncertainty as the South Korean government moves to reassess plans that the state-run Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) had been pursuing with British oil giant BP. Industry officials said Sunday that the Ministry of Trade, Industry [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A popular bakery chain’s plan to close for a day to hold an employee sports festival has ignited an unexpected debate over changing attitudes toward workplace bonding in South Korea. Sungsimdang, a renowned bakery in the central city of Daejeon known for drawing tourists from across the country, announced that [...]