SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea and the United Kingdom signed an upgraded free trade agreement aimed at easing rules of origin for Korean exporters and expanding access to Britain’s high-speed rail and digital services markets, Seoul’s trade ministry said Tuesday. The deal, signed in London by Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean lawmakers on Monday advanced a bill that would sharply increase financial penalties for companies responsible for major personal data breaches, amid rising public anger over a series of high-profile leaks. The bill, approved by the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee subpanel, would raise the maximum fine for [...]
SEJONG, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Education Ministry said Monday it has begun a thorough review of how this year’s English section of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was designed and vetted, after the unusually high level of difficulty triggered a national backlash and drew international media attention. The ministry acknowledged that the [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The government said Monday that sales of state-owned assets worth 30 billion won (US$20.3 million) will require mandatory prior reporting to the relevant standing committee of the National Assembly, amid concerns that public assets are being sold at undervalued prices. Under the measures announced by the Ministry of Economy [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The head of South Korea’s antitrust watchdog on Monday pledged to ensure that foreign companies do not face unequal treatment in the country, reaffirming the agency’s principle of non-discrimination. Ju Biung-ghi, chairman of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), made such a remark during a meeting with the American Chamber [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is preparing to overhaul its public transit payment system to allow foreign visitors to ride buses and subways using the same credit cards they carry abroad, a shift aimed at easing one of the most persistent inconveniences for travelers. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has begun [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Early-stage entrepreneurs using artificial intelligence to solve industrial problems are beginning to see tangible results, propelled by TeX-Corps (Tech EXploration Corps) — a commercialization program modeled after the U.S. National Science Foundation’s I-Corps that pushes researchers to validate their ideas through rapid, intensive customer discovery. The program, designed to help [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s government is preparing to introduce a special law aimed at tightening safety rules at construction sites and imposing harsher penalties for fatal accidents, the country’s land minister said Friday, as the sector continues to grapple with a steady rise in deadly workplace incidents. Land Minister Kim Yun-duk [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s newly created media regulator said Friday it will open a transparency center next year to confront the spread of online disinformation, signaling an aggressive shift in how the government intends to police digital content. The announcement came as the Korea Media Communications Commission (KMCC) delivered its first [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — A proposal that would grant the South Korean government authority over civilian access to the Demilitarized Zone — long controlled by the United Nations Command — is facing resistance from key ministries in Seoul and from the U.S.-led command itself. Lawmakers from the governing Democratic Party introduced the bill [...]